Alia Bhatt's Ed-a-Mamma: A Kidswear Label Gets Reliance

Alia Bhatt's first company, Ed-a-Mamma, started as a small kidswear label funded by the actor herself and became a joint venture with Reliance Retail in 2023. The path from a startup sold on FirstCry to a majority-owned subsidiary of one of India's biggest retailers is documented in business reports.

The 2020 launch

Mint reported that Bhatt launched the brand in 2020 for children aged 2 to 14, positioning it on naturally sourced and sustainable clothing. The paper says she had fully funded the venture, which was run by a small in-house design, marketing and operations team. It noted that she already had investments in the beauty retailer Nykaa and the styling platform StyleCracker.

Bhatt told Mint there was a gap for a world-class children's clothing brand made in India, unlike the saturated market for women's wear. She said she had always felt strongly about the environment and wanted the brand to carry a conservation message.

The sustainability details

The brand's early range used organic cotton and non-plastic buttons, according to Bhatt. Leftover fabric was turned into hair ties and potlis. Many of the T-shirts carried environment-themed messages, and every order came with a seed ball containing seeds of live plants, intended to encourage children and parents to plant trees.

Prices started at Rs 350, and the brand was initially sold on the baby-care store FirstCry, with plans for Amazon and Flipkart and a dedicated website. Bhatt said nearly 70 percent of the range had sold out in the first six weeks, and that the company would consider accessories, footwear and toys as demand grew. That sell-through figure is her own statement to the paper.

The Reliance deal

Economic Times reported that Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd. signed a joint venture with Ed-a-Mamma for a 51 percent majority stake. Reuters carried the news with a Sept. 6, 2023 date. The Economic Times says the partnership would take the brand into areas such as personal care and baby furniture, along with children's story books and an animated series. It describes the label as one for kids and maternity wear.

The financial terms are not in the pieces we could read in full. Reuters's article was behind a block and we could use only its headline. So we do not report the deal value or the price paid, and we do not say what share remained with Bhatt.

What the sources say about why it matters

Mint pointed out that Ed-a-Mamma was a standalone venture, distinct from other celebrity clothing labels built through revenue-sharing models. It named Hrithik Roshan's HRX with Myntra and Deepika Padukone's All About You as examples of that model, and mentioned Virat Kohli's Wrogn and Shraddha Kapoor's Imara as other celebrity-linked labels.

That contrast is the point of the story. Bhatt put in her own money, built the brand with a small team and sold directly before bringing in a partner with a store network.

A pattern of early bets

Mint documented in 2020 that her business moves ran from investments in Nykaa and StyleCracker to her own label.

What we could not confirm

We could not read Reuters in full, so the date and headline are the only details taken from it. We did not find the deal value or Bhatt's remaining stake. The 70 percent sell-through is her own claim from 2020, and we did not find audited sales data. We did not verify current store counts, range or any expansion after the 2023 announcement.

Sources

*Cover photo: Elena Ternovaja, Wikimedia Commons, *[*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alia_Bhatt_at_Press_Conference,_Berlinale_2022.jpg*](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alia_Bhatt_at_Press_Conference,_Berlinale_2022.jpg)* (CC BY-SA 3.0).*