The Ayurveda Co shuts down after overexpansion and early senior hires

What happened

The Ayurveda Co (T.A.C), an ayurvedic direct-to-consumer beauty and personal care brand, has shut down, according to a LinkedIn post by cofounder Param Bhargava. The startup ceased operations in July 2025, liquidated its assets, and is now undergoing a formal winding-up process. Its sister brand, Khadi Essentials, has also closed.

Reasons for closure

Bhargava attributed the shutdown to overexpansion across sales channels and hiring senior executives before the business could support them. In his post, he stated, "We expanded too fast, too wide, and (hired) way too many senior folks too early, before the system was ready." The cofounders mortgaged personal property and went without salaries for over a year in an attempt to sustain the business, which eventually led to physical and mental strain.

Scale and financials

The startup raised approximately ₹125 Cr ($15 Mn) from investors including Sixth Sense Ventures, Wipro Consumer Care Venture, and actor Kajal Aggarwal. T.A.C operated 20 retail stores, over 800 beauty advisor counters, and a network of 110 distributors, scaling to ₹250 Cr in net revenue with 2 million customers.

Despite a 67% year-on-year revenue growth to ₹59.6 Cr in FY24, losses tripled to ₹68 Cr as expenses nearly doubled to ₹109.5 Cr. The last funding round was a ₹100 Cr Series A in 2023.

Market context

T.A.C’s closure follows a trend of Indian startups shutting down in 2025, including Savtacart, social networking platform Medial, AI-powered photo-sharing app PicSee, quick commerce startup Klydo, and matchmaking platform Juleo. According to Inc42, these shutdowns have been driven by failed funding rounds, cash crunches, or inability to achieve sustainable scale.

What this means

Lazyfounder analysis — our interpretation, not reported fact.

T.A.C’s shutdown is a concrete example of how rapid scaling—especially offline retail and senior hiring—can outpace a startup’s cash flow and operational controls. For founders in cash-intensive categories like D2C beauty or ayurveda, the story underscores the risk of chasing revenue targets without matching unit economics or back-office readiness. The decision to mortgage personal assets and forego founder salaries also highlights the personal toll of over-expansion, a signal for investors to probe not just growth metrics but the sustainability of the underlying business model and the mental resilience of the founding team.