For most of us, skincare in India starts with a Google search, three influencer reels and a generous helping of guesswork. A Gurugram-based startup wants to change where that journey begins. On Thursday, Puresta Lifestyle launched Puresta EVERQ — an AI skin diagnosis platform that studies your skin first, then connects you with a dermatologist for actual treatment. The approach is summed up in four words: "Diagnose First. Then Treat." And honestly, that is one of the more sensible uses of AI in a market drowning in products but starved of clarity.
01.What is Puresta EVERQ?
EVERQ is a skin-health platform that connects an AI-led skin assessment with dermatologist-led care in one continuous journey. Here is the flow: you start with an AI assessment that flags visible skin concerns and creates an initial skin profile. If the assessment suggests you need further evaluation, you can book a dermatologist consultation, who recommends a personalised course of treatment. From there, the platform handles product delivery, follow-ups and maintenance skincare — so you are not starting from scratch every single time.
The framing comes straight from the top. "India doesn't have a skincare discovery problem. It has a diagnosis problem," said Hitaysh Dhingraa, Co-Founder and CEO of Puresta. "Consumers have thousands of products and millions of recommendations, but very little clarity on what their skin actually needs."
That line stuck with me, because it is true. The bottleneck was never access to products — it was knowing which problem you actually have before you buy anything for it.
02.AI Care Expert — not another chatbot
Inside the platform is something Puresta calls the AI Care Expert, and the company is careful to distinguish it from a standard chatbot. It is a persistent digital care companion that helps you understand and follow your regimen, stay on track, monitor progress and maintain continuity across interactions — the boring, repetitive compliance part where most skincare journeys quietly die.
Think of it this way: the dermatologist sets the plan, the AI makes sure you actually stick to it, and the context carries over from one session to the next. That retention of context — your skin history, your treatment plan, your progress — is what makes it a care platform rather than a symptom-checker you use once and forget.
03.The founders and the money behind it
The backstory matters here. Puresta was founded in 2025 by Hitesh Dhingra and Bhisham Bhateja — the duo who previously built The Man Company, in which Emami Group acquired a 49.5% stake in 2024 — along with Ashish Mishra. Ahead of this launch, the company acquired HealthQ Life Science, the dermatology company behind the SKINQ brand founded by Dr Chytra Anand in 2021. It had earlier raised ₹34 crore in a pre-seed round led by Spring Marketing Capital, with participation from Stride Ventures.
EVERQ is the third piece of Puresta's skin-health ecosystem, joining SKINQ Rx (dermatologist-prescribed treatment) and SKINQ (everyday and maintenance skincare). It is an ambitious build-out for a company that is barely a year old — and it is part of a broader wave of Indian AI startups attracting serious capital this month; we wrote about another one earlier this week when Flam raised ₹383 crore for its AI interactive content business.
It's not alone, either — Disha's AI health coach just raised ₹44 crore, so India-first consumer AI is clearly having a moment.
04.Built for Indian skin — and beyond the metros
Two design choices deserve attention. First, Puresta says EVERQ has been developed with Indian and melanin-rich skin in mind, targeting concerns such as pigmentation, acne, sensitivity and post-inflammatory marks — which present differently across skin types and are chronically under-served by AI tools trained mostly on Western datasets. Second, the digital-first model is aimed at extending dermatologist-led skincare beyond India's largest cities, where a good dermatologist can mean a months-long wait.
One honest caveat from my side: an AI assessment is a first filter, not a diagnosis. The encouraging part is that this seems to be the design — the AI flags and routes, and the dermatologist decides. That division of labour is exactly how health AI should work, and it is a better pattern than the "ask ChatGPT your rash" behaviour most people have settled for. If you are a founder taking notes, this — an old, unglamorous, high-value problem plus a thin AI layer plus a trust infrastructure — is precisely the kind of playbook the business-ideas chapters in our GPT-6 Astra — Zero to Hero Guide walk through, and it costs less than one salon consultation at ₹149.
Key Takeaways
- EVERQ pairs AI-led skin assessment with dermatologist care — diagnosis first, treatment second, maintenance after
- AI Care Expert is a persistent care companion, not a one-off chatbot — it tracks regimen and progress
- Built for Indian and melanin-rich skin, focusing on pigmentation, acne, sensitivity and post-inflammatory marks
- Backed by ₹34 crore pre-seed from Spring Marketing Capital and Stride Ventures; acquired SKINQ-maker HealthQ
- Aims to take dermatologist-led care beyond the metros, where access is the real bottleneck
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Puresta's EVERQ platform?
Puresta launched EVERQ, an AI skin diagnosis platform that pairs AI-led skin assessments with dermatologist care. It is built around a “Diagnose First. Then Treat.” philosophy, plus an AI Care Expert companion that tracks your regimen.
Who is EVERQ designed for?
It is designed for Indian and melanin-rich skin, targeting concerns like pigmentation, acne and sensitivity. The startup was founded in 2025 and raised ₹34 crore in pre-seed funding led by Spring Marketing Capital.
What This Means for You
If you have spent money on five serums that did nothing, a platform that starts with understanding your skin — instead of selling you a shelf — is a welcome change of sequence. Just keep your expectations calibrated: the AI narrows things down, the dermatologist decides, and consistency (the AI Care Expert's whole job) does the rest. For anyone watching India's AI startup wave, the signal is louder: the biggest opportunities are not in building another chatbot, but in applying AI to industries where diagnosis, trust and access are broken. If you want to build that kind of capability yourself instead of just reading about it, the GPT-6 Astra — Zero to Hero Guide is the practical next step — ₹149 for the digital edition, or ₹1,999 with the printed book delivered anywhere in India.