The global cross-border ecommerce market is projected to surpass $2.1 Tn in sales by 2023 and cross the $7.9 Tn mark by 2030, and it is this thriving growth opportunity that the country’s direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands wish to capture.

India is now home to 50K+ digital-first brands — a mix of new-age startups and legacy retail giants going D2C with four unicorns – boAt, Mamaearth, Licious, Lenskart and several deep-pocketed players like Pepperfry, Wakefit, Sugar, Country Delight, and Bluestone, just to count a few.

Admittedly, this explosion of brands and D2C brands has created a feeling that this segment is hitting a saturation point of sorts. As a result, the country’s D2C sector, supported by more than 650 investors, is poised to expand internationally.

According to Zaiba Sarang, the founder of iThink Logistics, the sector will get a significant boost from homegrown brands exporting their products.

The Indian D2C landscape has further evolved with the introduction of dropshipping, effectively lowering entry barriers in foreign markets. Sellers can now send shipments worth up to $800 to the US without incurring taxes or duties.

The implementation of the National Logistics Policy, along with initiatives by marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, and Walmart, led India’s merchandise exports to achieve a record-high value of $40.38 Bn in March 2022, a 14.53% YoY jump from $35.26 Bn.

This success has motivated numerous players to explore international markets. According to Inc42’s Q2 2023 ecommerce report, over 20 notable Indian D2C brands have already established their footprints in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, the US, the UK, Canada, and Europe. Companies like Bombay Shaving Company, Mamaearth, FreshToHome, Paper Boat, boAt, and Wakefit are some of the examples that have now crossed the Indian borders.

Industry interactions have revealed that the top three product categories Indian D2C players excel in within the aforementioned markets are artificial and fashion jewellery, beauty and personal care products, and handicrafts.

As Akshay Ghulati, the cofounder, Strategy and Global Expansion Shiprocket highlights, GCC countries are the preferred destination of many Indian D2C players, largely due to the Indian diaspora there. While the US holds greater demand, it’s notably competitive, especially in areas like beauty and personal care.

“Additionally, although ethnic fashion wear enjoys popularity, the differing sizes between India and the US pose a challenge for brands aiming to develop products solely for the US market,” he added.

Cross-Border Ecommerce Challenges

Despite securing a significant market share within India, numerous D2C brands witness hurdles while planning their international expansion.

When D2C brands venture into global markets, they encounter challenges like adhering to local regulations, managing payments, handling delivery logistics, inventory management, dealing with returns, effective marketing, and localising their offerings.

Here’s an overview of a typical cross-border ecommerce value chain:

Take the case of FreshToHome, for instance. The D2C brand’s founder Shan Kadavil took more than two years to establish a footprint in the UAE against their projections of six months.

Similarly, the founder of Bombay Shaving Company, Deepak Gupta, took 18 months to establish their presence in markets of Nepal, the UAE, Singapore, Malaysia, and Bangladesh. Each of these markets demanded a distinct strategy to navigate their unique operational intricacies.

“Obstacles like the unfamiliarity with local regulations in various countries – including packaging requirements and market-approved ingredients – coupled with the search for suitable partners capable of managing distribution and comprehending consumer preferences, have the potential to significantly delay the international debut of a D2C brand by several months,” Gupta said.

Here are some crucial challenges encountered by D2C brands:

• Opting between a marketplace strategy and establishing independent operations.
• Weighing the merits of an exclusive online presence versus venturing into omnichannel endeavours.
• Pinpointing the optimal market and ascertaining the flagship products to launch under the brand’s banner.

However, today, D2C brands benefit from a growing ecosystem of technology facilitators in India and worldwide. Here is a quick look at the cross-border enablers that are empowering startups to seamlessly manage their Indian and global operations through unified dashboards and a single point of contact.

While speaking with several D2C brands and enablers, we learned that opting for marketplaces is the easiest and most favoured strategy among D2C players. It serves as a platform for gauging consumer preferences and generating brand buzz. Similarly, it’s advised that D2C brands should venture into offline operations once they’ve built brand recall and generated demand in the region.

However, the most pressing challenges lie in logistics and payments for D2C brands, highlighting the crucial role of the growing cross-border ecommerce enablers ecosystem in addressing these issues.

Cross-Border Logistics Challenges

Two critical challenges for D2C brands in cross-border ecommerce are rapid and affordable deliveries and managing returns.

Traditional players like India Post usually take 15-20 days to deliver to the US. For a small 50 grammes packet, India Post charges INR 139. On the other hand, established courier services like DHL and FedEx may take 5-7 days, but they require a minimum package size of 500 grammes and could charge 10X more than India Post to deliver the same product.

New-generation players like Locus, iThink Logistics, and Shiprocket are bridging this gap while tackling other logistics challenges for D2C brands.

For example, iThink Logistics allows shipments starting at 50 grammes, delivering products to the US in under 7 days at competitive pricing. Shiprocket, on the other hand, may ship 50 grammes to the US at a cost of approximately INR 300 in 8 to 10 days.

Another challenge is that, Presently, many D2C platforms are struggling to provide cross-border returns due to high import duties. Sometimes, sellers refund customers to maintain relationships, yet this results in a loss for the seller. Furthermore, most D2C players are hesitant to store inventory at foreign locations due to uncertain sales projections. Consequently, products are shipped directly from India upon order.

As Shiprocket’s Ghulati points out, setting up warehouses is a pivotal strategy to address these challenges. Shiprocket, for instance, operates a warehouse in the US. In the case of returns, products are directed to the warehouse, enabling swift delivery to other customers within 2-3 days without import duties.

Cross Border Payment Challenges

Just like in the realm of logistics, D2C brands encounter three pivotal challenges in the payments domain when going cross border. These challenges are transaction speed, payment gateway costs, and compliance requirements for international transactions.

In earlier times, players such as PayPal held an advantage in cross-border payment transactions due to their global network and ability to facilitate seamless foreign currency exchange.

Nonetheless, recent years have witnessed a surge in digitalisation and the emergence of numerous fintech startups from India like Cashfree, Razorpay, and PhonePe, among others. These players have been offering an array of features and facilities at affordable rates to support cross-border ecommerce.

“Today, nearly 15% of our overall revenues, and likewise, 15% of our businesses, rely on cross-border payment services. As pioneers in domestic payment services with a substantial network of connected merchants, we’ve come to understand and address a multitude of challenges that merchants face when opting for cross-border sales of goods,” shared Reeju Datta, the cofounder of Cashfree.

Here are key initiatives within the payment ecosystem to alleviate cross-border payment challenges for D2C brands:

Joining Hands With Local Payment Providers: The primary task is to maximise the availability of payment methods even before considering costs. This cultivates global acceptance and reduces payment decline rates. Moreover, ensuring seamless interoperability among payment partners enables merchants to view payments on a single dashboard, irrespective of the chosen payment platform by the customer. Various regions have their own local payment methods that tend to be more cost-effective compared to cards or PayPal.

Reducing Costs: Cost sensitivity is paramount for Indian businesses. While India’s merchant discount rate (MDR) ranges around 1-2% for domestic payments, it could be nearly three times as much or even higher in international markets. Digital payment evolution has also alleviated costs. For instance, earlier wire transfers from the US to Indian banks incurred $30-$40 per transaction. While global players might charge around 10-12% per transaction, Indian payment providers have optimised costs to 7%-8%. ACH transfers are 75%-80% cheaper, and card transactions are around 30%-50% cheaper.

Compliance Solution: International transactions necessitate a foreign remittance advice or certificate for reporting, compliance, and tax purposes. Payment platforms like Cashfree have integrated this into the payment flow, offering real-time foreign remittance advice. Streamlining compliance around the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), documentation, and GST is also a priority. Automation has transformed what used to take months into a process that happens within seconds.

Merchant Safeguarding: Cross-border transactions entail risks like fraudulent activities and currency fluctuations that can severely impact D2C sellers, especially concerning refunds. International transactions often see higher levels of fraud and disputes than domestic ones. Payment platforms like Razorpay have developed sophisticated tools and controls to mitigate these risks and safeguard merchants’ interests.

“As we scale up and expand to a larger audience, managing risks on both ends – consumer and merchants – is crucial,” said Rahul Kothari, chief business officer, Razorpay.

The Global Road Ahead For D2C Brands

The emergence of the cross-border tech enablers ecosystem has facilitated the global expansion of even small-scale companies.

“What was previously achievable only by a handful of large companies has now been democratised, enabling even small businesses to engage. This transformation is primarily driven by automation and a customer service mindset,” Kothari of Razorpay pointed out.

Nonetheless, challenges persist. Shiprocket’s Ghulati underscores that the Indian government could enhance the establishment of bilateral trade corridors to alleviate dropshipping and import duties.

The payment ecosystem is concurrently working on reducing transaction costs, minimising decline rates, and simplifying regulatory complexities. Also, noteworthy fintech brands have an advantage in their respective regions. Building a mutual sense of trust represents a pivotal challenge as we venture into new territories.

Nevertheless, Indian D2C brands have already embarked on their cross-border journeys. With the growing demand for Indian products and technology enablers propelling D2C brands, the trajectory of cross-border ecommerce is poised for growth that will know no bounds.

The post How Indian D2C Brands Can Fix Cross-Border Pains Points To Enter Uncharted Territories  appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Mother and baby care D2C brand SuperBottoms has raised $5 Mn in its Series A1 funding round led by Lok Capital and Sharrp Ventures. 

The round also saw participation from existing investors, DSG Consumer Partners and Saama Capital.

With the fresh capital, the D2C brand will focus on category expansion and offline growth. It is looking at building a diverse portfolio that appeals to a wider audience. 

Founded in 2016 by Pallavi Utagi, SuperBottoms’s range of products includes Cotton Langots, Potty Training Pants, Kid’s Clothing, and more. The D2C brand also introduced the MaxAbsorb Period Underwear to provide a safe and conscious alternative to conventional plastic-based period care products.

Besides selling products on its website, it also sells products via ecommerce marketplaces like Amazon.

“With the funds raised, we aim to drive initiatives that spread awareness about Cloth Diapering to a wider audience throughout the country. We’re thrilled to join forces with consumer-oriented investors like Lok Capital, Sharrp Ventures, DSG Consumer Partners, and Saama Capital as we expand our reach and strengthen our commitment to creating a robust brand for children,” Pallavi Utagi, founder of SuperBottoms, said.

SuperBottoms’ revenue grew nearly 2x in FY22 to hit INR 40 Cr from INR 23 Cr in FY21, and it opened its first offline kiosk in a Mumbai mall in October last year.

Projected to expand at a CAGR of 8.18% from 2022 to 2027, the Indian baby diapers market is expected to surge from its 2021 value of $1.37 Bn to over $2.22 Bn by 2027, according to a report by IMARC group.

In the past couple of years, Indian startup ecosystem has seen the launch of several mom and baby startups. Besides unicorns like Mamaearth, FirstCry, the segment also hosts startups like HopScotch, Cradlewise, among others.

Overall, India’s baby care market which was pegged at a little over $15 Bn as of 2022, is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of over 17% to almost $40 Bn by 2029.

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Actor Bhumi Pednekar has invested an undisclosed amount in D2C eco-friendly home essentials startup EcoSoul Home. 

As part of the deal, Pednekar has also been appointed as the brand ambassador of the company. 

“As a brand ambassador and investor, Bhumi will foster EcoSoul’s mission of accelerating the world’s transition to a sustainable way of living – so that taking care of the earth is no longer a choice, but a lifestyle… We can’t wait to unfold this journey with you,” EcoSoul said on its official Instagram account. 

The company did not disclose the financial contours of the deal. 

“I am honoured to partner with EcoSoul Home as its brand ambassador. Together, we can empower individuals to make mindful decisions that contribute to a healthier planet. EcoSoul Home’s range of eco-friendly and compostable products align perfectly with my values, and I am excited to be a part of this meaningful journey,” said Pednekar, as per India Retailing. 

Commenting on the development, EcoSoul Home cofounder Rahul Singh reportedly said, “As a passionate advocate for environmental sustainability and the United Nations Development Programme’s national advocate for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Bhumi’s unwavering dedication to driving positive change aligns seamlessly with our mission at EcoSoul Home.”

Founded in 2020 by Singh and Arvind Ganesan, EcoSoul Home is a D2C brand that sells eco-friendly products such as crockery, cutlery, garbage bags, and tableware. The startup, headquartered in the US with operational presence in countries like China and Vietnam, forayed into India earlier this year. 

The latest development comes nearly four months after the startup raised $10 Mn funding in a round led by Accel. 

With this, Pednekar has scaled up her investments in Indian startups. In the past, she has invested in companies such as green homecare brand Beco, boutique hotel chain Chrome Asia Hospitality Group, among others. 

Meanwhile, a slew of Bollywood personalities have also turned to investing in Indian startups lately. Just days ago, Bollywood singer Sukhbir Singh invested an undisclosed amount in the vegan healthcare startup Fitspire. 

Earlier last week, actor Kareena Kapoor Khan pumped in an undisclosed amount of capital in D2C fruits and vegetables brand Pluckk. In July, Parineeti Chopra backed personal care startup Clensta.

The post Actor Bhumi Pednekar Invests In D2C Eco-Friendly Home Essentials Startup EcoSoul appeared first on Inc42 Media.

D2C fruits and vegetables brand Pluckk has secured an undisclosed amount of funding from Bollywood actor Kareena Kapoor Khan.

Besides, the startup has also onboarded the actor as its brand ambassador.

Founded in 2021 by Prateek Gupta, the startup claims to offer over 400 products across 15+ categories including essentials, exotics, hydroponics, and cuts, mixes. While it currently operates in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Pune, it plans to expand to more geographies in the coming quarters.

In addition to Pluckk’s own consumer focussed app, it also sells products via marketplaces and quick commerce platforms, including Amazon, Swiggy, Dunzo, Zepto and Reliance Signature Stores to reach the customers. The D2C brand claims to have sold over 1 Mn products in the last quarter alone.

Commenting on the startup’s expansion goals, Gupta said, “Our vision is to build a pan India fresh food brand dedicated to service the needs of Indian families and homes with our network of over 1,000 farmers.”

Earlier this year, Pluckk secured $5 Mn in seed funding from Exponentia Ventures for team development, tech innovation, creation of the farm to fork infrastructure, customer acquisition and expansion into key metro cities. 

In May, it acquired DIY meal kit platform KOOK for $1.3 Mn in a cash and equity deal.

The trend of actors backing D2C brands has become a new phenomenon in the Indian startup ecosystem. Earlier this year, actor Samantha Ruth Prabhu invested in D2C superfoods brand Nourish You, Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar along with Virender Sehwag invested in Two Brothers Organic Farm. 

Last year, Shilpa Shetty and Nora Fatehi invested in Fullife Healthcare and Curefoods respectively. 

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D2C wellness startup What’s Up Wellness has raised INR 14.40 Cr ($ 1.7 Mn) in its seed funding round led by Unilever Ventures, the venture capital arm of FMCG giant Unilever.

While this was Unilever Ventures’ first investment in the startup, the funding round also saw participation from a few of What’s Up Wellness’ existing investors.

The startup said it would use the fresh funds to increase its team size and develop new products.

What’s Up Wellness, founded in 2020 by Vaibhav Makhija and Sayantani Mandal, offers edible gummies that contain nutritional value. 

Commenting on the fund raise, cofounders Makhija and Mandal said, “From the business perspective, we at What’s Up Wellness have witnessed accelerated growth over the last one year… Going forward, we intend to keep scaling and fast-tracking the growth, while continuing to maintain a tight grip on our bottom line and introducing more highly-relevant products.” 

What’s Up Wellness claims to have grown over 12X in the last year and have an annual revenue rate (ARR) of INR 30 Cr. The startup aims to become a INR 100 Cr brand in the next two years by launching 12 new products.

The D2C brand claims to have served over 2.5 lakhs customers till date.

Prior to the latest funding round, What’s Up Wellness raised funds from angel investors, including cofounders of brands like Sirona Hygiene and Clovia. Later, the startup also featured on Shark Tank India and bagged funding from boAt’s Aman Gupta, People Group’s Anupam Mittal, and Vineeta Singh. 

What’s Up Wellness competes with the likes of Himalayan Organic, Wellbeing Nutrition, among others, in the fast growing wellness market. As per a study by the IMARC Group, the Indian health and wellness market is expected to exhibit a growth rate of 5.55% during 2023-2028 to reach a market size of INR120.3 Bn.

As a result, a number of startups focused on health and wellness have raised funding. Last year, Wellbeing Nutrition raised $10 Mn in its Series B funding round led by Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) and Fireside Ventures. 

Earlier this week, vegan healthcare and personal care product startup Fitspire secured an undisclosed amount in the Pre-Series A funding round.

The post D2C Wellness Brand What’s Up Wellness Bags Funding From Unilever Ventures appeared first on Inc42 Media.

India’s direct-to-consumer (D2C) market, which is likely to reach a size of $100 Bn by 2025, has grown exponentially in the last few years. Several factors including the Covid pandemic, higher internet penetration, growth of digital infrastructure and rise in the number of millennials, among others, have shored up the D2C brands. 

Home to more than 190 Mn digital shoppers, India has the world’s third-largest online shopping base in the world. It is this burgeoning ecosystem that the new-age D2C brands aim to capitalise on, on the back of the growing appetite of Indian consumers for innovation and waning loyalty towards traditional players. 

Of this, fashion and clothing startups have the highest potential and are expected to grow to $43.2 Bn by 2025, according to an Inc42 report.

Some of the emerging D2C brands including Mamaearth, CaratLane and Nua merely took a couple of years to reach INR 100 Cr revenue mark. This is a testament to the success of D2C brands in the country.

Let’s take a look at some of the popular D2C brands in the country. 

The list is not meant to be a ranking of any kind. We have listed the Indian D2C startups in alphabetical order.

1. 82°E

Founded in 2021 by Bollywood Actress Deepika Padukone and Jigar Shah, 82°E is a direct-to-consumer (D2C) personal care brand. 

It sells four skincare products – moisturisers, face oil, cleanser and sunscreen – in the price range of INR 1,200 and INR 2,900, as per the company’s website. 

In December 2022, it secured $7.5 Mn in seed funding from DSG Consumer Partners, IDEO Ventures, Padukone’s family office, and some ultra-high net worth individuals (UHNIs). 

It also has a research and development lab in Bengaluru city.

2. Anveya Living

Founded in 2018 by serial entrepreneur Saurav Patnaik and a former FirstCry executive Vivek Singh, Anveya Living sells sustainable hair and skin care products.

In 2022, the D2C startup launched its flagship products Colorisma and Curlvana and added a gold acne kit to its offerings. The startup clocked a revenue of about INR 11.7 Cr in the fiscal year 2021-22 (FY22).

The Bengaluru-based startup aims to clock a revenue of INR 45 Cr in 2023. It has added more hair care products to its offerings.  

In February 2022, Anveya raised INR 8 Cr in a seed funding round from Venture capital firm Rukam Capital.

3. Arata

Founded in 2017 by Dhruv Madhok and Dhruv Bhasin, ARATA’s first-ever product, a homemade hair gel, came to being around Madhok’s wedding. Madhok had made the chemical-free hair gel for Bhasin. 

