In 2018, Diwaker Vasistha launched Zreyasa alongside his uncle and brother to make skincare and wellness products. The COVID-19 pandemic put a dent in his plans, leading him to manufacture and sell hand sanitisers instead.

When Diwaker Vasistha returned from Canada after his post-graduate degree in marketing and project management, he decided not to join his family’s third-party pharma manufacturing business.

His uncle Arun and brother Sidharth came from a pharma background and were deeply invested in running Vasistha Pharmaceuticals in Gurugram. But Diwaker, an engineer, did not want to get into the B2B side of the chemicals and the pharma industry.

Instead, he leveraged his family’s existing manufacturing infrastructure and expertise to launch Zreyasa, a B2C skincare, wellness, and hygiene brand, in Delhi in 2018. His uncle and brother joined him as co-founders.

“My initial plan was to launch personal care and skincare products such as soaps, lotions, etc. But when the pandemic hit, I put the personal care products on hold, and after a delay, launched hand sanitisers to meet the demand for COVID-related hygiene products,” Diwaker tells SMBStory.