AAVRANI Acquired: Founder Rooshy Roy on Exiting her Beauty Brand
AAVRANI has been acquired — and founder Rooshy Roy shares the full story for the first time on South Asian Trailblazers.
Six years ago, in Season 1 (2020), Rooshy first sat down with Simi as a freshly-funded, newly-married Forbes 30 Under 30 founder building one of the first beauty brands rooted in Indian heritage. Today, she becomes the first trailblazer to ever return to the podcast — here to share the end of her nine-year journey bringing Indian Ayurveda-inspired beauty to the world.
In this raw, deeply personal conversation, Rooshy walks through the complete arc of building in beauty — from meeting her co-founder on the second day of Wharton, to raising $10M+ in venture funding, to pivoting from skincare to hair care with Sephora, to partnering with Lilly Singh, to the moment she realized she was playing a game she no longer wanted to win. She reveals why she decided to let go of the brand she spent nine years building and her process in finding the ultimate acquirer.
This episode is essential listening for ambitious women, founders building in consumer brand, and anyone wrestling with when to hold on and when to let go.
KEY TOPICS:
AAVRANI's acquisition announcement and what's next
The truth about launching in Sephora in 2024
How celebrity partnerships work (Lilly Singh)
Fellow South Asian beauty founders in Sephora: competitive or collaborative?
3 things Rooshy would do differently
Choosing family, chasing dreams, and knowing when to let go
About Rooshy:
Rooshy Roy is the founder and former CEO of AAVRANI, a premium beauty brand inspired by ancient Indian beauty traditions rituals. She co-founded at Wharton in 2017. A first-generation Indian American, Rooshy previously worked at Goldman Sachs and Warburg Pincus before launching AAVRANI to bring Ayurvedic beauty rooted in Indian traditions to the global stage. She was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2020 in Retail & E-Commerce. AAVRANI expanded from skincare into hair care at Sephora in partnership with Lilly Singh, and was acquired at the end of 2025.
PREVIOUS EPISODE:
Rooshy Roy, Season 1 (2020)