MAM
MediaCom shuffles senior team at Mumbai office
MUMBAI: The GroupM and Madison Media joint venture agency MediaCom has announced changes in key senior roles at the Mumbai office.
Hemen Desai, who is currently managing partner for Team P&G, will be moving to Tokyo as MediaCom Japan MD.
Desai has been with MediaCom India since 2008 and has been instrumental in setting up the team that exclusively handles the P&G media mandate. He and his team were the architects of the Gillete “WALS” campaign that won MediaCom India a Gold Media Lion at Cannes Lions.
Desai‘s move as MD of MediaCom Japan, comes a week after the announcement of Anita Mookherjee‘s move from MediaCom Bangalore to Jakarta as the MD of MediaCom Indonesia.
MediaCom India MD Debraj Tripathy said, “This is in line with our endeavor to provide our top performers with bigger opportunities within the MediaCom network. MediaCom India continues to be the grooming ground for some of MediaCom‘s best managers in the region.”
Avinash Pillai, who used to lead buying for MediaCom India, will replace Desai as general manager on the P&G business. Pillai has been with MediaCom for more than two years and has been directly involved with media partners on all key deals and plays an important role in new business wins.
Ashwini Kamat, who used to lead the non-P&G businesses in MediaCom Bombay (VW Group, HRI, Aegon Religare, Wyeth, Pfizer, and Edelweiss), will take over from Pillai as the national buying director of MediaCom India.
Deepa Jatkar who used to lead the VW business takes over from Kamat as the general manager in charge of the non-P&G businesses. Both Kamat and Jatkar together fashioned and managed the innovations on VW and Skoda.
Brands
Dabur buys minority stake in Ras Beauty for Rs 60 crore
Dabur Ventures deal backs fast-growing luxury skincare brand
MUMBAI: Dabur India Limited has dipped into the world of luxury skincare, signing a definitive agreement to acquire a minority stake in Ras Beauty Private Limited for Rs 60 crore. The investment marks the first bet from Dabur Ventures, the FMCG major’s Rs 500 crore platform set up in October 2025 to back high-potential, new-age direct-to-consumer brands.
Founded in Raipur by Shubhika Jain, her sister Suramya Jain and their mother Sangeeta Jain, Ras Beauty has grown from a family-led passion project into a fast-scaling “Farm-to-Face” skincare label. Its range of face elixirs, serums and moisturisers blends essential oils with nature-derived actives, striking a balance between botanical purity and laboratory precision.
The numbers tell their own story. Ras has clocked a three-year Cagr of around 75 per cent and an annual run rate of approximately Rs 100 crore, all while maintaining strong gross margins. That growth has been fuelled by a digital-first approach, in-house R&D and manufacturing, and a sharp focus on clean, sustainable sourcing.
Dabur India executive director and group head corporate strategy Abhinav Dhall, said the company was drawn to Ras’s distinct positioning at the intersection of nature, science and luxury. He added that the premium beauty segment is poised for robust expansion over the coming decade, and that Ras is well placed to capture that opportunity.
For Ras, the partnership is as much about scale as it is about shared philosophy. Co-founder and CEO Shubhika Jain said Dabur’s 141-year legacy of building trusted, purpose-led brands makes it a natural ally. The capital infusion, she noted, will help accelerate the brand’s omnichannel footprint, deepen research capabilities and invest in team and brand building, with an eye on establishing Ras as a leading Indian luxury skincare name both domestically and overseas.
With this move, Dabur is not just investing in a skincare label. It is placing an early wager on India’s growing appetite for premium, conscious beauty, and signalling that heritage FMCG players are ready to play in the new-age D2C arena.