24 months later, the D2C brand’s first product was sold on its website and the company took shape. The startup derives its name from the Japanese word ‘Arata’, which means ‘fresh and new.’  

ARATA finds its differentiation in the chemical-free beauty and skincare segment, and its range includes products such as hair gels, hair creams, shampoos, conditioners, toothpaste, face wash and serums. 

The D2C brand procures ingredients globally and locally from certified organic farms, which are developed into finished products after extensive research and development (R&D). The startup claims to offer zero-chemical and toxic-free personal care products that use only recycled plastic for packaging as part of its sustainability promise.

The D2C brand currently has 26 SKUs and a user base of more than 5 Lakh customers. It claims to have sold more than 7 Lakh products by mid-2022. However, a majority of its sales, around 70%, take place from ecommerce marketplaces such as Amazon, Nykaa, Flipkart, and BigBasket.

4. Atomberg 

Set up in 2012 by Manoj Meena and Sibabrata Das, Atomberg manufactures energy-efficient fans and allied equipment, along with mixer grinders. Its product portfolio includes pedestal, wall and ceiling fans, among others.

In 2021, Deepika Padukone-led family office KA Enterprises invested in Atomberg’s Series B funding round. In May 2023, the startup raised a further $86 Mn in a Series C round.

Besides Padukone, its cap table also includes A91 Partners, Survam Partners, Trifecta Capital, and Whiteboard Capital Fund, Temasek, Steadview Capital, among others.

During the time of its last fundraising, the startup was said to have 400 service centres throughout India and clocked an annual revenue rate of INR 300 Cr.

5. Beco

Founded in 2019 by Aditya Ruia, Akshay Varma, and Anuj Ruia, Beco is a sustainable kitchen, home, and personal care brand. It sells biodegradable and combustible products such as tissue rolls, bamboo facial tissues, dishwashing liquid, toothbrushes, and garbage bags.

In September 2022, the startup secured $3 Mn in its Series A round led by Rukam Capital along with  Prashant Pittie, Titan Capital, Priyavrata Mafatlal and Better Capital. 

While announcing its Series A fundraise, it claimed that it would expand its retail stores to 10K across India.

Prior to this, it had raised INR 4 Cr in its seed funding round from Climate Angels Fund, Rukam Capital, Sequoia Sprout, and Zivame founder Richa Kar, among others. 

6. Bewakoof

Founded in 2012 by Prabhkiran Singh and Siddharth Munot, Bewakoof sells a wide variety of clothes, stationery items, footwear and mobile accessories on its website. The D2C brand also sells a host of merchandise clothes and accessories in partnership with Marvel, F.R.I.E.N.D.S, Star Wars, Disney, DC and Looney Tunes.

In August 2021, it secured $8.09 Mn in its Pre-Series B funding round and in December 2022, Aditya Birla Group’s house of brands business TMRW invested INR 200 Cr in the D2C startup Bewakoof. 

In total, Bewakoof has raised a total funding of INR 23.6 Mn to date. Its cap table includes IvyCap Ventures, Spring Marketing Capital, Investcorp and Klub-led accelr8 fund, among others. 

At the time of its last fundraising activity, it was said to have sold more than 1 Cr products and served 60 Lakh customers. It also aimed to record INR 2000 Cr in sales by 2025.  

7. BlissClub

Set up in 2020 by Minu Margeret, BlissClub sells a host of women’s activewear including bottom wear, sports bras, tops, tees and co-ords, among others. Under the BlissQueen Royalty Program, the D2C startup offers reward points to its loyal customers. 

In May, the Bengaluru-based D2C startup secured $15 Mn in its Series A funding round. It has raised a total funding of $17.25 Mn to date.

The startup claims to have grown its sales by 25X over the last year. It aims to attain an annualised revenue of INR 100 Cr by the end of 2022.

Eight Roads Ventures, Elevation Capital, Swiggy’ Sriharsha Majety, Mamaearth’s Ghazal Alagh, Licious’ Vivek Gupta and Abhay Hanjura, SoftBank’s Munish Varma and Sumer Juneja, Shopify’s Brennan Loh are among its investors.

8. Bluestone

Set up in 2011 by Gaurav Singh Kushwaha and Vidya Nataraj, Bluestone offers more than 8000 jewellery designs in rings, pendants and other allied products. It follows an omnichannel approach to selling its products. 

In March this year, the D2C jewellery brand secured $30 Mn from Hero Enterprise’s Sunil Kant Munjal and other investors at a post-money valuation of $410 Mn. So far, it has raised $87.8 Mn from investors including Ratan Tata, Accel, IvyCap, Saama Capital, Kalaari and Iron Pillar, among others. 

In the financial year 2020-21, it narrowed its consolidated losses by nearly 43% to INR 13.8 Cr. Meanwhile, its revenue from operations grew by 5% year-on-year to INR 269 Cr in the corresponding period.

9. boAt 

Launched in 2016 by Aman Gupta and Sameer Mehta, boAt is an audio direct-to-consumer brand that manufactures a host of audio products such as earphones, headphones and speakers, among others. It retails these products on its website and ecommerce marketplaces. 

In October 2022, boAT secured nearly $61 Mn from Warburg Pincus and Malabar Investments. With this fundraising, the startup also decided to delay its IPO plans. 

Its cap table includes InnoVen Capital, Qualcomm Ventures and Fireside Ventures, among others. 

In the financial year 2021-22 (FY22), its profit dipped 20% YoY to INR 68.7 Cr in FY22 against INR 86.5 Cr in FY21. Revenue of the New Delhi-based D2C electronics brand surged 117.5% YoY to INR 2,886.4 Cr in FY22. 

10. BoldFit 

Fitness startup BoldFit, which was founded in December 2018 by Pallav Bihani, sells nutritional supplements and fitness equipment to consumers. 

The startup sells Food Safety and Standards Authority of India-certified (FSSAI) products in the market and works with WHO-GMP-approved manufacturing firms to implement quality checks at every stage. 

The fitness startup has created more than 400 SKUs across health and ayurvedic supplements, healthy foods, home gym equipment and accessories in the last three years. 

In the financial year 2022, it reported a revenue of INR 63 Cr and sold over 5 Mn products.

With an annual revenue rate (ARR) of 205%, BoldFit has served more than 2.5 Mn customers to date. 

11. Bombay Shirt Company

Founded in 2012 by Akshay Narvekar, Bombay Shirt Company is an online clothing brand. The startup sells bespoke apparel for men and women. It presently leads four brands–Bombay Shirt Company, cityof_, Pause and Korra. It has a presence in India, Dubai and New York.

In 2019, the Mumbai-based clothing startup reportedly raised $9 Mn in its Series B funding round. It has raised a total of $11 Mn in funding to date. 

Its cap table includes venture capital firm Lightbox and individual investors Amit Patni and Arihant Patni.

12. Bombay Shaving Company

Founded in 2016, Bombay Shaving Company initially started as a men-focussed D2C personal care brand but later started offering a range of products in hair removal and hair care categories. It has a portfolio of over 100 SKUs including shaving regimens, trimmers, beard products, razors for women, wax strips, hair removal creams, and other allied personal care products.

Earlier in 2022, it secured INR 30 Cr in its then-ongoing Series C funding round. So far, it has a total of $45.6 Mn in funding. It counts Gulf Islamic Investments, Malabar Investments, Patni Advisors, Singularity AMC and Reckitt Benckiser as its investors.

It claims to have served over 3 Mn customers till date and has clocked INR 150 Cr annual revenue rate, expanding 35% on a quarter-on-quarter basis.

13. CaratLane

Founded in 2008 by Mithun Sacheti and Srinivasa Gopalan, CaratLane offers a host of jewellery, right from bracelets to kids-focussed pendants to customised pieces of jewellery. It retails its products through an omnichannel marketing strategy.

In 2019, Tata Group-led Titan Company infused INR 99.9 Cr in CaratLane thereby, increasing its stakeholding to 66.39% in the startup. 

So far, the Chennai-based jewellery brand has secured $31Mn in aggregate from investors. 

The jewellery brands reported a consolidated revenue of INR 2,169 Cr in FY23. Besides, CaratLane’s net sales value (NSV) also surged to INR 571 Cr in FY23, up 56.7% compared to FY22. 

14. Chaayos

Founded in 2012 by Nitin Saluja and Raghav Verma, Chaayos sells a wide variety of tea and packaged food products. It sells tea at its physical stores while other packaged food products are sold via ecommerce marketplaces and physical stores.

In June 2022, it secured $53 Mn in its Series C funding round from investors including Elevation Capital, Think Investments, Tiger Global and Alpha Wave Ventures. It has raised $85.5M in funding to date. 

15. Chai Point 

Set up in 2010 by Amuleek Singh Bijral and Professor Tarun Khanna, Chai Point follows an omnichannel approach to selling tea varieties and other snacks. It opened its first retail store in 2010 followed by introducing home delivery of its flagship teas in 2014 and rolling out tea and coffee vending machines in 2016.

In 2018, the D2C F&B brand secured $20 Mn in its Series C funding round. So far, it has raised $36 Mn in funding from investors including Paragon Partners, Eight Roads, Saama Capital and DSG.  

In the financial year 2020-21, it reported revenues from operations at INR 55.64 Cr and loss after tax stood at INR 78.49 Cr, according to Tofler.

16. Chumbak 

Founded in 2010 by husband-wife duo Vivek Prabhakar and Shubhra Chadda, Chumbak is a home and lifestyle brand that sells furniture, home decor items, jewellery and footwear, among others. It has an omnichannel presence across India, particularly in Tier-1 cities.

In 2019, the Bengaluru-based D2C brand secured INR 7.39 Cr in its Pre-Series E funding round from Gaja Capital Fund. So far, it has bagged $23.5 Mn in funding from investors. 

It looks to set up over 50 physical retail stores across India and further aims to have more than 100 retail stores in the country in the next one to two years.

17. Clensta

During his eight-year-long stint with the Indian defence startup ecosystem, Puneet Gupta came across a peculiar problem — soldiers stationed at the high-altitude areas of Drass and Siachen would go for months without a bath due to freezing weather conditions and extreme water scarcity. 

Gupta, an IIM-Calcutta alumnus, developed a waterless body bath and shampoo that can be used by people to take baths sans water while maintaining proper personal hygiene. 

Featured in the 2022 edition of Inc42’s Fast42 list, Clensta claims to offer more than 14 SKUs and sold more than 3.8 Mn products in 2022. It clocked revenues to the tune of INR 13.3 Cr in FY21. Clensta claims to have seen a 100% increase in its FY23 top line, which its plans to further grow 3X in FY24. 

Founded in 2016, the startup is backed by the likes of IAN Fund, N+1 Capital, IPV Fund, HEM Securities and Venture Catalysts. It has so far raised INR 105 Cr in a mix of debt and equity across multiple rounds.

18. Clovia

Founded in 2013 by Suman Choudhary and husband-wife duo Neha Kant and Pankaj Vermani, Clovia is a women’s lingerie brand that offers over 3,500 intimate wear styles. Recently, it has added Soumya Kant and Abhay Batra to its founding team.

In March 2022, Reliance Retail invested INR 950 Cr in Clovia’s parent company Purple Panda Fashions for an 89% stakeholding in the startup. So far, Clovia has raised $24.7 Mn from investors.

Its cap table includes AT Capital, IvyCap Ventures, Singularity Ventures and Ravi Dhariwal, Ex-CEO of Bennett, Coleman and Company Ltd, among others.

19. Country Delight 

Founded in 2013 by Chakradhar Gade and Nitin Kaushal, Country Delight sources milk and other food products such as ghee, cottage cheese, fruits and vegetables from farmers and delivers them to customers’ doorstep.

In May 2022, it secured $108 Mn in its Series D funding round from Venturi Partners, Temasek, SWC Global, Trifecta Capital and a slew of other investors. Prior to this, it had also raised $25 Mn in a Series C round led by Elevation Capital. So far, it has raised a total of $133 Mn in funding.

It claims to have grown 10x in the past three years and has served more than 1.5 Mn customers across the country. It further asserts to be delivering over 8 Bn orders every month across 11 Indian states.

Its cap table includes Matrix Partners, Orios Venture Partners, Elevation Capital, and IIFL PE Fund, among others.

20. Curefoods

Founded in 2020 by Ankit Nagori, Curefoods is a cloud kitchen aggregator that houses several brands–EatFit, Sharief Bhai, Aligarh House Biryani and CakeZone, to name a few. It manages over 150 cloud kitchens in 15 Indian cities.

In 2023, it raised  $37 Mn from Binny Bansal’s fund Three State Ventures. In addition, Bollywood actress Nora Fatehi invested in Curefoods and, also, became the brand ambassador of its sub-brand CakeZone. 

Its cap table includes Iron Pillar, Chiratae Ventures, Accel Partners, Sixteenth Street Capital, Iron Pillar and Bollywood Actor Varun Dhawan, among others.

In the financial year 2021-22, it reported revenue from operations at INR 1.3 Cr while its consolidated losses were INR 7.4 Cr, according to Tofler.

21. DaMENSCH

Founded in 2018 by Anurag Saboo and Gaurav Pushkar, DaMENSCH is a men’s clothing brand that sells a range of clothing styles such as odour-cancelling men’s underwear, polo-t-shirts, t-shirts, hoodies, joggers, tank tops, and chino shorts, among others.

In February 2022, it raised $16.4 Mn from A91 Partners, Matrix Partners, Whiteboard Venture Partners, and Saama Capital. So far, it has raised a total of $23.1 Mn from investors.

In the financial year 2021, it reported losses of INR 5.8 Cr whilst its revenue from operations stood at INR 22 Cr, as per Tofler.

22. Desi Farms

Set up in 2016 by Prateek Gupta and Sunil Shahi, D2C startup Desi Farms sells dairy products such as Malai Dahi, whole buffalo milk, Shrikhand, and Amrakhand, among others. 

To eliminate intermediaries, the dairy startup partners with local farmers and procures fresh milk and milk products from them. Later, these products undergo rigorous quality checks at the processing unit, wherein the milk is treated without using chemical preservatives. 

It delivers dairy products to customers without levying any charges and also provides customised subscription services to its users.

The startup currently offers 48 SKUs and claims to have more than 10K paid-up customers. In 2022, it set up over 50 offline outlets in Pune and Navi Mumbai, while in fiscal year 2022, it generated a revenue of INR 8.8 Cr.   

23. Dogsee Chew

Founded in 2015 by Bhupendra Khanal and Sneh Sharma, the Bengaluru-based pet food startup offers vegetarian dog treats that are prepared from yak milk, sourced from villagers residing in Nepal, Sikkim, and Darjeeling.

Dogsee Chew raised $6.7 Mn in its Series A funding round in 2021, and in 2022, it raised $60.59 Mn from Mankind Pharma along with the existing backers. In total, the startup has raised funding of $67.29 Mn so far. 

It claims to be the fourth-largest pet food exporter in India and currently operates in more than 30 countries. 

24. Dr. Vaidya’s 

Founded in 2016 by Arjun Vaidya, Dr. Vaidya’s is an Ayurvedic products startup. It claims to sell over 100 FDA-certified products and has a manufacturing facility in Silvassa, Mumbai. Its offerings include LIVitup, HERBOfit, Chakaash. 

The Mumbai-based startup also manufactures products to cure chronic ailments such as diabetes, asthma and arthritis, among others. It sells products through its website and ecommerce marketplaces such as Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal. 

In 2021, the startup reportedly got acquired by RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group’s venture capital arm for $6.9 Mn. Following this, its valuation soared to nearly INR 144 Cr.

25. Earth Rhythm

Founded in October 2020 by Harini Sivakumar, Earth Rhythm is a beauty and personal care brand that sells a host of haircare, skincare and body care products. It also sells zero-waste products including toothbrushes, vanity bags, combs and soap dishes, among others.

The Delhi NCR-based claims to have 160 stock-keeping units (SKUs) and has served over 150K users to date. It has raised a total of $1.2 Mn in funding from Anicut Capital. It aims to reduce the carbon footprint and at the same time, use sustainable ingredients in making its products. 

In the financial year 2021-22, it posted earnings from operations at INR 6 Cr. It asserts to have witnessed a 3x rise in its customer orders since its inception. In January this year, it received 15K orders.

26. FableStreet 

Founded in 2016 by Ayushi Gudwani, FableStreet is a women-focused clothing brand. It offers readymade as well as bespoke clothes for female working professionals. It claims to use a three-body measurement algorithm for creating customised apparel.

In 2019, it raised $2.95 Mn in its Series A funding round. Prior to that, it secured an undisclosed amount of seed funding in 2017.

Its cap table includes Fireside Ventures, Pradeep Parameswaran from Uber India and South Asia, Dilip Khandelwal from Deutsche Bank, Suhail Sameer from RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, and Fusiontech Ventures, among others.

27. FabAlley 

FabAlley, founded in 2012 by Shivani Poddar and Tanvi Malik, is a brand of High Street Essentials (HSE). It sells a wide range of women’s Western apparel via online marketplaces, physical retail stores, multi-brand outlets (MBOs), and its own website. 

In May, FabAlley’s parent company HSE secured INR 40 Cr from Stride Ventures. So far, HSE has raised $14.02 Mn in funding from investors including Elevational Capital, India Quotient, Dominor Holding, Trifecta Capital Advisors, SenseAI Venture, Baird Capital, and Institutional Venture Partners. 

In the financial year 2020-21, FabAlley reported a profit of INR 27.5 Cr, while its revenue from operations stood at INR 105 Cr, according to Tofler. 

28. Flistaa 

Founded in 2021 by CA Harshvardhan Chhatbar, Flistaa is a beverage brand that offers premix beverages in sachets. It offers a wide range of Indian beverages such as street juices, milkshakes and sharbat, etc. 

In December 2021, the Ahmedabad-based D2C startup reportedly received an undisclosed amount of investment from ah! Ventures’ First Gear Platform.

29. Flo Sleep Solutions

With an aim to offer good quality mattresses and other sleep essentials to Indian consumers, Gaurav Zatakia founded D2C startup Flo Sleep Solutions in 2018.

Flo primarily sells varied types of mattresses and pillows such as ortho mattresses, ergo mattresses, anti-gravity latex mattresses, baby mattresses, fibre pillows and memory foam pillows. It counts Mistry Ventures as its investor.

Flo’s founder Zatakia is also leading a B2B firm Hush for over 13 years now. Hush mainly supplies mattresses and allied sleep essentials to luxury hotel chains such as Taj Hotels, JW Marriott and the Hyatt Group. 

30. GIVA

Founded in 2019 by Ishendra Agarwal, Nikita Prasa and Sachin Shetty, GIVA is a D2C brand that sells budget-friendly fine jewellery to its customers — both men and women. The startup largely prices its offerings in the price range of INR 1,000 to INR 20,000. 

Competing with the likes of homegrown brands such as CaratLane, Melorra, Tanishq and BlueStone, the omnichannel brand derives 90% of its revenue from online channels. 

