The Influencer-Led Brand Leading Indian Beauty's Global Takeover

Diipa Büller-KhoslaPhoto: Courtesy of Indē Wild
Diipa Büller-Khosla calls Indē Wild her “destiny brand.” “Everything that I was born into and that I grew up learning and then ended up building was this very natural evolution,” she tells Fashionista.As one of Instagram’s early adopters, the Indian influencer and beauty entrepreneur gradually built a devoted following and a successful social media career; major milestones include landing two Vogue India digital covers and serving as a Kérastase brand ambassador. With the support of her now-3-million-strong online community, Büller-Khosla set out to address a gap in the beauty industry for Ayurvedic rituals by launching her own hair- and skin-care brand, Indē Wild, in 2021. Five years later, the Mumbai-based brand is crossing ‘entering Sephora U.S.’ off its bucket list.Büller-Khosla learned traditional hair and skin rituals from her dermatologist and Ayurvedic-doctor mother Dr. Sangitha Khosla (also known as Momi to Büller-Khosla’s audience), but never saw Ayurvedic formulas represented on store shelves. Conceived at a dining table during the pandemic alongside her husband Oleg Büller-Khosla, Indē Wild’s early years were marked by endless virtual meetings and sluggish supply chains. Those pandemic-era conditions were taxing enough for brand-building experts, but Büller-Khosla was starting from scratch and utilizing Google searches and YouTube how-tos to manage her entrepreneurial learning curve.Even as an industry newcomer, Büller-Khosla’s budding beauty venture stood apart from the crowd thanks to its built-in community. “It’s not a buzzword for us that we’re community-driven or community-based, but they were really our why and our starting block right in the early days before we even had a name,” she says.
Indē Wild Champi Hair Oil, $32, available herePhoto: Courtesy of Indē Wild
Indē Wild’s audience remains a key player in the brand’s product development process, as it first consults a focus group on what they want to see next. Case in point: The Champi Hair Oil ($32) reigns as one of its hero SKUs (and “the number one selling hair oil in India,” according to Büller-Khosla), but the brand’s community wanted to follow up this pre-wash ritual with a dedicated shampoo and conditioner. The community’s input went out to Indē Wild’s product development team to then workshop different formulas, perform stability tests on various scalps and commence clinical testing.Of course, Büller-Khosla’s dermatologist mother is also in the room where it happens. “She’s 64 years old, has hair down to her ankles [that’s] super thick and lush,” she shares. “She knows what she’s talking about, guys. She knows a thing or two about hair.”Throughout the product development process — which can take anywhere from 15 to 24 months — Indē Wild blends 5,000 years of Ayurvedic teachings with modern dermatology, which Büller-Khosla calls “Ayurvedistry,” a portmanteau of “Ayurveda” and “chemistry.” Launched in October 2025, Indē Wild’s Champi Bond Repair Shampoo ($26) and Conditioner ($26) emphasize this balance between ritual and science: Ayurvedic botanicals (bhringraj, amla, brahmi) and biotech actives (amino acids, panthenol, ectoin) work in tandem to repair damage, strengthen hair and fight frizz.
Indē Wild Sunrise Glow Brightening & Anti-Pigmentation Serum, $39, available herePhoto: Courtesy of Indē Wild
Beyond hair-care rituals, Indē Wild offers skin-care solutions including a potent vitamin C serum, a bakuchiol barrier-strengthening serum and hydrating lip treatments. For its latest skin-care offering, the brand entered the sun-care market with Sun Defense Sunscreen Glow Drops SPF 50+ ($29), a mineral SPF formulated with bisabolol to calm irritation, allantoin to soothe skin, centella asiatica extract to strengthen the skin barrier and licorice root to reduce the appearance of dark spots.With a stacked assortment available at retailers like Nykaa, Tira and Sephora U.K., along with a global direct-to-consumer site, Indē Wild has now set its sights on U.S. retail expansion. Bolstered by a $5 million seed extension round led by Unilever Ventures in March 2025, Indē Wild just completed a major push into the U.S. market with its entrance into Sephora U.S. The brand had seen impressive success after launching in Sephora U.K. in 2024, growing 677% quarter-on-quarter in 2025 according to Büller-Khosla, which helped prepare Indē Wild for the big leagues “Indē Wild will be the first homegrown brand from India on Sephora U.S. shelves, which is super exciting for all Indian beauty,” Büller-Khosla shares. “It’s also signaling a shift globally that there’s been K-beauty and J-beauty, [and] there’s a time now for I-beauty.” It also joins a growing cohort of influencer-led beauty brands taking over Sephora’s stateside shelves, including One/Size Beauty by Patrick Starrr, Cyklar by Claudia Sulewski, Summer Fridays by Marianna Hewitt and Lauren Ireland, Forvr Mood by Jackie Aina and Refy by Jess Hunt.As Indē Wild continues its push into the U.S. market, the brand is shifting its marketing strategy to boost education surrounding Ayurvedic traditions and Indian hair-care rituals. Next steps include “building the Indian beauty category and narrative globally, whether that’s on our own channels like social media, on Instagram and TikTok, and really speaking to this wealth of information that we’ve been sitting on for thousands of years,” Büller-Khosla shares.Looking ahead, Büller-Khosla is zeroing in on sustained U.S. expansion: After entering 178 Sephora U.S. doors (in addition to dotcom) this month, she wants to incrementally increase the brand’s in-store presence until it’s sold across all locations. In the meantime, Büller-Khosla is positioning I-beauty as the next global obsession for U.S. audiences, noting: “The same way that we’ve all seen other beauty from other countries do really well in the U.S., I truly believe it’s time for that in the Indian context.”Please note: Occasionally, we use affiliate links on our site. This in no way affects our editorial decision-making.Fashionista’s audience includes 1 million site visitors, 110,000 newsletter subscribers and 4.74 million social media followers. Want to know how to reach them? Learn more.
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