‘5600% growth in two years?’ Kriti Sanon’s Hyphen faces backlash on social media

New Delhi: When Bollywood actor Kriti Sanon’s skincare brand Hyphen announced it had hit a Rs 400 crore Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) within two years of launch, it was met with applause across traditional media and social platforms. Sanon, who also serves as the brand’s Chief Customer Officer, fronted the milestone with statements about consumer love, repeat purchases, and building a purposeful brand. Co-founder Tarun Sharma credited the growth to smart product planning and customer-centric strategy.

“When most celebrity brands find it daunting to sustain beyond the initial launch buzz, Hyphen has done the unthinkable by hitting the Annual Recurring Revenue of Rs 400 crore gross within just two years of launch. After crossing Rs 100 crore gross in its very first year, the brand has now tripled its growth in year two, reaching a total of Rs 400 crore gross - a rare milestone in the Indian D2C beauty space. This isn’t just a moment for celebration for HYPHEN but a case study in building a sustainable, consumer-first brand in one of the most competitive categories in India,” said Tarun Sharma, Co-founder & CEO of Hyphen.

But while the Hyphen team celebrated, the internet responded with sharp scepticism. Many questioned the credibility of the Rs 400 crore growth claim, citing the brand’s low visibility, absence of a breakout product, and lack of verifiable sales data to support such explosive growth.

The moment a viral video by Instagram content creator Nitin Joshi broke down the math behind the growth claims, the tide turned. According to Joshi, Hyphen’s filings for FY24 indicated Rs 7 crore in revenue. And now, less than a year later, the brand claims an annual run rate of Rs 400 crore: a staggering 5,600% jump. That’s not normal; it's one of the most exaggerated figures seen in India’s D2C space.

To put things in perspective, established skincare brands like Minimalist and Sugar Cosmetics, both of which enjoy strong consumer trust and distribution muscle, took years to cross the Rs 400–Rs 500 crore mark. Sugar, for instance, took nearly a decade. Minimalist, despite its cult-like fanbase and R&D investment, clocked 40% YoY growth, not thousands of percentage points in one of its best financial years. So when a relatively quiet brand with no breakout product and limited offline footprint declared it had leapfrogged industry veterans, scepticism wasn’t just expected, it was inevitable.

What’s especially alarming to users isn’t just the lack of quality, it’s the lack of transparency. The Rs 400 crore growth claim was widely reported but not backed by investor statements, audited reports, or specific revenue splits (gross vs. net, D2C vs. marketplace, domestic vs. export). As Joshi noted, even parent company mCaffeine reportedly earns around Rs 200 crore, and it owns 95% of Hyphen. So where’s the Rs 400 crore figure coming from? And while the founders claim a 60% repeat customer rate, there’s no third-party data to validate that. No NPS scores, no SKU-level breakout, no customer retention metrics, just statements dressed up as milestones.

The backlash took a sharper turn on Reddit, threads tore into Hyphen’s claims, product strategy, and packaging mercilessly. “Hyphen comes across as a money laundering gimmick,” one user said bluntly.

“It’s hard to clock such numbers in today’s skincare market, especially when your brand visibility is zero outside of Kriti’s Instagram,” another wrote.

“Kriti is not Rihanna. She doesn’t have the brand equity to launch a billion-dollar business on name recall alone. They have no flagship product, no beauty community backing, and very little credibility in the skincare space.”

The anger wasn't just about numbers. It was about plagiarism, lack of authenticity, and manufactured hype. Multiple users called out Hyphen for allegedly copying the entire product line from Hailey Bieber’s Rhode, down to the lip balm design and muted pastel aesthetics. “It’s not even a dupe. It’s a copy-paste job,” said one user.

“Until and unless it’s sent in PR, I haven’t seen a single influencer post about it organically. The hype is manufactured badly,” another wrote. 

Amid the backlash, BestMediaInfo reached out to the Hyphen team for a clarification, but they declined to comment.