The startup’s revenue saw a 100% YoY rise in FY22. GIVA claims to have a customer base of 1.2 Mn. The D2C brand, which currently operates more than 40 exclusive brand outlets in the country, aims to launch 100 retail outlets in tier II and tier III Indian cities by FY24. 

The startup has raised INR 130 Cr in equity funding since its inception. In March this year, it secured INR 40 Cr in debt from Alteria Capital. 

31. Good Health Company (GHC)

Founded in 2021 by Samarth Sindhi and Saurav Panda, Good Health Company (GHC) is a subsidiary of Raksha Health. 

GHC sells a range of men-focussed wellness and personal care products, including anti-hair thinning kits, hair regrowth, beard care kit, and glowing skin kits, among others. 

It also offers free consultations to customers regarding their skincare, haircare and sexual health problems.

So far, it has raised $20.7 Mn funding from a number of investors, including Left Lane Capital, Khosla Ventures, Quiet Capital, and Weekend Fund, among others. 

32. Gynoveda

After suffering from lifestyle disorders for more than a decade, Vishal Gupta eventually found respite in the ancient science of Ayurveda. During his research, Gupta discovered effective remedies for a host of gynaecological problems such as PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), abnormal discharge, and umpteen, among other issues. 

Realising a prevailing gap in the market, Gupta, along with his wife Rachana and Dr Aarati Patil, founded Gynoveda in 2019, blending the age-old science with modern technology and content. 

Gynoveda sells products ranging from moisturisers to Ayurvedic capsules via its website and ecommerce marketplaces. Of its total revenue, 80% comes from its own website while the rest comes from ecommerce websites. 

With a customer base of 3 Lakh women, the startup is eyeing scaling this number to 10 Lakh in the next three years. It claims to have annualised revenue of INR 100 Cr. 

The startup has so far raised funding in excess of $11 Mn and counts names such as India Alternatives Fund, Fireside Ventures, Wipro Enterprises, Alteria Capital and RPG Ventures as its backers. 

33. Happilo 

Founded in 2016 by Vikas Nahar, Happilo sells a host of healthy snacks such as nuts, dry fruits, seeds and dry roasted snacks, among others, via its website and offline stores. It also offers an option to pay through EMIs.

In February, the Bengaluru-based D2C brand secured $25 Mn from Motilal Oswal Private Equity. The startup then claimed that it had expanded over 4x in the previous 24 months. It also said that it was aiming for a revenue of INR 2,000 Cr over the next four years. 

So far, Happilo has bagged total funding of $38 Mn.  

34. Happy Nature

Founded in 2022 by Sahil Chopra, Parth Birendra, Vikas Singh and Vishal Rastogi, Happy Nature is a farm-to-fork dairy startup. It runs a dairy farm in Jhajjar, Haryana. 

The startup has developed its standard operating procedures (SOPs) to keep aflatoxin levels low in cow’s milk, without adding chemical preservatives and antibiotics. It currently sells more than 35 SKUs to over 80K customers across Delhi-NCR, Punjab and Haryana.  

In the fiscal year 2021-22 (FY22), it reported a 69% YoY rise in its revenue to INR 14.4 Cr. Further, it plans to generate INR 150 Cr in annual revenue by 2025. 

35. Heads Up For Tails 

Founded in 2008 by Rashi Narag, Heads Up For Tails sells a wide range of pet products such as preservative-free pet treats, organic supplements, and orthopaedic beds. It aims to increase awareness among pet parents regarding the need for pet care and wellness. 

In August 2021, the Delhi-based pet care brand secured $37 Mn in its Series A funding round led by Verlinvest and Sequoia Capital India. It had a headcount of 350 employees then. Back then, it was looking to launch new product offerings across India and expand its product portfolio in international markets.

The startup has raised $50.3 Mn in aggregate to date. 

36. Himalayan Organics

Himalayan Organics is a D2C nutraceutical startup that was founded in 2018 by Vaibhav Raghuwanshi and Suditi Sharma. The company offers a variety of products across several categories, including beauty, skincare, immunity boosters, and haircare.

To provide the best service to its customers, Himalayan Organics collaborates with nutritionists and dieticians to offer free consultations. The company mainly sources raw materials from the Himalayan region and uses natural ingredients such as fruits, vegetables, herbs, seeds, and nuts to manufacture its products.

In FY22, Himalayan Organics achieved revenue growth of 37%, increasing from INR 24 Cr in FY21 to INR 33 Cr. 

37. iD Fresh Food

Set up in 2005 by PC Musthafa, Abdul Nazer, Shamsudeen TK, Jafar and Noushad TA, iD Fresh Food offers a slew of ready-to-make food – dosa and idli batter, rice rava idli batter – in India as well as abroad. 

In January 2022, the Bengaluru-based D2C startup raised $68 Mn in its Series D funding round, thereby accumulating a total funding of $104 Mn. 

Currently, it is operating in more than 45 cities across the world such as Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad and Dubai, among others.

Its investors include NewQuest Capital Partner, Premji Invest, Sequoia Capital, Helion Ventures and Azim Premji.

38. Innovist

Innovist (formerly known as Onesto Labs), set up in 2018 by Rohit Chawla, Sifat Khurana, and Vimal Bhola, sells personal care products under three brands – Bare Anatomy, Chemist at Play, and SunScoop.

In June 2022, Innovist secured $3.5 Mn in its pre-series A funding round led by Accel Partners and 72 Ventures. Manu Chandra from Sauce.vc, Jani Ventures Inc, CRED founder Kunal Shah and Alok Mittal from Indifi Technologies, among others, also participated in the round. 

In 2021, the startup had raised $2.5 Mn from 72 Ventures, Ramakant Sharma of Livspace, Suhail Sameer of BharatPe, and Sauce.vc. 

The startup mainly sells products via its website and ecommerce marketplaces. It also has an offline presence. 

39. Juicy Chemistry

Set up in 2014 by Megha Asher and Pritesh Asher, clean beauty startup Juicy Chemistry sells organic skin, hair and body care products. 

To manufacture these products, it procures ingredients from organic farmers in 20 countries. It develops these products at its ECOCERT-certified manufacturing unit, where it conducts rigorous quality checks to ensure that everything complies with ECOCERT’s organic standards.

To date, it has raised $7 in funding from a bunch of investors, including Verlinvest, Spring Marketing Capital, and Manoj Lifestyle. 

In November 2022, it launched an organic makeup range viz Color Chemistry. In FY22, it generated INR 29 Cr in revenue and sold nearly 75K products every month. 

In 2023, it aims to open 10 retail outlets and nearly 20 kiosks in major Tier-1 cities. It further aims to enter international markets like the Middle East, the UK and the US by 2025.

40. Kapiva

When the pandemic locked millions of Indians indoors back in 2020, the ancient Indian science of health Ayurveda suddenly turned into the flavour of the season. For Ameve Sharma, Ayurveda was never relegated to the margins. 

Hailing from the iconic 103-year-old Baidyanath family, the INSEAD and New York University-educated scion grew up witnessing how the age-old science helped people from all walks of people. After being inundated with queries from friends about ayurvedic medications, Sharma realised that there was a huge whitespace in the market and he sat down to build Kapiva. 

With more than 100 SKUs in its kitty, Kapiva sells Ayurvedic consumables and products such as juices, Shilajit, hair oil, shampoos, and resins, among others. 

At the heart of Kapiva’s operations is sourcing high-quality raw materials and ensuring global-standard processing. The startup is betting big on raising awareness, scaling product categories and enhancing quality for large-scale adoption. As a result of these, the startup claims to have seen 7.5X growth over the last three years.

Sharma recently told Inc42 that the company achieved revenue of INR 115 cr in the last financial year from its India business, while it is eyeing an annual revenue of INR 850 Cr by FY26 from its consolidated global operations, including India. 

Backed by names such as Vertex Ventures, Fireside Ventures, and 3one4 Capital, Kapiva has so far raised $15.77 Mn across multiple rounds. 

41. Koparo Clean

When the use of chemical-laden sanitisers for groceries and home cleaning saw an uptick during the pandemic, Simran Khara realised that these products could harm kids, pets and even adults.

Responding to the challenge, Khara, who hails from Delhi, launched a range of natural, toxin-free cleaning products under the brand name Koparo Clean in 2020. The D2C brand sells more than 15 products across categories such as core cleaning, speciality cleaning, and accessories.

It claims its products to be free of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), synthetic dyes, ammonia, and parabens, among others. 

Opting for an omnichannel strategy, the company sells the products through ecommerce marketplaces, its website and more than 70 retail stores of Reliance Retail and Modern Bazaar.

The D2C brand recently disclosed plans to grow 8X by mid-2025. It is also looking at expanding its distribution points and introducing products.

In July 2023, the D2C brand raised a Pre-Series A funding of $1.5 Mn led by Saama Capital.

42. Lahori

Lahori, founded in 2017 by Saurabh Munjal, Saurabh Bhutna and Nikhil Doda, sells Indian beverages in four flavours – Zeera (cumin), Nimboo (lemon), Kacha Aam (raw mango) and Shikanji (lemonade) – across India. 

Lahori’s parent company Archian Foods creates approximately 1 Mn bottles in its manufacturing facility that are certified by FSSAI, ISI, HACCP, RoHS and Make In India. 

In January 2022, the Punjab-based startup received its first institutional funding of $15 Mn from Verlinvest for a minority stake in it. 

43. Lenskart 

Founded in 2010 by Peyush Bansal, Amit Chaudhury, and Sumeet Kapahi, Lenskart is an omnichannel eyewear brand. It has nearly 750 retail outlets in more than 175 cities. It claims to serve over 7 Mn customers annually. 

The eyewear unicorn has been on a spree of fundraising this year. In June, it secured a $100 Mn investment from private equity player ChrysCapital. This followed a capital infusion of $500 Mn from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority for a 10% stake. Overall, Lenskart has raised nearly $850 Mn in the past year.

The unicorn is backed by marquee investors such as Chiratae Ventures, TPG, Premji Invest and Unilazer Ventures, among others.

Lenskart reported a consolidated loss of INR 102.3 Cr in FY22 versus a profit of INR 28.9 Cr in FY21. On the other hand, the startup’s revenue from operations zoomed 66% YoY to INR 1,502.7 Cr in the year ended March 2022, compared to INR 905.3 Cr in FY21.

44. Licious 

Licious, founded in 2015 by Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta, sells a wide range of meat and seafood products such as mutton, prawns and kebabs. 

In March, the Bengaluru-based unicorn raised $150 Mn from Amansa Capital, Kotak PE, Axis Growth Avenues AIF – I, Nithin and Nikhil Kamath of Zerodha, Aman Gupta from boAt and Haresh Chawla from True North. So far, it has raised a total funding of $488 Mn from investors.

45. Mamaearth 

Mamaearth, founded in 2016 by Ghazal Alagh and Varun Alagh, started as a baby care products brand but later pivoted to become a personal care brand. Its product offerings include haircare, skincare and body care products.

The IPO-bound startup counts Fireside Ventures, Sequoia India, Rishabh Mariwala from Marico and Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal from Snapdeal among its investors. It has so far raised $111 Mn in funding across multiple rounds.

46. mCaffeine 

mCaffeine, founded in 2016 by Tarun Sharma, Mohit Jain, Saurabh Singhal, Vikas Lachhwani and Vaishali Gupta, sells a host of caffeine-based skin and hair care products ranging from soaps to scrubs to oil through its website and physical retail outlets.

In March 2022, the D2C startup secured over $31 Mn in its Series C funding round led by Paragon Partners. Singularity Growth Opportunities Fund, Sharrp Ventures, Amicus Capital Partners and RPSG Capital Ventures also participated in the round.

The startup has raised a total funding of $37.5 Mn to date. 

47. Melorra

Founded in 2016 by Saroja Yeramilli, Melorra sells a wide variety of gold jewellery for women via its website and offline stores. It claims to have a presence in 718 districts and over 2,800 towns in the country. 

In May 2022, it raised $16 Mn in its Series D funding round from Axis Growth Avenues AIF-I, SRF Family Office, N+1 and a slew of existing investors. The startup has so far raised a funding of $66.9 Mn.  

Mellora reported an operational revenue of INR 364.4 Cr in FY22, up 4.6X from INR 78.6 Cr during the previous fiscal year. Alongside, losses spiked 73.5% YoY to INR 106.7 Cr in FY22.

48. Minimalist 

Founded in 2020 by Mohit and Rahul Yadav, the Jaipur-based D2C startup sells a host of skin care products ranging from serums to moisturisers to toners. It retails products via its website and ecommerce marketplaces. 

In 2021, Minimalist secured $15 Mn in its Series A funding round led by Sequoia Capital India and Unilever Ventures. A bunch of international investors also participated in the funding round. 

49. Mosaic Wellness

Mosaic Wellness, founded in 2020 by Revant Bhate and Dhyanesh Shah, sells men and women-focused health and wellness products under the brands Manmatters and Bodywise. Both brands offer telemedicine services along with medicines, supplements and other allied products. 

The Mumbai-based D2C startup has built a content community for people to confer about their health and other related subjects. 

In 2021, it secured $24 Mn in its Series A funding round from Sequoia Capital India, Elevation Capital and Matrix Partners India. In total, it has raised a capital of $35.2 Mn to date. 

50. Mylo

Mylo, founded in 2018 by Vinit Garg, started as a community-based platform for new and expecting mothers and gradually turned into a personal care brand. Last year, it pivoted into a personal care startup offering over 100 stock-keeping units of ayurvedic products. 

In April, Mylo secured $17 Mn in its Series B funding round led by W Health Ventures, ITC Ltd and Endiya Partners. Riverwalk Holdings, Alteria Capital and Innoven Capital also participated in the funding round.

The D2C personal care startup has raised a funding of $24 Mn so far. 

51. Nestasia

Home decor brand Nestasia is the brainchild of Anurag Agarwal and Aditi Murarka Agarwal, whose passion for decorating and designing homes spawned the rise of the startup in 2019.

The D2C brand sells a range of home decor products such as crockery garden accessories, and kitchen utilities, among others. Unlike other marketplaces, which connect buyers and sellers, Nestasia operates a full-fledged D2C business that buys products from Indian artisans and then sells them directly to customers.

The startup last raised $4 Mn as part of its Series A funding round in December 2021, which saw participation from Stellaris Venture Partners, Mamaearth’s Varun Alagh, Delhivery’s Sahil Barua, and Livspace’s Anuj Srivastava and Ramakant Sharma, among others. 

The D2C brand currently lists more than 6,000 products across eight key product categories and has so far fulfilled more than 1 Lakh orders. 

52. Noise

Founded in 2014 by Amit Khatri & Gaurav Khatri, Noise is a smart wearable and wireless headphones brand. It sells products on its website and ecommerce marketplaces such as Amazon and Flipkart. 

The bootstrapped startup reported a 8% year-on-year (YoY) rise in net profit to INR 35.5 Cr in the financial year 2021-22 (FY22) against a total income of INR 804.9 Cr during the same period, up over 2.2X YoY.

53. Nua 

Founded in 2017 by Ravi Ramachandran, Nua is a women-focused wellness brand. Its offerings include sanitary pads, skin care and intimate hygiene products. 

So far, it has raised $12.5 Mn in aggregate from the last four funding rounds. Its cap table includes Lightbox VC, Kae Capital and actor Deepika Padukone, among others. 

It claims to have served more than 5 Mn customers so far. It further asserts to have 10 SKUs and witnessing 50% of its customer base revisiting its website.

54. NutriGlow

Set up in 2011 by Aditi Suneja and Ashish Aggarwal, Nutriglow sells men and women-focused haircare, skincare, body care and make-up products via its website and ecommerce platforms. 

The Noida-based direct-to-consumer (D2C) startup claims that its beauty products have natural and certified organic ingredients and vegan-friendly and paraben-free formulations.

In June 2022, it secured an undisclosed amount of funding from ecommerce rollup GOAT Brand Labs for developing its infra and research and development (R&D). 

55. Organic Harvest

Founded in 2013 by Rahul Agarwal, Organic Harvest is an organic personal care brand that offers plant-based skincare, haircare, body care products and essential oils via online and offline channels.

According to its website, It claims to use ingredients and raw materials that are approved by international organisations – EcoCert, OneCert, and Natrue.  

At the beginning of 2022, it received a capital infusion of INR 75 Cr from Good Glamm Group in exchange for a majority equity. In March 2023, it was reported that the content-to-commerce unicorn was all set to buy out the entire 100% stake in Organic Harvest and would give an exit to the D2C brand’s founders by the end of next year.

It said that it operated 25K retail outlets as of October 2022 and looked to increase the number of its retail outlets to 1 Lakh by 2024.

56. Plum

Founded in 2013 by Shankar Prasad, Plum sells a wide variety of beauty products in skin care, hair care, personal care and makeup categories via its website and ecommerce marketplaces. It claims to operate nearly 1,500 assisted retail outlets and over 15,000 unassisted outlets throughout India.

In March 2022, the D2C beauty brand secured $35 Mn in its Series C funding round from A91 Partners, Unilever Ventures and Faering Capital. 

The startup generated revenue to the tune of INR 250 Cr in FY22 and has set its eyes on doubling its revenues in FY23 to INR 500 Cr. 

57. Power Gummies 

Founded in March 2018 by Divij Bajaj, nutraceutical startup Power Gummies sells flavoured and chewable vitamins for hair, nail and skin problems. Its products are gluten-free and certified by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

Its revenue soared by over 6X to INR 54 Cr in FY22 as compared to INR 8.8 Cr a year ago. So far, it has sold over 40 Lakh products to more than 10 Lakh customers.

It plans to launch 40+ SKUs in the next five years, including a dedicated range for kids. It also looks to ramp up its presence in the UK and other international markets and build more manufacturing facilities to regulate production, daily operations and logistics.

To date, the startup has raised a total of INR $12.9 Mn in funding. Power Gummies’ cap table includes 9Unicorns, Venture Catalysts, DSG Consumer Partners, Wipro Consumer Care Ventures, and Sharpp Ventures.

58. Rage Coffee

Founded in 2018 by Bharat Sethi, Rage Coffee sells a host of coffee-based products across India. Certified by FDA, FSSAI and ISO, Rage Coffee claims to have so far served more than 7.5 Lakh customers and has 18 SKUs in its kitty.

In March, this Delhi-based food and beverage D2C brand received an undisclosed investment from Indian cricketer Virat Kohli. Prior to that, it secured nearly $5 Mn in its Series A funding round. 

In total, it has raised $7 Mn in capital from marquee names such as Sixth Sense Ventures, 9Unicorns, Refex Capital and Keiretsu Forum Chenna. 

Rage Coffee logged revenues of INR 23.5 Cr in FY22 and is targeting a revenue of INR 92 Cr by FY23-end. Earlier, it had also underlined plans to double down on its physical presence and scale its number of outlets to 10,000 by March 2023. 

59. Revour Consumers

Revour Consumers was founded in 2019 by Jaideep Singh Gaur and Ranjit Singh and specialises in selling kitchen and home-based electrical appliances. 

The startup partners with various OEMs to produce consumer electronics, including light bulbs, electric kettles, fans, and irons. 

Revour Consumer clocked a  revenue of INR 17.5 Cr FY22 and has so far served more than 30 Lakh customers across the length and breadth of the country. 

