India's biggest consumer companies seem to be converging on the same conclusion. If they want a meaningful presence in nutraceuticals, it's quicker to buy credibility than build it.

In June, Honasa Consumer acquired a 58% stake in Fluence Pharma, a dermatology-led hair and skin supplements company, for about Rs 135 crore, with plans to acquire the rest over the next five to seven years.

Earlier this year, Hindustan Unilever bought the remaining 49% of OZiva for Rs 824 crore, while Marico picked up a majority stake in plant protein brand Cosmix. USV Pharma has invested in Wellbeing Nutrition, and L'Oréal is in discussions to acquire Innovist.

Nutraceuticals are one of the country's fastest-growing consumer categories in India. India's FMCG majors increasingly see acquisitions, instead of internal product development, as the fastest route into the segment.

As D2C nutrition companies prove demand and build consumer trust, large consumer goods firms are using their distribution muscle to scale those brands, betting the category can deliver the next wave of growth.

Buying Time

According to CareEdge Ratings, India's nutraceutical market is already worth about $30 billion and is expected to cross $55 billion by 2030, expanding at roughly 10.5% annually. Functional foods and beverages—including protein products—account for nearly 70% of the market, while rising awareness around preventive healthcare continues to broaden demand.

For large FMCG companies, waiting to build products internally increasingly means arriving after the market has already matured.

Renu Bisht, founder of Commercify360 and DatumIntell, said that's because large organisations simply don't move fast enough.

"A company like HUL won't enter a category unless it sees a path to at least a Rs 1,000 crore business. By the time that happens, a D2C company has already built a Rs 500 crore brand while the larger company is still working through R&D and legal approvals."

She points to Amul's delayed entry into protein as an example. The dairy cooperative stayed away until the category had already become sizeable.

The nutraceutical trend also reflects a larger shift in consumer goods. While startups are discovering new categories, bigger incumbents are commercialising them.

Distribution — The Competitive Advantage

According to Bisht, FMCG companies are no longer the ones inventing new product categories. Their real strength, she said, is distribution.

"Give them one product, and they'll get it into ten lakh stores in a day," Bisht said.

That distribution engine is precisely what most D2C nutrition brands lack.

Startups spend years developing formulations, educating consumers, and building trust online. FMCG companies already own the offline retail relationships, modern trade networks and even the quick-commerce channels needed to scale nationally.

Buying the brand allows them to skip the riskiest stage of category creation while immediately plugging proven products into an existing sales network.

The strategy resembles what large consumer companies have done across premium skincare, cosmetics and personal care over the past decade.

Why Pharma Has Been Slower

Interestingly, traditional pharmaceutical companies have been far less aggressive. And it is likely because of strategic reasons.

Launching nutraceuticals often requires separate manufacturing lines, different branding and regulatory processes that don't neatly fit existing pharmaceutical operations.

Companies therefore tend to stay close to familiar territory.

Emcure, for instance, expanded from its existing women's iron supplements into adjacent nutrition products rather than jumping directly into mainstream protein nutrition.

Protein remains the biggest gap.

It represents roughly 70% of India's nutraceutical market, yet many pharmaceutical companies cannot easily manufacture or market protein powders without building entirely new capabilities.

"It also comes down to brand DNA," Bisht said. "Not every pharma company can build every category."

Buying Growth Isn't The Same As Creating It

The acquisition strategy has produced encouraging early results.

OZiva's revenue climbed to roughly Rs 480 crore by 2025 after HUL's initial investment in 2022, growing at around 130% annually and ultimately prompting HUL's full buyout.

Marico has also expanded its digital-first portfolio through Plix, True Elements, Beardo and Just Herbs, with the combined portfolio approaching Rs 900 crore in annual revenue.

Honasa's acquisition looks different.

Fluence generated only around Rs 40 crore in FY26 revenue but posted EBITDA margins above 20%, supported by more than 3,000 dermatologists recommending its products. Honasa paid roughly 3.4 times revenue for the stake—not for scale, but for credibility.

That distinction matters because, unlike mass-market protein brands, Fluence's business depends on medical recommendation rather than shelf visibility.

Simply placing it into supermarkets or quick-commerce platforms may not replicate the trust that built the business in the first place.

The Hard Part

Buying the company is the easy part.

Scaling it without weakening the brand is considerably harder.

Experts believe large FMCG companies generally want acquired businesses to eventually reach between Rs 1,000 crore and Rs 2,000 crore in annual revenue. Brands that remain niche risk becoming too small to command management attention inside much larger organisations.

Distribution itself can become a double-edged sword.

Products like OZiva or Cosmix translate naturally into supermarkets because consumers already understand protein powders and daily supplements.

The case is different with Fluence.

Built over a decade by Amit Bhusari and dermatologist Dr Rajendra Singh Rajput, its growth came through dermatologist recommendations for condition-specific products rather than impulse purchases. Expanding too aggressively into mass retail risks eroding the premium positioning that made the brand valuable in the first place.

Emami's acquisition of The Man's Company, which later slipped into losses, illustrates how difficult that transition can be.

The Bigger Shift

Rohit Bhatiani, a consumer expert, said, "I don't think this is a passing trend. I think big FMCG companies are investing in the future.”

He pointed to the amount of digital awareness being built around health and nutrition today. He noted that the FMCG business model in this space is still a mix, with some companies making their own products and others outsourcing manufacturing, and that research and development still matters even as companies buy their way into the category.

He also flagged a shift in what consumers actually want. "More than Ayurveda, the consumer is looking at effectiveness," he said, drawing a comparison with what has already happened in skincare and cosmetics. His point was that a product being traditional or Ayurvedic is a plus, but if it doesn't work quickly enough, buyers move on. This is one reason FMCG companies prefer brands with some scientific grounding rather than pure heritage claims.

Buying into nutraceuticals gives large FMCG companies a faster route into a fast-growing category and gives smaller D2C brands the distribution reach they could never build on their own. But like any acquisition, it works only when the product genuinely holds up once it is pushed into millions of stores and lakhs of quick commerce orders.

Large FMCG companies increasingly accept that startups are better at discovering new consumer categories, while incumbents are better at scaling them.

The playbook is becoming familiar: let entrepreneurs prove demand, wait until the economics become visible, then acquire the brand and apply national distribution.

The winners won't necessarily be the companies making the most acquisitions.

They'll be the ones that can preserve the trust that built these brands while using scale to turn niche nutrition businesses into mainstream consumer franchises.