ITC has raised its holding in D2C baby care brand Mother Sparsh from 26.5% to 49.32%, strengthening a partnership that began in 2021. The move gives the FMCG major deeper exposure to one of India’s more active consumer categories: premium, digital-native baby and personal care. Why expansion into startups matter The increase matters beyond portfolio expansion. India’s baby care market has become a key battleground where legacy FMCG companies are increasingly relying on startup-led brands to access younger consumers, faster innovation cycles and digital commerce behaviour. Mother Sparsh, positioned around Ayurvedic and natural formulations, has built relevance among urban millennial parents through marketplace-led growth, performance marketing and influencer-driven trust building.
Why This Matters for Advertising and Media For the advertising industry, the transaction reinforces how D2C-first consumer brands are influencing mainstream FMCG communication strategies. Large companies are no longer just acquiring distribution or manufacturing capabilities — they are buying audience familiarity, creator ecosystems and first-party consumer insight. Mother Sparsh operates in a category where content, community and commerce are tightly linked.
Parenting creators, vernacular education content, Amazon-first discovery and retention-led CRM have become as critical as television reach. ITC’s increased control suggests these capabilities are now viewed as core brand infrastructure, not experimental marketing layers.
The Larger Strategic Signal
The broader signal is clear: FMCG consolidation in India is increasingly happening around digitally mature niche brands rather than mass-market scale alone. Our insight The next phase of competition may not be about launching new products faster — it may be about acquiring brands that already understand how India’s next generation of consumers discovers, trusts and buys.