The startup has so far raised $1 Mn in funding and counts Oriano Clean Energy as its key investor. Going forward, the D2C brand plans to deepen its focus on consumer electronics and intends to introduce new product lines.

60. Sanfe

Founded in 2018 by Archit Aggarwal and Harry Sehrawat, Sanfe is a D2C femtech brand that started with the vision of addressing the stigma around women’s health and hygiene. After debuting with a roll-on to tackle period pain, the brand has now forayed into the beauty segment. 

In addition to sanitary and hygiene products, the company sells skin and hair products. The company claims to have catered to more than 10 Mn customers and sold 28 Mn-plus products by the end of FY21. 

Targeting Gen-Z and millennials, the company sells its products through its website and other ecommerce marketplaces. Backed by S Chand Family Office, Seeders and Lets Venture,  the D2C brand has raised $4.5 Mn in funding since its inception. 

61. Slurrp Farms

A dearth of healthy snacking options in the market for their kids brought two mothers —   Meghana Narayan and Shauravi Malik — to the discussion table. The duo found a big gap staring right at them in the kids’ snacks market. 

To fill in this gap, they founded Slurrp Farm in October 2016. The D2C brand sells a range of healthy products from ready-to-mix pancakes and dosas to noodles and pastas.

Slurrp Farms, which sells its products via its website and ecommerce marketplaces, caters to users in countries such as the UAE, the US, and the UK, apart from India.

Backed by the likes of the Investment Corporation of Dubai, Fireside Ventures and actor Anushka Sharma, Slurrp Farms has so far lapped up a total of around $9 Mn in funding. 

Building on its current growth momentum, the D2C snacks brand is eyeing a revenue of INR 500 Cr by 2025.

62. Soothe Healthcare

Set up in 2012 by Sahil Dharia, Soothe Healthcare sells sanitary napkin products and baby diapers under the brand Paree and Super Cute, respectively. It retails its products through various distribution channels including direct selling and selling through intermediaries.

In October 2022, Soothe Healthcare secured INR 175 Cr as part of a strategic funding round from the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and other existing investors. With the funding round, the startup’s cumulative fundraise reached INR 301 Cr. 

Symphony International Holdings, Sixth Sense Ventures and badminton player Saina Nehwal are among its investors. 

63. SUGAR Cosmetics

SUGAR Cosmetics, founded in 2015 by Vineeta Singh and Kaushik Mukherjee, is an omnichannel D2C brand that sells products in lips, skin, eyes and nail care categories. It claims to operate more than 45,000 multi-brand stores spread across 500+ cities in the country. The D2C brand also has 125+ exclusive outlets in its kitty.

In May, the Mumbai-based D2C brand closed its $50 Mn Series D fundraising round led by L Catterton’s Asia fund. Existing investors A91 Partners, Elevation Capital and India Quotient also participated in the funding round.

The startup has so far raised a cumulative funding of $87.5 Mn from investors.

In the financial year 2021-22 (FY22), it widened its loss to INR 75 Cr, while revenue from operations stood at INR 221.1 Cr during the same period.

64. Super Bottoms

SuperBottoms, founded in 2018 by Pallavi Utagi, is a company that sells eco-friendly baby diapers made from 100% organic cotton. 

The company’s products are Oeko-certified and comply with the guidelines of the US CPSIA (Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act), meaning that they do not contain harmful chemicals such as lead and phthalates.

SuperBottoms has received a total of INR 41.6 Cr in funding to date, with notable investors including DSG Consumer Partners, Saama Capital, Titan Capital, and Venture Catalysts.

65. TagZ

The D2C snack brand came into the limelight after featuring in the maiden season of the TV show Shark Tank India and has not looked back since then. Founded in 2019 by Anish Basu Roy and Sagar Bhalotia, the company sells popped chips, which are neither baked nor fried.

The idea came from Roy’s experiences during his international travels, which pushed him to tinker around in the healthy snacks category. 

From the cricketer Shikhar Dhawan to 9 Unicorns, the backers of TagZ have pumped in over $4.2 Mn in the startup to date. The growth has also seen an uptick as the D2C brand claims to have logged a 30X increase in volumes in the past 18 months, ending May 2023. 

Retailed through 5,000 stores across 22 cities and via quick commerce platforms, TagZ also sells its products overseas in markets such as Kuwait, Dubai, Maldives and Australia.

66. Tailor And Circus

Back in 2016, Vasanth Sampath, Gaurav Durasamy and Abishek Elango came together to explore the idea of making antimicrobial, self-cleaning underwear for astronauts. In the subsequent months of research, they found that the homegrown men’s and women’s undergarment segment was plagued by basic issues such as lack of comfort and style.

After much deliberations, the idea of Tailor and Circus took shape and the startup was launched in 2016. The D2C brand manufactures underwear for both men and women, offering products such as trunks, bralettes and maternity undies. The startup also sells tops for both men and women and allows users to customise their products and build a matching underwear cart. 

The startup last raised seed funding of $241K from multiple angel and institutional investors in April 2021. It competes with the likes of homegrown brands such as Freecultr, XYXX, and DaMensch, among others.

The startup sells its products on marketplaces such as Amazon India and Myntra and through its own website. 

67. TenderCuts

Founded in 2016 by Nishanth Chandran, TenderCuts sells a wide variety of meat and seafood products such as chicken, mutton, eggs and frozen food products via its website and offline stores.

The startup last raised a capital of INR 110 Cr in a round led by Paragon Partners in February 2021. To date, it has raised $29.1 Mn in funding from marquee names such as Stride Ventures and Nabventures. 

68. The Ayurveda Co. (T.A.C)

Founded in 2021 by Param Bhargava and Shreedha Singh, The Ayurveda Company manufactures and retails products across multiple categories such as haircare, wellness, skincare, immunity boosters and health supplements.

Opting for an omnichannel strategy, its 5,000 physical touchpoints traverse 18 cities across 15 Indian states, including Delhi NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan. The startup is targeting to grow these retail points to more than 20,000 by FY25.

In March 2023, the D2C ayurvedic beauty and personal care brand raised INR 100 Cr in a Series A funding round led by consumer-centric venture fund Sixth Sense Ventures. 

Since its inception, T.A.C has raised $16 Mn in funding, across debt and equity, from marquee names such as Sixth Sense Ventures, Wipro Consumer Care Ventures and Vector NXG. 

69. The Beauty Co

Founded in 2018 by Suraj Raj Vazirani, The Beauty Co is a D2C personal care startup, which sells toxin-free body care, haircare, skincare and essential oils via its website and ecommerce marketplace such as Nykaa, Myntra, Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm Mall, BigBasket and Snapdeal.

The startup’s founder claims that at least 99% of the ingredients used in The Beauty Co’s products are natural. It operated more than 40 stock keeping units as of 2022.

70. The Moms Co

The Moms Co, founded in 2016 by Malika Sadani, sells organic products for expecting mothers and babies in the face, hair, pregnancy, and body care categories. It claims to have catered to more than a million customers since its inception. 

In 2021, the Delhi-based D2C brand was acquired by beauty unicorn Good Glamm Group. In March 2022, Inc42 reported that Good Glamm Group had increased its stake in The Moms Co to 90% from 75%.

At the end of September 2022, the brand claims to have had an offline presence in 5,000 retail outlets spanning 20,000 pin codes across the country.

71. The Pant Project

The Pant Project was founded by siblings Dhruv and Udit Toshniwal and offers customised bottom wear for both men and women, with free alterations and monogramming services provided to customers. 

Its products are primarily sold through its website and other e-commerce marketplaces, including Amazon.

In the fiscal year 2021-2022 (FY22), The Pant Project reported a revenue of INR 7.3 Cr, a significant increase compared to the INR 1 Cr earned in the previous fiscal year FY21.

72. The Sleep Company

The story of The Sleep Company starts with a baby. After taking care of their newborn at odd hours, entrepreneur couple Priyanka Salot and Harshil Salot were left aghast when their multiple attempts to buy a new mattress met a dead end. 

Realising the prevailing gaps in the sleep market, especially the lack of innovation, the duo decided to start their own venture and that’s how The Sleep Company was born. 

Since the startup’s inception in 2019, the Salots have scaled up the platform, grabbing the interest of multiple investors, including Fireside Ventures, Premji Invests and Alteria Capital.

The Sleep Company has so far raised INR 190 Cr and is eyeing to create an INR 1,000 Cr brand. With two state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in Maharashtra and Karnataka, the D2C brand claims to produce 1.2 Lakh mattresses daily. 

The Sleep Company clocked a revenue of INR 58 Cr in FY22 and plans to open more than 100 stores across the country by March 2024. 

73. The Souled Store

Founded in 2013 by Vedang Patel, Harsh Lal, Aditya Sharma and Rohin Samtaney, The Souled Store is a casual wear and pop-culture D2C startup. It is said to have over 180 licences–Disney, Warner Bros, WWE, and Viacom18, to name a few. 

The omnichannel lifestyle brand recently raised INR 135 Cr in a strategic funding round led by Xponentia Capital. To date, the company has raised a total of INR 220 Cr from multiple investors.

Its cap table includes Elevation Capital, Sahil Barua from Delhivery, Gunjan Soni from Zalora, Revant Bhate from Mosaic Wellness and Ramakant Sharma from Livspace, among others. Its product offerings include top wear, bottom wear, innerwear and activewear.

74. The Woman’s Company

The moment Anika Parashar’s daughter hit puberty, she was gripped by questions about which feminine products were good enough. While researching, Parashar found that there was a huge gap in the market for female hygiene products, and it was this epiphany that set the ball rolling for her new venture, The Woman’s Company. 

After working as the COO of Fortis La Femme Hospitals for decades, she founded the startup in 2020, along with Roopam Gupta. The D2C brand operates in the women’s hygiene space and sells products such as sanitary pads, tampons, menstrual cups, and bamboo razors, among others. 

The D2C startup last raised $1.4 Mn in 2021 from marquee names such as Pradip Burman of Dabur. 

The startup sells its products through its website and marketplaces such as Amazon, Flipkart, and Nykaa, among others. 

75. Vahdam Teas

Vahdam, founded in 2015 by Bala Sarda, is an online tea brand. It sells its products in domestic as well as international markets.

In September 2021, Vahdam reportedly secured INR 174 Cr in its Series D round led by IIFL AMC’s PE Fund. After the round, the startup claimed that it had raised INR 290 Cr in total funding from investors.

In FY22, it clocked a revenue of over INR 200 Cr, up from INR 161 Cr in FY21. However, the D2C brand slipped into the red as it reported a loss of INR 16 Cr in FY22 against a profit of INR 1.94 Cr in profit in FY21.

The startup aims to clock a net revenue of INR 500 Cr by 2024.

76. Voylla  

Voylla, founded in 2011 by Vishwas Shringi, is an online artificial and silver jewellery brand. It sells jewellery and other allied products through its website and ecommerce marketplaces. 

In 2021, Voylla was acquired by Thrasio-style D2C aggregator GOAT Brand Labs. Besides Voylla, GOAT Brand Labs also acquired 14 other brands, including Label Life, trueBrowns & Abhishti, Frangipani, Neemli and Nutriglow, among others.

Prior to the acquisition, Voylla had raised a total of $16.9 Mn funding in Series B and Series A funding rounds. Its cap table includes Peepul Capital, Snow Leopard Technology Ventures and a slew of other angel investors.

77. Wakefit 

Founded in 2016 by Ankit Garg and Chaitanya Ramalingegowda, Wakefit sells a host of sleep and home decor products such as mattresses, pillows, bed frames, comforters, and back cushions, among others. It sells these products via its website and ecommerce marketplaces.

The Bengaluru-based startup manufactures products at its facilities in Bengaluru, Jodhpur and Delhi. In FY23, the startup launched 22 physical stores across 15 cities in the country. The brand clocked a revenue of INR 825 Cr in FY23 and is eyeing a revenue of INR 1,000 Cr by FY24. 

Wakefit has raised a total funding of $145 Mn so far. Its cap table includes Sequoia Capital, Verlinvest and SIG. 

78. Wellbeing Nutrition

An avid runner, Avnish Chhabria used to rue the lack of homegrown options for organic and plant-based nutritional supplements in India, which were necessary for him to stay at the top of his game. 

His dependence on global brands ignited the idea of building a desi plant-based vitamin and mineral supplements brand. With an eye on offering a better-priced alternative to a majority of Indians who could not afford to import plant-based supplements, Chhabria founded Wellbeing Nutrition at the fag end of 2019. 

Since then, it has rapidly scaled operations. It currently offers more than 53 SKUs and deploys an omnichannel strategy to woo customers. The brand manufactures plant-based vitamin and mineral supplements in the form of capsules, oral strips, and effervescents, among others. 

The startup partners with a global team of gastroenterologists to nutritionists to build its line of products. Besides, it sources its raw materials from more than 200 organic farms and certified companies from across 19 countries.

Its multi-pronged omnichannel strategy helped it clock a revenue of INR 19.5 Cr in FY22. The Mumbai-based D2C brand is eyeing 100 Mn customers and INR 100 Cr revenue in 2023. It plans to foray into the US, the UK and the UAE by 2025. 

Backed by the likes of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) and Fireside Ventures, Wellbeing Nutrition has so far raised $10Mn from multiple investors. Last year, HUL acquired a 19.8% equity in the startup.

79. Wellversed 

Founded in 2018 by Aanan Khurma, Aditya Seth and Ripunjay Chachan, Wellversed is a health and wellness brand. Its products are sold via its website and ecommerce marketplaces.

On an acquisition spree, the umbrella brand has acquired three startups – Sportfit, Rimoy Naturals and Ketofy – in the past four years to strengthen its house of brands. It claims to have offered over 12K health plans for weight loss, skin nourishment and other ailments to customers. 

It has raised a total of $3.2 Mn in funding from investors such as Jubilant Foodworks, Yuvraj Singh, KLUB Works and Velocity.

In the financial year 2021, it reported earnings from operations at INR 20 Cr.

80. Wingreens Farms 

Founded in 2011 by Anju Srivastava and Arun Srivastava, Wingreens Farms sells packaged food products such as sauces and spreads, spice mixes, breakfast cereals, non-dairy milk, and protein shakes, among others. It sells these products via its website and offline distribution network in more than 200 Indian cities.

In May 2022, the D2C food brand acquired Postcard’s parent company Dharmya Business Ventures for about $2.1 Mn in a cash and share swap deal.

In December 2021, it raised $17 Mn in its Series C funding round led by Investcorp. Subsequently, it also reportedly bagged INR 22 Cr in funding from Anicut Capital. So far, it has secured a total funding of $49.8 Mn from investors. 

81. Wonderchef 

Wonderchef, founded in 2009 by Ravi Saxena and celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor, offers cookware, kitchen appliances, bakeware, and other allied culinary tools. It claims to operate 22 exclusive retail outlets and has served over 3 Cr customers so far.

In 2021, it secured INR 150 Cr in a funding round led by Sixth Sense Ventures. Godrej Family Office, Malpani Group, and other high-net-worth individuals also participated in the funding round.

It claims to have over 500 SKUs and a presence in India, the US, the UK, Australia, and Canada, among others. It is looking to increase the count of its exclusive outlets to 100 by 2025.

82. Wooden Street 

Wooden Street, founded in 2015 by Lokendra Ranawat, Dinesh Pratap Singh, Virendra Ranawat and Vikas Baheti, sells furniture and home decor products such as modular furniture, kitchen and wardrobe, lighting and office furniture, among others, via its website.

It operates over 100 experience stores and 30+ warehouses across the length and breadth of the country. With 30,000 home furniture products in its kitty, the D2C brand claims to have served more than 15 Lakh customers in more than 300 Indian cities. It has several manufacturing facilities and R&D units in the country.

In April 2022, it secured around $30 Mn in its Series B funding round led by Westbridge Capital. Wooden Street then claimed that it grew its business 100% year-on-year over the previous three years, and aimed to attain a turnover of INR 600 Cr in the next two years. 

83. Wow Skin Science

Founded in 2014 by Manish Chowdhary and Karan Chowdhary, WOW Skin Science is a beauty and personal care brand. It sells a host of skincare, haircare, body care and nutraceutical products via its website. It claims to have 400 SKUs and has a presence in 30,000 general trade stores across the country.

In June 2022, the Bengaluru-based D2C skincare brand secured $48.02 Mn from Singapore-based GIC at a post-money valuation of $280 Mn. Prior to that, it raised $50 Mn from ChrysCapital.

In the financial year 2021-22, it reported losses of INR 135.83 Cr while its revenues grew 3.4X YoY to INR 343.94 Cr.

84. XYXX

Founded in 2017, XYXX is a D2C menswear brand that sells a range of products across categories such as underwear, loungewear and athleisure. It is also the brainchild of Yogesh Kabra. 

What works in favour of the brand is its fashionable touch and skin-friendly fabrics that it claims is suitable for India’s humid climate. The idea germinated after Kabra realised that there was a big gap in the Indian men’s innerwear market, which suffered across the board from style to comfort. 

Leaving aside his father’s textile business, Kabra jumped into the fray and pursued his entrepreneurial talent, the result of which is XYXX. 

The D2C brand has also seen a warm response from investors. It recently bagged INR 110 Cr as part of its Series C funding round led by Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund. Since its inception, the startup has raised INR 390 Cr in multiple rounds of funding. 

With 1,000-plus SKUs, XYXX sells its products online on 14 ecommerce platforms as well as its website. It also claims to operate multi-brand outlets (MBOs) and exclusive brand outlets (EBOs) across more than 18,000 touchpoints in 150+ Indian cities. The startup closed FY22 with a revenue of INR 57 Cr.

85. Zivame 

Zivame, founded in 2011 by Richa Kar and Kapil Karekar, sells lingerie, activewear, shapewear and sleepwear via its website and offline retail stores. 

The startup had earlier claimed that nearly 42% of its sales come from Tier-2 and 3 cities in India. 

In 2020, Reliance Brands acquired a 15% stake in Zivame. Following this, the conglomerate also announced the acquisition of an 89% stake in the lingerie brand for a consideration of INR 950 Cr last year.

Zivame claims to have built an offline presence in more than 30 retail stores and more than 800 partner stores across the country.

This is a running article, we will keep adding more names to the list.

Last Updated: August 8, 2023. The listicle has been updated to add five new brands.

The post 85 D2C Brands That Are Disrupting India’s Consumer Market appeared first on Inc42 Media.

With consumer preferences experiencing a significant shift, the popularity of ayurvedic products has been steadily rising, particularly in the beauty and personal care industry. The Indian herbal cosmetics market is expected to reach $4.7 Bn by 2026. Launched in 2021 by Shreedha Singh and Param Bhargava, a Gurugram-based D2C brand, The Ayurveda Co. (T.A.C) is looking at ruling this space and emerging profitable by the next financial year.

However, the journey of this D2C beauty and personal care brand has not been without twists and turns. Suffering severe skin allergies in 2014, Singh started looking for remedies and her search led her to Ayurveda, which healed her within six months. It was then the idea of floating an Ayurvedic brand first flickered in her head.

