Triptii Dimri is putting money where her eyes are. The actor has come on board D2C beauty startup Peep Beauty as both an investor and co-creator, joining a company betting that coloured contact lenses deserve a spot in the mainstream beauty aisle, not just the optician's counter.

The deal is part of Peep Beauty's pre-seed funding round of Rs 12 crore, roughly $1.2 million, led by Sadev Ventures. ISeed, ISV and TDV also chipped in, according to a company statement.

Dimri isn't a name attached after the fact for optics. Per the statement, she's been in the room since Peep Beauty's early days, weighing in on creative direction, product calls and how the brand tells its story. That's a step beyond the usual celebrity-investor arrangement where a star's face shows up on a poster months after the cheque clears.

The pitch itself is fairly specific. Peep Beauty wants to build its coloured lens and eye makeup line around what it calls the Indian eye, and to frame lenses as a beauty and self-expression product rather than something you buy only when your optometrist prescribes it. That's the gap the brand is trying to wedge itself into, between a category that's always been treated as medical and one that's increasingly treated as fashion.

Dimri, for her part, framed it in similar terms. "The first thing that struck me about Peep Beauty was that it wasn't just creating a product, it was creating an entirely new way of thinking about beauty," she said in the statement. "The eye is one of the most expressive parts of who we are, yet coloured lenses have always been spoken about as a functional or medical category. Peep Beauty changes that conversation."

She added that building something from scratch and having a real say in its direction is what pulled her in. "Being part of building a brand from the ground up, contributing creatively, and helping shape its vision made this partnership incredibly exciting for me."

It's the kind of move that fits a pattern. Actors backing D2C brands isn't new, but the eyewear-adjacent, colour-lens space is a narrower bet than the usual skincare or fragrance line. Whether Peep Beauty can actually pull coloured lenses out of the medical-category box and into everyday makeup routines is the harder question, and it's one that won't get answered by a funding announcement.

For now, the brand says it's focused on building out its product line and its storytelling for Indian consumers, with Dimri staying involved beyond the cheque. What that product slate actually looks like, and when it hits shelves or apps, hasn't been said yet.