The Good Glamm Group is officially separating.

In a turn that marks the end of its billion-dollar ambitions, Darpan Sanghvi, founder and CEO, Good Glamm Group, has promised to use 25% of his future post-tax income to pay off employee dues if the proceeds from brand sales fall short.

This pledge comes as lenders initiate the breakup of the company’s once-vaunted content-to-commerce empire, moving to sell its portfolio of direct-to-consumer and media brands individually.

The decision, made after months of failed restructuring efforts and a deteriorating cash position, was publicly acknowledged by Sanghvi in a LinkedIn post on 23 July.

Founded in 2015 by Sanghvi along with Priyanka Gill and Naiyya Saggi, the Good Glamm Group had once been the company that was on the charts of India’s D2C boom.

By 2021, it had reached a USD 1.26 billion valuation, acquiring brands like MyGlamm, Sirona, The Moms Co., Organic Harvest, St. Botanica, POPxo, and ScoopWhoop backed by marquee investors including Warburg Pincus, Prosus Ventures, and Bessemer Venture Partners.

A heavy acquisition-led strategy, growing debt, and the inability to turn profitable have pushed the group to the edge. Sanghvi confirmed that after evaluating multiple options of refinancing, partial brand divestments, and new investors, the lenders have now opted to sell off brands one by one.

“There will no longer be a group-wide solution, which will allow all the brands to continue under a single umbrella,” Sanghvi wrote. “Instead, the brands will be sold one by one, and there will be new individual owners for each.”

The collapse was accelerated by a failed acquisition deal earlier this year when the CEO of the acquiring company stepped down, torpedoing a last-minute rescue plan.

With no fresh funding, the group began missing salary payments for April and May 2025 and defaulted on dues to vendors and ex-employees. Its valuation has plummeted from USD 1.2 billion to around USD 120 million. Liabilities are estimated at INR 250 crore.

In recent months, Good Glamm has offloaded key assets at steep discounts. Sirona was sold back to its founders for INR 150 crore, a third of the INR 450 crore it was acquired for just two years ago.

ScoopWhoop was sold to WLDD for a reported INR 18–20 crore, down from Rs 100 crore, while MissMalini Entertainment went to Creativefuel for INR 4 crore.

The remaining brands: The Moms Co., Organic Harvest, and POPxo, are also on the block.

Leadership churn didn’t help as well. Sukhleen Aneja, CEO of the D2C vertical, moved to Nykaa in mid-2024. Other top leadership, including chief people officer Kartik Rao, also left. Co-founders Gill and Saggi exited to start new ventures, and several investor-nominated board members resigned in January 2025.

Sanghvi, in his note, took full responsibility for the company’s trajectory. “The decisions, the choices that didn’t work, the risks that didn’t pay off… this is on me,” he wrote.

If brand sales don’t sufficiently cover dues, Sanghvi said he would personally contribute a quarter of his post-tax earnings, including salary and equity gains, towards unpaid employee compensation.

He also announced plans to create a 'Good Glamm Restitution Fund' within 60 days. This fund, he said, will be backed by equity from his future ventures and directed toward outstanding payments to vendors and losses incurred by shareholders.

“To our shareholders… You believed in my ability to scale, to disrupt, to lead. However, I let you down,” he wrote. “This is not a burden. It is a responsibility and a motivation.”

He assured both current and former employees that incoming brand owners would be asked to absorb existing staff where possible. He also committed to facilitating those transitions actively, working alongside lenders and buyers.

More unusually, Sanghvi used the post not just for damage control, but reflection. He called out the broader culture of silence around failure in India’s startup ecosystem. “Simply saying that I'm working with the lenders and the future buyers is not enough. You want and deserve a lot more clarity and closure,” he wrote.

Without revealing names of buyers or timelines, he reaffirmed one key message: he won’t walk away. “If there’s one thing all of you have known about me, it is my perseverance,” Sanghvi said. “I will not stop. I will work and keep persevering till everyone is made whole again.”