After years of research, the founders, Singh and Bhargava, started building The Ayurveda Co. However, much to their chagrin, the husband-wife duo witnessed a lot of scepticism along the way. Despite this, the couple remained hell-bent on changing the perception around Ayurveda as a remedy that takes time to show effects and is now old and obsolete.

To change people’s perception around the 5,000 years old science of healing, the couple made it a mission to make their brand appealing and affordable for all age groups. Thus, The Ayurveda Co. was born, giving Ayurveda direct entry into the lives of people who have now largely separated themselves from its benefits.

Presently, the D2C brand offers a diverse range of natural and ayurvedic beauty and personal care products such as face washes, cleansers, serums, moisturisers, hair care products, and makeup. All products are made from ayurvedic ingredients, which are clinically proven and derma tested for being free from sulphates, parabens, and other harmful chemicals.

T.A.C sells its products through its website and its kiosks, along with select retailers and online marketplaces like Nykaa and Amazon. The startup displays and sells its products at 30 departmental stores in Dubai, which it plans to scale up to 300 this year.

In India, The Ayurveda Co. has 20 exclusive outlets, while its products are available across 3,000-plus multibrand outlets across the country.

In terms of its financial performance, the D2C brand claims to have witnessed 4X revenue growth in FY23 to INR 45 Cr from INR 12 Cr in FY22. This growth can be attributed to the significant expansion of their customer base, which has grown 10X over the last two years, from just a few thousand individuals to an impressive 5 Lakh customers.

In FY24, the founders aim to generate revenues to the tune of INR 150 Cr. To fuel this, the D2C brand recently raised INR 100 Cr in a Series A round.

Brand Positioning Is Most Critical In The Early Days

For T.A.C, establishing trust and fostering brand recall with customers was paramount. As a D2C brand centred around traditional Ayurveda, it was crucial to align with the preferences of millennials and GenZ. To achieve this, Singh personally oversaw surveys and managed customer care, as the sole point of contact, during the initial 15-18 months.

The founders also realised that for T.A.C to truly disrupt the market, a shift in perception around using ayurvedic products was essential, and the young generation must spearhead this transformation.

“Listening to the customers helped us understand the core proposition we can offer. While Ayurveda is traditional, we positioned ourselves as a young and modern brand,” Singh added.

Unlocking The Omnichannel Route With Beauty Advisors (The ‘Snipers’) 

T.A.C targets individuals between 18 and 35 years of age. Among them, customers in the age group of 18 to 25 years buy mostly from online channels. This is why the brand was only selling online in 2021 and 2022 via its website and marketplaces such as Amazon, Nykaa, Flipkart, and Blinkit, and with the help of influencers on Instagram.

However, the founders soon realised that the TAM they were targeting was too small. As a result, in May 2022, the T.A.C team embarked on their offline journey to expand their market share. However, there were quite a few unforeseen challenges.

“To go offline, we first went to stores like Nykaa and Shoppers Stop, however, they demanded a 50% margin on our products and a monthly display rental of INR 20,000. It was a huge cost to bear,” Bhargava said.

This paved the way for three key strategies that the founders adopted: 

Setting Up An Experienced Team

The founders appointed a team of sales executives from companies such as  L’Oreal, HUL, ColorBar, Biotene, and Lotus, Colgate, and Palmer. The new team was experienced in offline strategies like sachet-size products, smaller price points, and larger distribution, giving the brand a much-needed penetration boost.

Exclusive Stores

Instead of putting the products directly on the shelves of retailers, the founders focussed on opening their exclusive stores in areas with heavy footfall. This not only created a buzz in the market but also helped them negotiate better deals with retailers as the brand name was already built.

Training ‘Snipers’ In-House

The founders also decided to appoint beauty advisors (BAs) and gave them training to help customers choose the right products according to their skin type and requirements.

“It’s a very sniper kind of approach. And for our teams to become proper ayurvedic snipers, we kept on brushing up their skills. Today, we have 20-plus T.A.C exclusive stores and 3,000-plus offline retail touch points across India, along with more than 600 beauty advisors building brand awareness and trust among consumers,” Singh added.

Quality Conscious Super Supply Chains

Speaking with Inc42, Bhargava highlighted the importance of supply chains for global expansion. He also cautioned founders against compromising product quality during business growth.

“T.A.C’s success can be attributed to three key strategies — Maintaining an in-house R&D team of doctors and experts; sourcing high-quality ingredients from the Himalayan region through partnerships with key retailers; and investing in machinery and quality checks at outsourced manufacturing units to ensure product excellence,” the cofounder said.

Although The Ayurveda Co. outsources its manufacturing, the founders are laser-focussed on investing in machines and quality-control processes at regular intervals. This allows them to stay abreast of new technologies. Also, the D2C brand’s quality-control teams make sure that their vendors are committed to maintaining high quality.

“Also, we are the first of the few brands that have been able to enter the Middle East in less than six months after completing all formalities. We were able to get the products approved and on the shelves in Dubai because we have been focussed on building a super supply chain that is quality conscious and scalable,” Bhargava added.

Is Profitability A Distant Dream?

In the financial year 2021-22, the D2C brand’s total expenses amounted to INR 16.6 Cr, resulting in a net loss of INR 2.7 Cr. Although the founders didn’t disclose the total expenses incurred in FY23, they could increase significantly due to a 4X rise in revenues and a strong focus on marketing and brand promotion. It is pertinent to mention here that T.A.C also serves as the title sponsor for reality shows like MTV Roadies and Splitsvilla.

However, according to Bhargava, these expenses are important for the growth of the company. He claims that the company maintains a positive contribution margin.

“We are investing in promotion and marketing and not incurring losses here. The losses primarily stem from our distribution and operations side as we work with an in-house team of 600+ beauty advisors engaged in direct selling with attached incentives. So, the losses are not on the selling side and we expect to recover with scale,” he added.

Interestingly, even though the primary goal of the founders is to thoroughly explore the beauty and personal care market by adding more products and categories to their portfolio, they have no plans to set up a manufacturing unit.

Meanwhile, the husband-wife duo are planning to make inroads into the health and wellness markets. The founders are looking to break even by the end of FY24 and turn profitable by FY25.

However, the segment which The Ayurveda Co. aims to become the leader in requires high cash burn and is crowded with deep-pocketed players. According to Inc42 data, there are approximately 130+ beauty, personal care, cosmetics and men’s grooming D2C brands in India.

Some of the notable names in this segment are Mamaearth, The Moms Co., mCaffeine, Biotique Nykaa, Sugar, Mamaearth, Wow Skin Science, JustHerbs, The ManCompany, MyGlamm, Skinkraft, Plum, and Beardo, among others.

While Nykaa has already become a listed beauty marketplace, others like Mamaearth, Wow Skin Science, Bombay Shaving Company, mCaffeine, MyGlamm have already established presence in many international markets. Therefore, it would be interesting to witness how The Ayurveda Co. cracks the profitability code by FY25 with its ayurvedic playbook and well-trained beauty ‘snipers’.

[Edited by Shishir Parasher]

The post How D2C Brand The Ayurveda Co. Grew Its Customer Base 10X In Just 2 Years  appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Honasa Consumer Ltd, the parent entity of beauty ecommerce unicorn Mamaearth, has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to float its initial public offer (IPO).

In its updated document, SEBI noted that it issued an observation letter to Honasa Consumer on July 28, 2023. In SEBI’s parlance, issuance of an observation letter signifies approval to launch a public issue.

SEBI’s nod comes seven months after the company filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) in December last year.

Mamaearth’s IPO comprises a fresh issue of shares worth INR 400 Cr and an offer for sale (OFS) of 46.82 Mn equity shares.

As per the DRHP, several Honasa investors, including founders, Ghazal and Varun Alagh, Evolvence, Fireside Ventures, Sofina Ventures SA, Stellaris Venture Partners, Snapdeal founder Kunal Bahl, and Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty Kundra, are expected to dilute their holding in the IPO.

Earlier this year, a report emerged that Mamaearth was in a “wait and watch mode” for its IPO due to the persisting volatility in the global stock market. However, the beauty ecommerce brand clarified that it was just waiting for the market regulator’s formal approval. 

After receiving SEBI’s nod, the startup now has 12 months to file its red herring prospectus (RHP) and take the company public.

Mamaearth’s last publicly reported private valuation stood at around $1.3 Bn. 

Shortly after it filed its DRHP, many social media posts claimed that Mamaearth was seeking a valuation of $3 Bn, leading to strong debates around its revenue and profit. However, the startup called the posts as rumours.

Mamaearth turned profitable in FY22 with a standalone net profit of INR 19.8 Cr as against a net loss of INR 1,332.2 Cr in FY21. 

Inc42 reported in June this year that Mamaearth was shutting its influencer engagement platform Momspresso MyMoney due to its mounting losses.

With a revival in the stock market sentiment in the last few months, the Indian public market has witnessed an uptick in the number of companies launching their IPOs. 

However, only one new-age tech startup, ideaForge, has gone public this year. The drone startup made a stellar debut on the exchanges last month. However, at least eight other startups that were expected to go public in 2023 are yet to take a step ahead.

Meanwhile, GoDigit, which is also expected to launch its INR 3,500 Cr IPO this year, is yet to receive SEBI’s approval.

Despite refiling its DRHP with the market regulator in March, SEBI in its latest document categorised GoDigit under the section – draft offer document in relation to which comments sought from other regulators/ government agencies and response awaited.

SEBI also noted that OYO parent Oravel Stays Ltd’s IPO document is still in the pre-filing stage and the responses from lead manager to the issue on clarifications sought by the regulator are still awaited.

Meanwhile, SEBI also issued observation letters to two other companies – Indegene Limited and Vishnu Prakash R Punglia Limited.

The post D2C Brand Mamaearth Gets SEBI Nod For IPO appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Bollywood actor Kriti Sanon has joined hands with PEP Technologies, the parent company of mCaffeine, to launch a premium skincare brand – Hyphen.

PEP Technologies will invest INR 30 Cr in Hyphen and will be the majority shareholder, a statement said.

Sanon is joined by Vaishali Gupta, senior growth manager at mCaffeine, along with founding members of PEP Technologies – Tarun Sharma, Saurabh Singhal, Mohit Jain and Vikas Lachhwani.

The brand has launched three daily skincare products. Hyphen will use the existing logistics network of mCaffeine to reach 18,000 pin codes from day 1.

Hyphen claims that its products are vegan, PETA-certified and cruelty-free. The brand claims to maintain a zero-plastic footprint throughout its operations. 

The D2C brand is aiming for a revenue of INR 100 Cr in the first 12 months of operations, the statement said. 

“We are very excited to unveil our extraordinary brand, Hyphen, to the world. Our journey starts with rigorous research and comprehensive market studies, and the experience that the PEP Technologies team has, enabled us to truly understand the industry and pave the way for Hyphen’s creation,” said Kriti Sanon, cofounder and chief customer officer of Hyphen.

“With PEP technologies firmly established in the industry, their profound knowledge and extensive experience position them as one of the industry’s pioneers. Their proven track record and expertise make them an ideal partner for us as we launch Hyphen and venture into the skincare market,” added Sanon.

Gupta, cofounder and chief growth officer of Hyphen, said, “At PEP Technologies, as we gear up to launch a new brand, Kriti’s idea seamlessly merges with our concept, creating the perfect synergy. This collaboration opens up boundless possibilities, allowing us to cater to a diverse audience and tackle numerous skin challenges head-on.”

Hyphen will compete with the likes of Mamaearth, Nykaa, Plum and Purplle, among others.

The launch of Hyphen comes at a time when an increasing number of celebrities are investing in startups. From sports stars such as Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni to Bollywood celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan and Suniel Shetty, several megastars have identified startups as an asset class and are investing in them. 

Recent celeb involvement in India’s startup ecosystem includes Suniel Shetty’s investment in WAAYU and Klassroom Edutech, Parineeti Chopra’s investment in Clensta and Samantha Prabhu’s investment in Nourish You.

The post Actor Kriti Sanon Partners mCaffeine To Launch D2C Skincare Brand Hyphen appeared first on Inc42 Media.

FMCG major Marico on Wednesday (July 26) said that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire a majority stake (58%) in D2C nutrition brand Plix for INR 369.01 Cr. 

In a regulatory filing with the bourses, the consumer goods company said that the cash-only deal will be executed in multiple tranches. 

On Wednesday (July 26), the company acquired a 32.75% stake in Plix’s parent, Satiya Nutraceuticals, via primary infusion and secondary buyouts. With this, Marico now has a majority control over Plix’s board, and the latter has now become a subsidiary of the FMCG giant.

Meanwhile, the acquisition of the remaining 25.25% of the paid-up share capital of the D2C brand will be completed by May 2025 and will be subject to certain conditions. In addition, the FMCG major has also earned the right to acquire the remaining 42% stake in Satiya Nutraceuticals at a later date. 

The deal will enable Marico to expand its total addressable market in the nutrition segment, and ramp up its presence in the health and wellness category. On the other hand, the plant-based D2C brand will leverage Marico’s resource base to bolster its offline presence over the next few years.

“In line with our strategy to accelerate our diversification journey, the investment in Plix not only expands our total addressable market in value-added wellness foods and nutrition segments, but also brings another digital-first brand with a distinct value proposition into our fold,” said Marico’s managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) Saugata Gupta.

In a joint statement, Plix’s cofounders Rishubh Satiya and Akash Zaveri said, “We are delighted to partner with Marico… In partnership with Marico, we will prioritise strengthening the brand’s equity and expedite growth by expanding into new categories and channels.”

Founded in 2020 by Satiya and Zaveri, Plix Life is a Mumbai-based D2C startup that sells a wide range of plant-based nutrition products, such as workout supplements, ingestible sunscreens, hair growth serums and skincare products.

The startup last raised $5 Mn as part of its Series A funding round from Guild Capital and RPSG Ventures in December 2021. Since its inception, the startup has steadily grown its turnover. In the financial year 2019-20, it reported a turnover of INR 10.92 Cr, which grew to INR 41.58 Cr in FY21. The company closed FY22 with a turnover of INR 106 Cr. 

The D2C brand competes with the likes of OZiva, Setu Nutrition, and Fast&Up, among others.

At the beginning of the year, Plix was selling more than 60 SKUs across six categories through its own website, ecommerce marketplaces and offline stores. It has so far catered to more than 15 Lakh customers across the country.

It is pertinent to note that this is not Marico’s first acquisition in the D2C space. In the past couple of years, the FMCG giant has bolstered its play in the digital space with the acquisition of majority stakes in D2C Ayurveda brand Apcos Naturals in 2021, and healthy snacks startup True Elements in 2022. 

Marico has also made significant investments in D2C startups such as Beardo and Revofit. Last year, it was also reported that the consumer goods company was also exploring building a Thrasio-style model for its D2C brands. 

With this, the company has further ramped up its play in the health and wellness category, which has seen a flurry of acquisitions by FMCG players in the past year. Be it ITC’s acquisition of Yoga Bar or Hindustan’s Unilever picking up stakes in OZiva and Wellbeing Nutrition, the space has emerged as the new battleground for the FMCG giants. 

At the centre of this is the burgeoning health and wellness category, which has made rapid strides in the past few years on the back of increasing penetration of ecommerce and the growth of D2C startups. 

As per Inc42, India is home to more than 50,000 digital-first brands, with the homegrown D2C economy projected to grow to a $300 Bn market opportunity by 2030. 

The post Marico To Acquire A Majority Stake In D2C Nutrition Brand Plix For INR 369 Cr appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Bengaluru-based same-day delivery platform for omnichannel sellers Blitz (previously Grow Simplee) has secured $3 Mn in a funding round from India Quotient, Better Capital, First Cheque and Titan Capital.

The round also saw the participation of multiple angel investors, including the likes of Kunal Shah, Farid Ahsan, Abhinav Jain, Rahul Dash, Prabhkirandeep Singh, Ishendra Agarwal, Kalpak Chhajed, Arjun Vaidya, Gaurav Pushkar, Piyush Kedia and Anshoo Sharma.

In a press statement, the startup said it would utilise the incoming capital to improve technology infrastructure and expand its network of dark stores. Currently, the startup has dark stores in seven cities: Bengaluru, Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Jaipur.

Founded in 2021 by Gaurav Piyush, Yash Sharma and Mayank Varshney as Grow Simplee, Blitz enables faster delivery for sellers by offering same-day delivery for all orders placed before 3 PM. For orders placed after 3 PM, Blitz offers next-day delivery.

Sellers can predict and store inventory near their customers in Blitz’s dark stores and offer four-hour deliveries to buyers.

On the funding round, the cofounder and CEO of Blitz, Mayank Varshney, said, “We believe in challenging the status quo of the ecommerce industry. With simple-to-use products and high levels of operational excellence, we enable enterprises and medium-size brands with the ability to orchestrate faster deliveries at efficient costs – providing their management and logistics team with visibility and higher controls.”

Blitz has onboarded consumer brands such as Damensch, HealthKart and Nirog Street on its platform. The startup claims that its product reduces the instance of return to origin (RTO) by 40% for brands using its solution, along with a 15% reduction in customer acquisition cost (CAC) and a 20% improvement in net promoter score (NPS).

Anand Lunia, partner at India Quotient, added, “The ecommerce logistics industry has not evolved in the last 10 years to meet the needs of omnichannel brands, although consumers and businesses have both evolved. There is a need to merge prediction sciences and smart logistics networks to meet the 24-hour delivery expectation with logistics as an extension of the CAC funnel. Blitz is a fabulous solution and a great team.”

Blitz competes with the likes of Dunzo, Pickkr and Shiprocket, along with Amazon Prime’s next-day delivery.

The post Blitz Secures Funding To Offer Same-Day Deliveries To D2C Brands appeared first on Inc42 Media.

D2C meat delivery startup ZappFresh has acquired Dr. Meat, a brand operated by Sukos Foods. The startup said the acquisition marks a milestone as it aims to expand across the south Indian market.

Founded in 2015 by Deepanshu Manchanda and Shruti Gochhwal, ZappFresh is based out of Gurugram and so far, was delivering meat only in the Delhi-NCR region.  

With this acquisition, the startup primarily aims to enter the market of Bengaluru along with new markets by next year. As a part of the deal, ZappFresh will use Dr. Meat’s supply chain across the targeted region. 

ZappFresh aims to reach a revenue of INR 70 Cr within 12 months in Bengaluru alone, while targeting an overall INR 300 Cr revenue by the end of FY 23-24.

The startup is aiming at building traction in the Bengaluru market for the next six months by entering into new pin codes. Through this, ZappFresh hopes to strengthen its position in the region.

Commenting on the acquisition, Manchanda said, “We have actively sought opportunities for strategic partnerships and acquisitions in recent years. However, Dr. Meat stood out among other D2C contenders due to its strong alignment with ZappFresh’s fundamental principles.”

He claimed that the business has been profitable for the last four years and anticipates reaching the target revenue within a year. 

According to ZappFresh, it is going to be proactive in seeking additional opportunities for growth and this acquisition is just the tip of the iceberg. It expects that the expansion plans will be complemented by further acquisitions, for which it is in talks. It aims to leverage the supply chain that it has built from scratch. 

