Kult Beauty Startup in Full-Blown Crisis: Backer War Halts Operations, Employees Unpaid for Months

Kult, the controversial beauty marketplace, is once again in a full-blown operational crisis, with its business grinding to a halt and employees left unpaid for months. The core of the meltdown is a war with its primary financial backer, pushing the startup to the verge of collapse and exposing a severe breakdown in governance and cash flow.

The crisis escalated after a purported $20 million Series A funding round in April 2025, led by the M3M Family Office, which was intended to clear liabilities and scale operations. However, sources indicate only about ₹50 crore of the promised capital actually materialized. This insufficient infusion failed to reset the business, instead merely extending the runway for pre-existing governance failures to resurface. By December 2025, the financial cracks became undeniable: salaries stopped, vendors went unpaid, and the company shuttered its Mumbai office, relocating staff to Gurugram.

Internally, the situation has devolved into a communication blackout. Employees claim only a small inner circle continued to receive payments while official email access was revoked for others, severing critical internal channels. This pattern of promised capital failing to materialize, coupled with the complete halt of payments and opaque internal management, signals a profound failure in corporate oversight and investor relations, placing the startup's survival in serious jeopardy.