As a D2C startup, ZappFresh claims to have garnered support from notable investors, including SIDBI VC, Dabur Family Office, LetsVenture, Keiretsu Forum, and several prominent angels. 

The D2C meat and grocery delivery industry rose to fame quickly with the lockdowns during the pandemic and has become a competitive market. 

In this industry, ZappFresh already has a unicorn competitor Licious. In addition, it also has competitors like Swiggy Instamart, BigBasket, Blinkit, TenderCuts, etc.  

The post D2C Meat Delivery Startup ZappFresh Acquires Dr. Meat To Enter Bengaluru Market appeared first on Inc42 Media.

D2C brands across the world are born with a mission — a desire to supply today’s tech-savvy consumers with hard-to-source goods and trend-focused designs. When one opens social media today, we are thrust into the world of targeted sponsored ads that truly speak to our souls. But how does one trust a new brand and separate the wheat from the chaff?

We tend to rely on the information on the ‘buy now’ page. We look at details like EDD, returns policy, customer reviews, and even, in some cases, the embedded Instagram feed to check the ‘real-life’ appeal of the product. Clearly, the pre-purchase experience is important to us. Post-purchase experience equally, if not more so.

I recently procured two beautiful bedspreads from a long-running D2C brand and was quite excited about the purchase. I couldn’t wait to receive the package. Unfortunately, the brand provided little to no visibility into the shipment’s progress.

The predicted 3-4 days did not really stick, and I was left wondering if I had been conned. This is a critical moment, a churning point, in consumer psychology. Vexed, I decided never to re-purchase from that brand. The only solace was that I did receive the beautiful bedspreads a week later, but the post-purchase experience had been so marred that it completely threw me off the brand.

What Makes The D2C Customer Tick?

Over 95% of online shoppers track their orders. Nearly half of them check the order tracking page every day until they receive their package. About 20% check the status of their purchases multiple times a day.  Yes, this points to delivery anticipation and post-purchase excitement, but 7 out of 10 shoppers also said they would rather check tracking status for updates than reach out to customer care in case of delays.

Consumers today are attuned to an ‘instant’ lifestyle. They are no longer used to the speed of dial-up internet and scheduled TV programmes. They are accustomed to having answers right here and now. This trait is evident in their desire for visibility on packages. The state of the ‘restless shopper’ psyche can be a good thing for D2C brands.

And Then There Was Vision…

The crux of superior post-purchase experiences boils down to the quality of two things — communication and visibility. 

When combined, they form a formidable force for establishing customer trust and loyalty. Here are some key features that every D2C brand needs in their bandanna to get their board on the visibility wave.

Tracking Page 

A personalised tracking page is a must for every D2C brand. It is such a simple offering, but it does so much to elevate the brand’s positioning in the eyes of the shopper. Consumers used to be fine with going to a courier page to check the status of their airwaybill number. This unnecessary rigmarole can be safely stowed away thanks to the spectacular range of shipping software currently available.

The trick is to make the tracking page clean, detailed, and tasteful and design it per the brand’s theme and style. Kushal’s, Plum Goodness, Wow Science, and The House of Rare — all offer a clean tracking page in line with their branding, ensuring customers never need to look elsewhere for information.

Real-Time Alerts

When the phone pings saying the package is out for delivery, it better be! More often than not, shoppers receive their packages days after receiving this message that’s ripe with false promises. Should they stay home? Should they head out? Should they give a heads-up to their partner, neighbour, or security person? 

Real-time alerts via SMS, IVRS, WhatsApp, or Email should suffer no lag, nor should they jump the gun. It’s time to chat with the best-in-biz service providers to ensure you don’t pitch your customer into a fit of anxiety. Decathlon has perfected the art of providing real-time status updates.

Holistic Brand Experience

How many times have shoppers become wildly disoriented seeing the abbreviated name of a courier company in their SMS list? Especially considering most shoppers shop for multiple products from various online brands at a time. White-labelling is a genuine no-brainer.

When it comes to visibility, it’s time to stop hiding behind third-party doors and display your brand name loud and proud in all forms of communication. When I purchased a watch from Fire-Boltt, I received accurate tracking information from a white-labelled WhatsApp brand account.

Automated Resolutions

If there is one thing a shopper despises more than being confronted with a strange name, being told their order is ready for delivery when it isn’t, and having to visit a courier page to track their purchase, it is this — Non-Delivery. It could happen for multiple reasons, none of which is the customer’s problem.

Set up an automated resolution flow to instantaneously resolve non-delivery reports. Reach out to customers with an automated communication flow to sort out any issues ranging from ‘customer unreachable’ to ‘incomplete address’, and ensure that shoppers get their goods on their doorstep right on time. Kapiva and Plix Life recently sorted out their NDR issues with a well-structured communication flow and successfully brought down their RTOs.

Conclusion

It’s time this best practice of offering visibility became standard practice. By providing transparency in delivery, you can expect to see an immediate reduction in customer churn and a spike in brand trust and loyalty. And these are good armaments for any D2C brand that desires to become a household name.

The post How D2C Brands Can Master The Art Of Visibility appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Silver jewellery brand GIVA has raised INR 270 Cr ($32.9 Mn) in a Series B funding led by Premji Invest.The round also saw participation from existing investors Aditya Birla Ventures, Alteria Capital and A91 Partners.

Out of total investment, INR 200 Cr was infused as primary funding. In addition, INR 70 Cr happened through secondary stake sale giving exit to some of the early investors.

With the fresh capital, the D2C jewellery brand wants to innovate further and expand its product categories and offerings. The capital infusion will also help to expand its omnichannel presence with more offline stores as it aims to consolidate its position as the go-to platform for minimalistic jewellery and affordable gifting options.

“Silver jewellery is a $4 Bn opportunity in India with the organised market share at less than 7%. Silver jewellery offers an attractive alternative to other fine jewellery options such as gold, platinum, etc. at an affordable price point for casual and everyday usage. GIVA has emerged as a category leader with its focus on fine silver jewellery, design offerings and customer-centricity,” Varun Khandelwal, principal-investments of Premji Invest, said.

Founded in 2019 by Ishendra Agarwal, Nikita Prasad and Sachin Shett, GIVA deals in authentic 925 fine silver jewellery and has recently forayed into 14K and 18k gold and lab-grown diamond jewellery. The brand has its own operated stores across the country as well as many SIS formats with Shoppers Stop and other chains.

GIVA launches over 250 new designs every month. Currently, the D2C jewellery brand has over 50 stores across the top cities in India and plans to expand its presence across India over the next five years. The Bengaluru-based startup has roped in Anushka Sharma as its brand ambassador recently.

“We look forward to leveraging Premji Invest’s playbook on omnichannel across several consumer brands and retail businesses to strengthen our leadership position and establish our pan India presence,” Ishendra Agarwal, founder and CEO of GIVA, said.

Earlier in March, GIVA raised INR 40 Cr ($4.8 Mn) debt funding from venture debt firm Alteria Capital.

The startup competes with the likes of D2C brands such as BlueStone, Melorra, and CaratLane.

India is currently home to over 50K digital-first startups which are operating in the D2C space. The country’s D2C segment is estimated to become a $300 Bn market by 2030, according to an Inc42 report.

The jewellery market in the D2C sector was estimated to be about $198 Bn in FY22, according to a Statista report. With a compound annual growth rate of 28% during FY22-FY27, the market is estimated to reach a size of $692 Bn by FY27.

The development comes at a time when the Indian startup ecosystem continues to reel under the funding winter. The funding raised by Indian startups declined 10% to $5.4 Bn in the first half of 2023 (H1 2023) from the second half of 2022 ecosystem, while funding deals also fell 25% to 462.

The post D2C Jewellery Brand GIVA Secures INR 270 Cr Funding Led By Premji Invest appeared first on Inc42 Media.

D2C denim fashion brand Freakins on Wednesday (July 5) announced raising $4 Mn (INR 33 Cr approx.) in its seed funding round led by Matrix Partners India and Blume Ventures. 

The funding round also saw participation from over 30 angel investors, including Revant Bhate of Mosaic Wellness, Utkrishta Kumar of Meesho, OfBusiness’s Asish Mohapatra, and a few influencers.

In a statement, the startup said it will deploy the fresh capital to build partnerships with factories specialising in denim, knits and woven fabrics to bolster its supply chain capabilities. Freakins also aims to use the fresh funds to expand its omnichannel presence, strengthen operations by hiring new talent and launch new SKUs. 

Founded in 2019 by Puneet Sehgal and Shaan Shah, in partnership with Sachin Shah, Freakins started operating as a women-focussed denim brand. However, it entered the men’s category in February this year to emerge as a new-age, Gen-Z denim wear brand. 

“Our business model is to bring fast fashion to the country, so, that is where we can drop 100-150 new styles every month. We, anyway, drop about 25-50 new styles per week,” founder and CEO Sehgal told Inc42. “In order to do that, we are very clear that we need to be completely integrated on the supply chain side, we need to own product design, development, the sampling unit, and own bulk manufacturing or have partners who work very closely with us.”

By owning the end-to-end process, from storefront to design and factories, Freakins claims to be able to maintain exceptional quality control and achieve faster turnaround times. This also helps the brand to adapt to the changing consumer preferences.

Besides its own website, Freakins also sells its denims through online marketplaces such as Amazon, Flipkart, and Myntra. Freakins also plans to take the offline route in the next 12 months. The startup is yet to zero down on its offline strategies.

Currently, the brand has products in over 35 categories, with more than 1,500 styles. 

Sehgal said Freakins generated gross revenue of INR 22 Cr-INR 23 Cr in FY23. The startup aims to become an INR 100 Cr brand by the end of 2024.

As per reports, India’s denim market is expected to reach INR 91,894 Cr by 2028. Freakins competes with international giants like Levi Strauss, Lee, Wrangler, Diesel S.p.A, Pepe Jeans, Abercrombie & Fitch, as well as homegrown D2C brands including Mensa-acquired High Star, Snitch, and Bewakoof, in this highly competitive market.

As per Inc42’s analysis, the fashion and apparel market ecommerce will become a $112 Bn opportunity by 2030 from $20 Bn in 2022. 

The post D2C Denim Brand Freakins Bags $4 Mn Seed Funding From Blume, Matrix Partners, Others appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Often deemed the future of ecommerce, the direct-to-consumer (D2C) segment is witnessing unprecedented growth in India on the back of a spurt in demand for newer and more attractive beauty and personal care (BPC) products crowding the space. 

With hundreds of BPC brands that today claim to offer natural, chemical-free or even ayurvedic products, it is but one thing that will eventually decide their respective fates — profits.

Furthermore, at a time when the BPC arena is dominated by legacy players such as Lakme, L’Oréal, and Maybelline, among others, it has become all the more imperative to shift from loss-making strategies, including high customer acquisition and marketing cost, to more sustainable business models.

According to data compiled by Inc42, only 30% of unicorns in the D2C space were barely profitable in FY22 and the remaining sat on mounting losses and rising expenses.

Bucking the loss-making and high cash burn trends, Mumbai-based Alphavedic is a profitable D2C ayurvedic beauty brand, thriving with zilch external investment.

Founded in 2019 by Shrey Jain, the bootstrapped BPC D2C brand has bet big on the B2B engagements, with a corporate gifting business model, to emerge profitable rather than solely relying on generating revenues through online and offline marketplaces.

Alphavedic is operating with the leading names such as Mamaearth, mCaffeine, Khadi Essentials, T.A.C., SUGAR, WOW Skin Science, Plum Goodness, and Nykaa to make significant strides in the Indian BPC market, which is expected to reach a market size of $28 Bn by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 27% between 2022 and 2030.

How Alphavedic Pivoted From A Healthtech Startup To A D2C Brand

Jain started Alphavedic as an ayurvedic healthtech startup to connect patients with ayurvedic doctors. However, ideas were already brewing to also make the platform a one-stop shop for different ayurvedic medicines and products later on.

Though the healthtech business initially took off, he soon realised the challenges of building and growing such a company, given that ayurvedic treatment is not mainstream. Meanwhile, Shruti Khare also joined him as a cofounder of the startup in 2019.

After pondering over the future of the business for months, Jain and Khare decided to pivot to a pure-play ayurvedic products company in 2020, marking the beginning of a profitable and scalable Alphavedic.

Starting with a haircare product, Alphavedic expanded its product line over the next two years. Jain told Inc42 that he, initially, took the help of a few influencers to unlock the startup’s first potential customer base, and, then, there was no looking back.

Once, the first few consumers recommended Alphavedic’s haircare products, Jain and his team started receiving multiple queries regarding its product portfolio. Based on customers’ requirements, Alphavedic started building its product line.

The startup, which currently has 24 stock-keeping units (SKUs), is researching on ayurvedic vitamins and supplements and plans to float them in the market in the next few months.

Alphavedic boasts a customer base of 50K individuals, of which 40% are its repeat customers.

A Sneak Peek Into Alphavedic’s Biz

Alphavedic claims to have generated a revenue of INR 5.5 Cr in FY23. Impressively, approximately 26% of the startup’s total revenue for the year constituted gross profit. Looking ahead to FY24, Alphavedic plans to generate revenues to the tune of INR 8 Cr on the back of an expanded product portfolio and a strong offline presence.

Speaking about the business strategy, Jain told Inc42 that B2B engagements helped the brand reach more customers, ensuring better returns. Notably, Alphavedic earns almost 70% of its revenue from B2B engagements. 

Besides, Alphavedic has stayed away from burning hefty amounts of money on advertising and marketing.

“B2C marketing expenses by most of the D2C brands are huge, as many brands splurge a lot on influencers and social media platforms. Although we take the help of the influencers to spread the word about Alphavedic, it is all on a collaboration basis and no monetary agreements have ever been involved here,” Jain said.

As of now, the startup sells its products via its website and has a presence on marketplaces such as Amazon, Nykaa, and Flipkart. With omnichannel becoming a focus of all D2C brands, Alphavedic, too, is looking to strengthen its offline play.

Currently, Alphavedic products are available across 40 offline chains in India, including salons, resorts and hotels. Alphavedic earns 10% of its revenue from offline sales. The startup plans to grow its offline footprint to 100 such chains.

Besides being profitable, Alphavedic has also managed to have a positive cash flow. Instead of paying in advance to its contract manufacturers for its products, the startup has a flat 60-day credit agreement with its vendors. This helps the company to maintain a positive cash balance.

Bootstrapped since 2019, Alphavedic is now looking to raise $2 Mn to $2.5 Mn to accelerate its growth.

Alphavedic In The Highly Competitive D2C Space

Some of the biggest competitors of Alphavedic in the pure ayurvedic beauty brands segment are loss-making but have significantly high revenues.

A case in point is The Ayurveda Co (T.A.C), which closed its FY23 with net revenue of INR 50 Cr. Notably, the company that projects a net revenue of INR 150 Cr in FY24, is aiming to turn profitable in the next 12-18 months.

Similarly, The Ayurveda Experience expects to emerge profitable in the current financial year, despite clocking revenues to the tune of ̥INR 270 Cr in FY23.

In the broader D2C beauty space, which is led by the likes of IPO-bound Mamaearth, Plum, and mCaffeine, among others, most brands are making losses. However, there are no two thoughts about the fact that these brands have scaled significantly over the years, piggybacking on a massive capital infusion from investors.

According to Jain, in a segment saturated with a growing number of competitors, new brands entering the market will need to prioritise their unique propositions and go beyond following trends. Rather than selling everything at once, from haircare to skin and wellness products, Jain suggests going deeper into a product category with varied items to build scale.

The post How Bootstrapped D2C Brand Alphavedic Cracked The B2B Code To Emerge Profitable appeared first on Inc42 Media.

D2C brand Koparo, which offers home cleaning products, has raised a Pre-Series A funding of $1.5 Mn led by Saama Capital. The round also saw participation from Fluid Ventures and M Venture Partners along with new angels Rajesh Sawhney (founder and CEO of GSF Accelerator), Sridhar Sankararaman (Multiples PE), and Ramesh Menon (ex-Future Group, Hypercity). In addition, existing investor DSG Consumer Partners also participated in the round. 

Koparo stated that the funds will be used for strengthening offline presence, building brand and dive product innovation. The startup claims that since the last funding round of $750K last year, it has grown 10x. 

Commenting on the funding round, Simran Khara, founder, Koparo, said, “The modern Indian home is ready for new cleaning products that are effective yet not laden with harsh chemicals. Several sub-categories within cleaning are already responding well to our proposition. With the backing of some of the best consumer investors, we feel confident of executing well on our category defining play at Koparo.”

Founded in 2020 by Khara, the D2C brand offers a range of 15 products in the core cleaning, specialty cleaning, and accessories categories. It earns 40% of the overall revenue by selling products through its own website, while the other channels include leading e-comm sites and 70 stores of Reliance Retail and Modern Bazaar.

Sensing the increasing demand for its products, Koparo plans to launch variants of its top selling products to offer a wide range of cleaners catering to modern Indian cleaning needs, and introduce complementing kitchen and home cleaning accessories. 

The startup aims to grow faster in the laundry vertical as well and aims to launch pet friendly laundry products soon. It has also launched a kennel wash for the pet homes. In the next 18-20 months, the startup aims to grow its revenue by 8x, by focusing on its core range, expanding distribution points, and introducing products in newer sub-categories.

Koparo notes that according to an IMARC report, the household cleaning market in India reached $7.5 Bn in 2022 and the projected growth rate in the next five years is 18.9% CAGR. in the mentioned market, the startup competes with conglomerates such as Reckitt, Hindustan Unilever, BB Homes etc.

The Indian D2C market is home to over 50,000 digital-first brands. Though the funding winter affected the whole startup ecosystem of India, the D2C brands saw positive growth. In Q2 2022, funding raised by bridge-stage D2C brands grew 101% QoQ to $26.4 Mn.

Inc42 found that the market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 24% between 2021 and 2030. The study further found that the total addressable market opportunity of $300 Bn by that year

The post D2C Brand Koparo Raises Funding From Saama, DSG For Its Home Cleaning Products appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Indian cricketer Shikhar Dhawan has invested an undisclosed amount of funding in omnichannel snack brand TagZ Foods. As part of the deal, the startup has also roped in Dhawan as its brand ambassador.

The deal will enable the startup to build a range of advertising campaigns to reach out to more customers and effectively promote the brand. In a statement, TagZ said the partnership will leverage synergies with Dhawan’s brand persona and strong appeal among young consumers to scale the brand.

“As a sportsman, I understand the importance of eating better and leading an active lifestyle. I am excited to be a part of TagZ Foods’ journey as it leapfrogs into its next orbit of growth and expansion. This is a deep and long-term partnership in my dual role as investor and brand ambassador at TagZ,” said Dhawan. 

TagZ’s cofounder Anish Basu Roy added, “He embodies the values that we stand for – better eating, fitness and an active lifestyle. His association with TagZ Foods in his dual capacity as investor and brand ambassador is (a) deep integration into our brand’s mission.”

Founded in 2019 by Basu Roy and Sagar Bhalotia, TagZ is an omnichannel snacking brand that sells popped potato chips, gourmet dips and cookies. It sells its products across its website, quick commerce platforms, and offline retail stores.

The new fundraise from Dhawan comes days after the startup raised $2 Mn in a pre-Series A funding round led by 9 Unicorns. Prior to this, the startup bagged $1.2 Mn in seed funding from a group of angel investors in 2020. 

Backed by names such as Dexter Angels, Agility Ventures, Venture Catalysts, Klub and Indifi, TagZ competes with the likes of Happilo, Nourish You and others. TagZ also emerged as one of the emerging brands in Inc42’s FAST42 D2C 2023 list.

Last month, the startup claimed that it logged a 30X increase in volumes in the past 1.5 years. TagZ currently retails its products through 5,000 stores across 22 cities and through quick commerce platforms such as Swiggy Instamart, Zepto and others. 

It also sells its products overseas in countries such as Kuwait, Dubai, Maldives and Australia.

TagZ erupted into prominence around the same time as the Covid-19 pandemic swept across the country as Indians made a beeline for D2C brands. As the online growth tapered off, D2C brands opted for an omnichannel approach to further grow its business. The pivot to offline channel has led to a spurt in numbers for the D2C ecosystem which has attracted the attention of investors. 

In February, food and beverages startup TABP Snacks and Beverages secured INR 20 Cr in a pre-Series A funding round led by LC Nueva AIF and angel investor Arun Mukherjee. In March, confectionary giant Mondelēz International announced the launch of a startup accelerator initiative for early stage Indian snack brands.

Earlier this year, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) giant ITC said it was acquiring D2C healthy foods brand Yoga Bar.

As more and more Indians come online and explore online shopping, the influx of new users is expected to give a major fillip to the D2C ecosystem. As per an Inc42 report, the country will be home to more than 500 Mn online shoppers by 2030 which is projected to push the overall homegrown ecommerce market to a $400 Bn opportunity by 2030.

The post Cricketer Shikhar Dhawan Invests In D2C Snack Brand TagZ appeared first on Inc42 Media.

When the Covid-19 outbreak hit the world in 2020, all businesses, big and small, came to a grinding halt almost overnight. It also became a redefining year for the Indian startup ecosystem, which was forced to adapt more than industry behemoths. Consider this. An April 2020 survey by Praxian Global revealed that 37% of Indian startups had 6-12 months of cash reserves left, and around 21% had less than a six-month runway. MyGlamm, a Mumbai-based direct-to-consumer (D2C) beauty and personal care brand, was in a similar plight early in the pandemic months and desperately looking for a way out. 

The startup, which was founded in 2017 by serial entrepreneur Darpan Sanghvi, claimed that it was left with $20 Mn worth of unsold inventory, among a slew of other losses, at the onset of Covid with slim chances of survival. 

If these losses were not enough, it was about to close a Series C funding round in March 2020 but suffered a huge setback when lockdowns kicked in, and the lead VC pulled out. 

There was a silver lining, though. During the crisis, existing investors L’Occitane (a French retailer of luxury beauty products), Bessemer Venture Partners and the Mankekar Family Office came to the startup’s rescue and lent it the capital needed. 

When the cash reserves were partially replenished, MyGlamm took a couple of decisive measures. 

An excess inventory was a major concern at the time. But marketing and selling in the midst of pandemic uncertainties called for targeting specific consumer segments based on what was most relevant to them. So, the brand decided to bet on content moats to attract and amass new users without the CAC (customer acquisition costs) hitting north.

 And its acquisition of POPxo in August 2020 ticked all the right boxes (more on that later). 

Meanwhile, the funding landscape improved after the initial knee-jerk reaction to the pandemic, and MyGlamm completed its Series C round in two tranches. 

It raised around INR 175 Cr in March 2021, led by Amazon. Accel and its existing investors led the second tranche of INR 530 Cr. In September, MyGlamm topped up its Series C funding with INR 255 Cr, led by Trifecta Leaders Fund. 

Cash-strapped no longer, the brand was all set to explore the markets further and acquire a host of promising digital businesses to expand and grow.  

Building A House Of Brands Brick By Brick

Of course, the narrative started with the strategic acquisition of POPxo, which helped lay the foundation for The Good Glamm Group. A quick look at the business synergies will further highlight the advantages. 

Set up by Priyanka Gill in 2014, POPxo is a popular, women-focussed platform built around content and commerce. It used to serve 60 Mn monthly active users (MAU) at the time of acquisition, giving MyGlamm ample opportunities to stack a vast selection of products, content-driven marketing and easy customer acquisition on top of each other. 

Additionally, MyGlamm received funding commitments from POPxo’s existing investors, including Chiratae Ventures, Kalaari Capital and Neoplux.

In August 2021, exactly a year after acquiring POPxo, the brand snapped up the parenting platform BabyChakra for an undisclosed amount. This gave the beauty startup direct access to the platform’s 20 Mn+ users and a network of 10K doctors.

A month later, MyGlamm announced the formation of the Good Glamm Group as the parent entity and a ‘digital house of brands’ built on the four major pillars of growth – community, commerce, content and community. Sanghvi also roped in POPxo founder Priyanka Gill and BabyChakra founder Naiyya Saggi as cofounders of the group.

To muscle up its newfound but highly successful user acquisition strategy through inorganic growth, the group went on an acquisition spree. By 2022, it had added 11 more brands to its portfolio. 

Among these were beauty and wellness brand The Moms Co, skin and personal care startup St.Botanica, personal care brand Organic Harvest, video analytics platform Vidooly, media and influencer talent management network MissMalini, digital content platform ScoopWhoop and women-centric content platform Tweak India (its latest acquisition made in December 2022). 

To further reinforce its content-creator-commerce flywheel as the fourth strategic moat, the house of brands launched The Good Community in February 2023. It is an omnichannel interest-based network of users and experts that allows them to forge meaningful connections based on shared interests in beauty, parenting, sexual and intimate health, wellness and sustainability. 

The Good Community brings users and experts together on digital platforms like WhatsApp, each brand’s native app and mobile website and holds offline events and workshops to facilitate interactions. The Good Community platforms are GlammFam (MyGlamm), Organic Squad (Organic Harvest), Sirona Circle (Sirona) and Momstar (BabyChakra).

There was a method in the spate of acquisitions as the group worked hard to strengthen its moats. For example, to give more teeth to its content and influencer/creator ecosystem, it consolidated a few acquired companies under the Good Media Co, The Good Brands Co, the Good Creator Co (see snapshot). These worked as crucial triggers for growing the community and commerce in the long run.  

Here is a case in point. When it acquired Delhi-based digital media and lifestyle content provider ScoopWhoop in 2021, the group targeted the platform’s male audience to help fuel a sales surge in men’s grooming products. It even announced a fresh infusion of INR 500 Cr to expand these categories further, as the content-to-commerce playbook would help it reach a larger audience. 

Finally, a unicorn badge: In November 2021, the Good Glamm Group raised $150 Mn in Series D, co-led by Warburg Pincus and Prosus Ventures (formerly Naspers), to enter the coveted unicorn club at a valuation of $1.2 Bn.

According to the startup, the community-commerce-content approach has become the Good Glamm Group’s key differentiator throughout its journey. It has acquired a widespread digital presence through its acquisitions and uses an integrated marketing strategy for all its products.  

A strong content-to-commerce approach is at the core of all marketing strategies. With the Good Creator Co, Good Glamm Group has built an impactful network of influencers and creators, helping it engage with its audience and reach out to a larger demographic

However, the group does not miss out on any promotional opportunities. First, there are the usual celebrity endorsements to drive sales and win fans. By announcing Shraddha Kapoor as MyGlamm’s ambassador (and investor) in 2020, it got access to the actor’s 66 Mn followers on social media. It also did TV commercials and tied up with popular shows like Bigg Boss and Koffee With Karan.  

Drawing Product Inspiration From Customer Insights, Making Beauty Affordable 

MyGlamm believes consumers should get what they want for their beauty needs instead of the brands telling them such things. In fact, customer insights have played a significant role in their product journey

MyGlamm has developed more than 1K SKUs across make-up and skincare categories based on consumer insights from regularly held surveys and feedback. 

Moreover, top-quality but affordable product lines are bound to win more customers and retain them for a long time. So, the products are reasonably priced, with the cosmetics and skincare range starting from INR 200.

Keeping most price tags pocket-friendly (some can go up to INR 2K or more) has won the group plenty of happy and loyal customers, especially beyond the metros. About 70% of its revenue comes from Tier 2 and 3 locations like Lucknow, Kanpur, Indore and Faridabad. 

To ensure a seamless shopping experience, the house of brands has partnered with Bengaluru-based Simpl, a merchant first checkout network, enabling a one-tap checkout for customers to make hassle-free online payments. 

According to MyGlamm, the flagship brand of the group, Simpl’s easy onboarding process and smooth payment experience have made it popular among users and helped retain 10-15% of customers. Also, Simpl is the fifth most preferred mode of payment for customers on MyGlamm.

Simpl has also partnered with The Moms Co, St. Botanica, Organic Harvest and Sirona which are a part of The Good Glamm group.

Simpl believes that its core value lies in the user experience it offers. “It is very frustrating to see transactions fail after entering all the details, often leading to cart abandonments,” said Nitya Sharma, founder, Simpl. In contrast, Simpl enables a speedy, frictionless user experience via its one-tap checkout.

The Way Forward

In the past couple of years, the beauty industry has rapidly evolved due to the seismic shift in consumer values and expectations. Brands today are going all out to future-proof their businesses through disruptive strategies, be it innovative technology or a cutting-edge business model. 

But building a house of brands like the Good Glamm Group is not a novel concept. FMCG giants like Unilever have been doing it for decades, but not all brands under a parent company shine equally brightly. Operating too many brands in the same category also involves the risk of cannibalisation, where stablemates go to war, and the parent firm stands to lose.

On the plus side, they all enjoy customer loyalty and the quality endorsements attributed to the parent company and thrive on business synergies. This is especially true about the Good Glamm Group, which has adopted a content-to-commerce approach to usher in new users and has built powerful moats around the product companies it fosters. 

It is not surprising, therefore, that the group has several ambitious goals. It is eyeing 200% revenue growth by exploring Bharat markets further and diversifying its product portfolio. Plans are also afoot to set up global markets starting with the Middle East. 

Nykaa, a beauty ecommerce marketplace, is another player leveraging the content-to-commerce approach. It has its own private labels and has started acquiring smaller beauty brands like Earth Rhythm and Dot & Key. It also acquired the digital content platform Little Black Book (LBB) in September 2022 to leverage the content-to-commerce approach.

It will be interesting to see whether the house of brands model becomes mainstream in India as cash-strapped companies reap the benefits of collaborative growth. In the process, big brands can lower their CAC and operational costs, while smaller businesses will have a fulfilling growth cycle and make a profit.

The post How Content-To-Commerce Model, Acquisitions Are Driving The Good Glamm Group’s Growth appeared first on Inc42 Media.

India’s food and beverage (F&B) market has been growing for years, and is poised to reach a size of $156.25 Bn by 2026. Besides the home-grown players, many foreign brands have also found a big market in India.

Over the year, Indian companies have tied up with foreign players to bring new F&B brands to India. Most recently, Reliance Industries’ lifestyle arm Reliance Brands formed a partnership with international coffee chain Pret A Manger to bring the brand in the country. 

The last few years have also seen a slew of direct-to-consumer (D2C) startups entering the space and competing with the established players. From snacks for kids to alcobev to ready-to-cook food, the startups have made a mark across F&B categories. 

Let’s take a look at some of the emerging F&B startups that are trying to disrupt the Indian market. 

The list below is not meant to be a ranking of any kind. We have listed the Indian F&B startups in alphabetical order.

F&B D2C Brands Reshaping Indian Consumer Market

Burger Singh

• Founded In: 2014
• Founders: Nitin Rana, Rahul Seth
• Funding Raised To Date: INR 30 Cr + undisclosed
• Investors:  RB Investments, Rukam Capital, KCT Family Office and V.M. SALGAOCAR family office
• Headquarters: Gurugram

Established in 2014 by Kabir Jeet Singh, Nitin Rana, and Rahul Seth, Burger Singh is a Gurugram-based quick-service restaurant (QSR) chain.

In 2019, the company secured an undisclosed amount of funding from RB Investments, based in Singapore. Subsequently, in 2022, Burger Singh successfully raised INR 30 crore in a Series A funding round. The round was led by Negen Capital, accompanied by Lets Ventures, Mumbai Angels, Old World Hospitality, and musician Jasleen Royal.

Following the fundraising in 2022, the fast-food chain announced its plan to utilise the funds for opening 120 new food outlets by the end of FY23.

As of July 2022, Burger Singh boasted more than 80 exclusive food outlets and 12 franchisees across various locations in India.

In the competitive QSR industry, Burger Singh faces competition from well-known brands such as Burger King, McDonald’s, Subway, Domino’s, and KFC.

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Chaayos 

• Founded In: 2012
• Founders: Nitin Saluja, Raghav Verma 
• Funding Raised To Date: $98 Mn
• Investors: Alpha Wave Ventures, Elevation Capital, Think Investments, Tiger Global, Integrated Capital, SAIF Partners, InnoVen Capital, Pactolus, Sachin Shukla, Bhavish Aggarwal, Ankit Bhati
• Headquarters: Delhi

F&B brand Chaayos sells multiple types of teas and pre-packaged food products via offline and online marketplaces. The startup uses new-age technologies such as artificial intelligence and IoT. 

Earlier, it had shared that its online tea deliveries account for 45% of its revenue. It operates 190 retail outlets across six Indian cities. 

In June last year, it secured $53 Mn in its Series C funding to develop tech infrastructure and expand its presence. 

Its cap table includes Alpha Wave Ventures, Elevation Capital, Think Investments, Tiger Global, SAIF Partners, InnoVen Capital, Pactolus, and  Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, among others. 

It had plans to set up 100 more retail outlets by the end of 2022. 

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Coolberg 

• Founded In: 2016
• Founders: Pankaj Aswani, Yashika Keswani
• Funding Raised To Date: $3.5 Mn
• Investors: RB Investments, India Quotient, Ashish Goenka, Indian Angel Network
• Headquarters: Mumbai

Coolberg is a non-alcoholic beverage brand. It offers non-alcoholic beers in seven flavours – cranberry, peach, ginger, malt, strawberry, mint, and cranberry. 

Coolberg sells non-alcoholic beers via its website and offline distribution channels. Currently, it has a presence in India, Africa, Maldives, Bhutan, and Nepal. 

Yashika Keswani, cofounder of Coolberg, had earlier said, “The Indian beverage market is witnessing an interesting transformation with an increased demand for new flavours. All our variants are unique, refreshing and new to the market. Our R&D team is strong and keeps a close eye on consumer needs.”

In 2019, Coolberg raised $3.5 Mn in its Series A funding round from RB Investments, India Quotient, Ashish Goenka from Suashish Diamonds, and Indian Angel Network. Prior to that, it bagged an undisclosed sum from India Quotient and Indian Angel Network’s maiden fund.

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Dogsee Chew

• Founded In: 2015
• Founders:  Bhupendra Khanal, Sneh Sharma 
• Funding Raised To Date: $13.9 Mn  
• Investors: Mankind Pharma, Sixth Sense Ventures
• Headquarters: Bengaluru

Dogsee Chew offers vegetarian dog treats that are natural, human-grade, and protein-rich. These treats are made from yak milk cheese by residents of villages in Nepal, Sikkim, and Darjeeling. 

Earlier this year, the startup secured $6.7 Mn in its Series A funding round from Mankind Pharma and Sixth Sense Ventures.

In November 2021, it got $7 Mn in its pre-Series A funding round from Sixth Sense Ventures. Currently, it has a presence in over 30 countries. 

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DropKaffe

• Founded In: 2019
• Founders: Rakshit Kejriwal, Lakshmi Dasaka, Chaitanya Chitta  
• Funding Raised To Date: $1.7 Mn 
• Investors: Fireside Ventures, Brigade Group, GrowthStory, Sidharth Pansari, Nirupa Shankar, Hitesh Oberoi, Kanwaljit Singh, Apurva Salarpuria, Manish Singhal P39 Capital
• Headquarters: Bengaluru

Beverage startup DropKaffe sells ready-to-drink cold coffee, fresh coffee beans, coffee powders, and gourmet foods under the brand SLAY Coffee through its website and cafe chains.

According to its LinkedIn page, the startup has a presence in over 160 locations across 19 Indian cities.

In 2016, its parent company raised $550K in a funding round led by Fireside Ventures’ Kanwaljit Singh. Srini Anumolu & Meena Ganesh of GrowthStory, Apurva Salarpuria from Salarpuria Group, Sidharth Pansari from Primac, Rahul Gidwani, Hitesh Oberoi from Naukri, Nirupa Shankar from Brigade Group, and Bhupen Shah also participated in the round. 

The venture claims to serve more than 500K customers across 20 cities across the country.

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Eat Better

• Founded In: 2020
• Founders: Mridula Kanoria, Shaurya Kanoria  
• Funding Raised To Date:  $725K
• Investors: Java Capital, Mumbai Angels, Shiprocket Ventures, CapierCapital, Plan B Capital, Harpreet Grover, Arjun Vaidya, Bhavik Vasa, Radhika Ghai, Vishesh Khurana, Bimal Kartheek Rebba, Ishank Joshi, Venus Dhuria, and Divij Bajaj
• Headquarters: Jaipur

Organic food startup Eat Better sells healthy snacks such as coffee and almond laddoos, hazelnut chocolate laddoos, and vanilla, and cacao laddoos, among others, through its website and other ecommerce platforms. 

The startup has a manufacturing facility in Jaipur and manages a base of over 50 female employees.

In March 2022, it secured INR 5.5 Cr seed funding to strengthen its team, expand offerings and develop marketing and distribution channels. 

A slew of investors, including Java Capital, Mumbai Angels, Shiprocket Ventures, CapierCapital and Plan B Capital, participated in the funding round.

Earlier, it claimed to have reported over 10x growth in revenues between October 2020 and March 2022.

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Happilo 

• Founded In: 2016
• Founders: Vikas Nahar
• Funding Raised To Date: $38 Mn
• Investors: Motilal Oswal Private Equity, A91 Partners
• Headquarters: Bengaluru

Happilo is a healthy snack brand that offers nuts, dried fruits, seeds and dry roasted snacks. It has a manufacturing unit at Yeshwantpur, Bengaluru. It follows an omnichannel approach to sell its products across the country. 

Happilo’s products are non-GMO verified, gluten-free, vegan and fat-free. The startup offers EMI options to customers if they cannot pay for products at once. 

In February, Happilo raised $25 Mn from Motilal Oswal Private Equity to expand its business and offerings, and acquire other firms. Prior to this, it secured $13 Mn from A91 Partners. 

It has grown over 4X in the last 24 months and is aiming to clock revenue of INR 2,000 Cr in the next four years.

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iD Fresh Food

• Founded In: 2005
• Founders: PC Musthafa, Abdul Nazer, Shamsudeen TK, Jafar, Noushad TA
• Funding Raised To Date: $104 Mn
• Investors: NewQuest Capital Partner, Premji Invest, Sequoia Capital, Helion Ventures, Azim Premji
• Headquarters: Bengaluru

iD Fresh Food sells ready-to-make food such as dosa and idli batter, rice rava idli batter, among others, in domestic and international markets. 

It has a presence in over 45 cities across the globe including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad and Dubai, among others.

Recently, the Bengaluru-based D2C startup announced its seventh round of ESOPs worth INR 46 Cr for 27 employees.  

“In the coming months, we are excited to augment our 2,000+ workforce as we explore new markets and continue to create new opportunities for a diverse set of professionals, while actively creating a more inclusive workplace,” Musthafa said while announcing the ESOPs.

In January, the startup secured $68 Mn in its Series D funding round from NewQuest Capital Partner and Premji Invest. It has raised $104 Mn so far from individual and institutional investors. 

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Jade Forest

• Founded In: 2019
• Founders: Shuchir Suri, Punweet Singh
• Funding Raised To Date: $1.25 Mn
• Investors: Mumbai Angels Network, Gaurav Kapur, Rohan Abbas, Ashish Tulsian, AngelList India 
• Headquarters: Delhi 

Jade Forest offers a slew of non-alcoholic beverages to customers via its website, ecommerce marketplaces and last-mile delivery platforms. Its products are priced between INR 80 and INR 85.

In 2021, it secured $1 Mn from Mumbai Angels Network. Prior to this, it secured $250,000 in its seed funding round from angel investors such as Gaurav Kapur, Rohan Abbas, Ashish Tulsian, and AngelList India. 

Its products are certified by the US FDA. In the last two years, it has expanded to 23 Indian cities.

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Jimmy’s Cocktails

• Founded In: 2019
• Founders: Ankur Bhatia and Nitin Bhardwaj  
• Funding Raised To Date: $2.4 Mn
• Investors: Roots Ventures, 7Square Ventures, Vishesh Khurana, Varun Alagh, Keki Mistry, Vidur Talwar, Anirudh Somani, Vinay Agarwal, Ankur Bhatia, Mirza Baig, Ekcle Ventures, Angad Bhatia
• Headquarters: Gurugram

Jimmy’s Cocktails offers a slew of cocktail mixers including gin cherry sour, bloody mary, lime margarita, and mango chili mojito, among others. 

In April, Jimmy’s Cocktails secured $1.8 Mn in its pre-Series A funding round from investors such as Roots Ventures, 7Square Ventures, Vishesh Khurana from Ship Rocket, Varun Alagh from Mama Earth, Keki Mistry from HDFC, among others. 

The startup had then said that it sold over 6 Mn cocktails in the first three months of 2022. 

In the financial year 2021-22, it posted a 3X revenue growth. About 40% of its revenue came from Tier 2, 3 cities.

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Kapiva Ayurveda

• Founded In: 2015
• Founders: Ameve Sharma, Shrey Badhani
• Funding Raised To Date:  $15.77 Mn
• Investors:Vertex Ventures, Fireside Ventures, 3one4 Capital
• Headquarters: Mumbai 

Kapiva Ayurveda offers a slew of ayurvedic products for building immunity, improving digestion, strengthening the body and controlling diabetes, among others. 

In October 2021, it got an undisclosed amount of funding from Bollywood actor Malaika Arora, and also made her its brand ambassador.

The startup’s revenue stood at INR 40 Cr in the financial year 2020-21. It claims to have sold over 8 Lakh ayurvedic products since its launch and has a user base of 3.5 Lakh.

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Lahori

• Founded In: 2017
• Founders: Saurabh Munjal, Saurabh Bhutna, Nikhil Doda
• Funding Raised To Date: $15 Mn
• Investors: Verlinvest
• Headquarters: Punjab

Lahori offers traditional Indian beverages across the country. Currently, it offers Indian drinks in four flavours – Zeera (cumin), Nimboo (lemon), Kacha Aam (raw mango) and Shikanji (lemonade). 

Lahori’s parent company, Archian Foods, manufactures nearly 1 Mn bottles in its fully-automated manufacturing facility, which is spread across 1,50,000 sq ft. Its manufacturing unit is accredited by FSSAI, ISI, HACCP, RoHS and Make In India (offered by GeM). 

In January, Belgium-based Verlinvest infused $15 Mn in Lahori in exchange for a minority stake.

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Licious 

• Founded In: 2015
• Founders: Abhay Hanjura, Vivek Gupta 
• Funding Raised To Date: $360 Mn
• Investors: Amansa Capital, Kotak PE, Axis Growth Avenues AIF – I, Nithin Kamath, Nikhil Kamath, Aman Gupta, Haresh Chawla, Temasek, Brunei Investment Agency, 3one4 Capital, Bertelsmann India Investments, Vertex Growth Fund, and Vertex Ventures
• Headquarters: Bengaluru

Licious offers a host of meat and seafood including prawns, kebabs and mutton, among others. Besides, it also offers an end-to-end supply chain of products that it sells to customers, right from their procurement to processing to delivery. 

In March, the foodtech unicorn secured $150 Mn from Amansa Capital, Kotak PE, Axis Growth Avenues AIF – I, Nithin and Nikhil Kamath of Zerodha, boAt’s Aman Gupta and Haresh Chawla from True North. 

Prior to this, it raised $52 Mn in October 2021. In the financial year 2020-21, it had an annual revenue rate of INR 1,000 Cr and operations in 14 Indian cities. Its customer base stood at over 2 Mn in the fiscal year 2020-21.

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MasterChow

• Founded In: 2020
• Founders: Vidur Kataria, Sidhanth Mada
• Funding Raised To Date: $1.6 Mn
• Investors: Anicut Capital, WEH ventures, Fluid ventures 
• Headquarters: Delhi

D2C brand MasterChow offers ready-to-cook noodles, dipping sauces, and sticky rice, among others. 

In May, MasterChow raised $1.2 Mn from Anicut Capital, WEH ventures and Fluid ventures.

Prior to this, it had raised around $462K in its seed funding round from WEH Ventures and some angel investors. The startup had then claimed that it grew 10x over the previous 12 months and shipped products to over 17,000 pin codes across India.

Currently, it has 25 employees, and is looking to increase its corporate team size over the next 12 months.

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Namhya Foods

• Founded In: 2019
• Founders: Ridhima Arora
• Funding Raised To Date: Undisclosed
• Investors: Aman Gupta 
• Headquarters: Jammu

Headquartered in Jammu, Namhya Foods specialises in snacks and beverages made from Indian herbs and natural ingredients.

The startup was established in 2019 by Ridhima Arora. In order to secure funding, she participated in Shark Tank India’s inaugural season and successfully secured INR 50 Lakh against a 10% equity. Additionally, she obtained an additional INR 50 Lakh in debt funding from Aman Gupta, the co-founder of boAt.

Namhya Foods positions itself as a provider of nourishing food products designed to assist individuals with various health conditions such as diabetes, heart issues, blood pressure, cholesterol, thyroid problems, as well as cold and chest congestion. The company offers a diverse range of products.

In addition to its presence in India, Namhya Foods operates in the United States and has plans to expand into the UAE, Australia, and Canada.

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Nourish You

• Founded In: 2015
• Founders: Rakesh Kilaru, Krishna Reddy, Sowmya Reddy
• Funding Raised To Date: $2 Mn
• Investors: Y Janardhana Rao, Rohit Chennamaneni, Nikhil Kamath, Abhijeet Pai, Abhinay Bollineni
• Headquarters: Hyderabad

Nourish You sells nutrient-rich breakfast food products and snacks to consumers via its website and ecommerce marketplaces, including Flipkart, BigBasket, and Amazon, among others. 

Besides selling products directly to the consumers, the startup exports food items to countries like Singapore, Nepal, Kenya, Dubai, Mongolia and Maldives. Some of its products are quinoa flour, chocolate & banana muesli, and cranberry walnut mix. 

Earlier, the startup shared that it had 5,000 acres of quinoa and chia farms in Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh. 

In January 2023, it secured $2 Mn in seed funding for research and development activities, brand marketing and fortifying its distribution and market presence. 

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Paper Boat

• Founded In: 2010 
• Founders: Neeraj Kakkar, Niraj Biyani
• Funding Raised To Date: INR 458 Cr 
• Investors: Sequoia Capital, Hillhouse Capital Group, GIC, Advent International, Trifecta Capital, Sofina SA, A91 Partners, Catamaran, Footprint Ventures
• Headquarters: Gurugram

Paper Boat sells a slew of fruit-based drinks in Indian flavours including aam panna (raw mango), rose tamarind (tamarind juice), chili guava (guava juice), jaljeera (spicy, tangy lemonade), among others.

In August, the startup raised $50.1 Mn funding from GIC-owned sovereign fund Lathe Investment Pte Ltd.

During that time frame, it used to have a presence in metro, Tier-2 cities and beyond. In the fiscal year 2021-22, it posted revenue at INR 243 Cr, whilst its losses stood at INR 64 Cr. Meanwhile, in the fiscal year ending March 2020, it clocked revenue at INR 231 Cr and losses at INR 100 Cr, according to Tofler.

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Samosa Singh

• Founded In: 2016
• Founders: Nidhi Singh, Shikhar Veer Singh
• Funding Raised To Date: $2.7 Mn
• Investors: Fireside Ventures, AL Trust, AET Fund, She Capital, Equanimity Investments, ANME
• Headquarters: Bengaluru

Food snack brand Samosa Singh sells Indian food snacks such as aaloo samosa, kachori, pani puri, and matar kulcha, among others, to its customers via cloud kitchens and kiosks.

It had earlier shared that its manufacturing unit holds the capacity to produce 25K food items on a daily basis.

In 2020, the startup secured $2.7 Mn (INR 17 Cr) in a Series A funding round to develop the capacity of its Bengaluru-based central kitchen. The round was led by She Capital.

As of March 2020, it had a presence in over 25 locations in Hyderabad and Bengaluru. It claims to have set up 100 cloud kitchens in prime cities of South India.

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Slurrp Farm 

• Founded In: 2016
• Founders: Meghana Narayan, Shauravi Malik
• Funding Raised To Date: $9 Mn
• Investors: Anushka Sharma, Investment Corporation of Dubai, Fireside Ventures
• Headquarters: Delhi

Slurrp Farm is a children-focussed healthy snack brand. It offers a variety of cereals, milk mixes and snacks such as ready-to-mix pancakes, cakes, dosas, noodles and pastas, among others. For first-time users, it offers these products in trial packs. 

Slurrp Farm’s parent, Wholsum Foods, sells the products via its website and ecommerce marketplaces. Currently, it has a presence in India, the UAE, the US, and the UK. 

In the financial year 2021-22, it reported over INR 50 Cr annual revenue rate (ARR) and witnessed a 10X growth between June 2020 and December 2021. It further aims to achieve a revenue of INR 500 Cr by 2025.

In April, Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma backed Slurrp Farm. Prior to this deal, the D2C brand raised $7 Mn from Investment Corporation of Dubai and Fireside Ventures and also bagged $2 Mn in Series A round from Fireside Ventures.

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Storia

• Founded In: 2017
• Founders: Vishal Shah
• Funding Raised To Date: $6 Mn 
• Investors: Sixth Sense Ventures
• Headquarters: Mumbai

Storia offers a range of processed fruit juices, coconut water, shakes and beverage whitener to customers. 

In 2021, it raised $6 Mn in its Series A funding from Sixth Sense Ventures. It currently has a presence in 33 Indian cities via its 50K retail outlets.

At the time of the announcement of its Series A funding round, the startup said it planned to launch new offerings, expand its distribution network and foray into packaged food. 

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TagZ Foods

• Founded In: June 2019
• Founders: Anish Basu Roy, Sagar Bhalotia 
• Funding Raised To Date: $1.5 Mn 
• Investors: 9Unicorns, Umang Bedi, Venture Catalysts, Dexter Angels, Agility Ventures, Arjun Vaidya, Dharamveer Chouhan, Ashneer Grover, Namitha Thapar
• Headquarters: Bengaluru

TagZ manufactures and sells chips, chocolates, dips and chees dribblin, among others. It recently also pitched investors on television show Shark Tank India. 

It also raised money via a consumer stock option plan (CSOP), where it offered equity to customers for investing a minimum of INR 5,000. The CSOP was oversubscribed by 250%. 

Prior to this, it raised an undisclosed amount of investment in its pre-Series A funding round from Venture Catalysts, Zostel’s Dharamveer Chouhan, The Pant Project’s Dhruv Toshniwal, and Loy Halder from Goldman Sachs, among others. 

In the financial year 2021-22, its revenue stood at INR 15 Cr. The startup claims to have served over 30 Mn consumers and sold over 50 Mn chips packets since its inception.  

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TenderCuts

• Founded In: 2016
• Founders: Nishanth Chandran
• Funding Raised To Date: $19 Mn
• Investors: Stride Ventures, Paragon Partners, Nabventures 
• Headquarters: Chennai 

D2C brand TenderCuts offers meat and seafood products including chicken, mutton, seafood, marinades, pickles, and eggs and ready-to-cook products such as cold cuts, sausages, kebabs, and shawarmas, etc.

In 2021, it secured approximately $4 Mn in a debt funding round from Stride Ventures. Prior to this, it raised $15 Mn from Paragon Partners and Nabventures and closed a seed funding round worth $759K in 2017. 

It follows an omnichannel marketing strategy and has been serving customers across Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore via its 50 retail stores. 

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The Filling Station

• Founded In: 2021
• Founders: Mahua Ghosh, Suvankar Ghosh
• Funding Raised To Date: Undisclosed 
• Investors: NA (Not Available)
• Headquarters: Mumbai 

Healthy food snack startup The Filling Station sells nutrient-rich laddoos, oil-free snacks, and nutrient-rich spreads, among others, via its website and ecommerce marketplaces such as Amazon and Flipkart.

It uses ingredients such as palm, oats, makhana, seeds, nuts and date fruit in their snacks. 

Its cofounder Mahua Ghosh holds 11 years of experience in the food industry. She has previously worked with many fast food joints, cloud kitchens and retail brands. The venture is recognised by the Centre’s initiative, Startup India, according to the website.

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The Whole Truth

• Founded In: 2019
• Founders:  Shashank Mehta
• Funding Raised To Date: $6 Mn
• Investors: Sequoia Capital India, Matrix Partners India, Sauce.vc, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Sujeet Kumar, Ashneer Grover, Shashvat Nakrani
• Headquarters: Mumbai 

The Whole Truth sells dark chocolate, muesli, protein bars, nut butters and energy bars via its website and other ecommerce marketplaces.

In July, the D2C snack brand secured $6 Mn in its Series A funding round from Sequoia Capital India, Matrix Partners India, Sauce.vc, Flipkart’s Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Udaan’s Sujeet Kumar, Ashneer Grover and Shashvat Nakrani.

The startup had then claimed that it had grown 12x in the last 18 months. Besides, The Whole Truth said it receives 50% of its sales via its website and the rest from ecommerce marketplaces. 

As of now, it is aiming to clock an ARR of INR 90 Cr to INR 100 Cr by 2023.

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Troo Good

• Founded In: 2018
• Founders: Raju Bhupati 
• Funding Raised To Date: $7.4 Mn 
• Investors: OAKS Asset Management
• Headquarters: Hyderabad

Troo Good offers a slew of millet, peanut, chocolate, and dry fruits snack bars and mixtures. In the year of its inception, it clocked a revenue of INR 12 Cr, while in 2019, it posted a revenue of INR 24 Cr. The startup claims that it is currently profitable before tax. 

In November 2021, Troo Good secured a funding of $7.4 Mn from OAKS Asset Management to expand its business in the domestic market. 

Furthermore, the startup claims that it is on path to cross INR 100 Cr revenue mark in the next 18 months. 

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True Elements 

• Founded In: 2013 
• Founders: Puru Gupta and Sreejith Moolayil
• Funding Raised To Date: $2 Mn
• Investors: Marico, Maharashtra State Social Venture Fund
• Headquarters: Bengaluru 

True Elements offers millets, grains, and seeds-based breakfast and snack foods. It follows an omnichannel marketing strategy, selling products via its website, ecommerce marketplaces and brick-and-mortar stores. 

In May, consumer company Marico acquired a 53.98% stake in True Elements’ parent HW Wellness Solutions for an undisclosed sum. Prior to this, True Elements secured INR 10 Cr from Maharashtra State Social Venture Fund last year. 

In the financial year 2021-22, it recorded sales of over INR 54.3 Cr as compared to INR 36.3 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

Currently, it sells over 70 products and more than 200 stock-keeping units (SKUs) across 12,000 retail outlets in India. It claims to earn over 75% of its revenue from online distribution channels.

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Twigly

• Founded In: 2015
• Founders: Sonal Minhas, Rohan Dayal, Naresh Kumar Kachhi
• Funding Raised To Date: $800K 
• Investors: Tracxn Labs, Hyderabad Angels, Kunal Shah, Aditya Verma, Gaurav Bhalotia, Amit Gupta, Sahil Barua, Mukul Singhal 
• Headquarters: Gurugram 

Twigly provides freshly cooked food at consumers’ doorstep via its website and mobile app. It currently delivers orders in Delhi NCR. Some of its products are burgers, pasta, grill platters, desserts, and various types of beverages. 

According to its founders, the startup is modelled on San Francisco-based food delivery startup Sprig, which used to offer freshly cooked meals to its consumers. The startup closed down its operations in 2017. 

In September 2018, Twigly was acquired by its competitor for an undisclosed amount.

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Vahdam India

• Founded In: 2015
• Founders: Bala Sarda
• Funding Raised To Date: $62.3 Mn
• Investors: Sixth Sense Ventures, IIFL, Mankind Group Family Office, SAR Group Family Office, Kris Gopalakrishnan, IIFL Asset Management, White Whale Ventures, Urmin Group
• Headquarters: New Delhi 

Vahdam offers an assorted range of teas, including herbal, white, oolong and iced teas, among others in India and across the world. Its other offerings include teaware and instant lattes.  

In September 2021, the startup secured INR 174 Cr in its Series D Round led by IIFL AMC’s Private Equity Fund. Post the fundraising, it was valued at INR 700 Cr. 

Presently, the startup claims that it has a presence in more than 100 countries and also turned profitable in the fiscal year 2021 after clocking a net revenue of INR 160 Cr+.

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Wellbeing Nutrition

• Founded In: 2019
• Founders: Avnish Chhabria, Saurabh Kapoor 
• Funding Raised To Date: $10.7 Mn
• Investors: Rakulpreet Singh, Mira Kapoor, Fireside Ventures, HUL, etc.
• Headquarters: Mumbai

Founded in 2019, Wellbeing Nutrition is a direct-to-consumer (D2C) nutraceutical company based in Mumbai. Cofounded by Avnish Chhabria and Saurabh Kapoor, the startup specialises in offering healthy food products with a primary focus on women’s health.

The company’s product portfolio includes Melts, which are vitamin-based thin strips, Korean Marine for collagen, and Daily Fiber for plant-based prebiotic fiber, among others.

In December 2022, Wellbeing Nutrition secured $10 Mn (INR 85 crore) in its Series B funding round led by Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) and Fireside Ventures. HUL currently holds a 19.8% stake in the startup.

The company’s list of investors includes Bollywood actor Rakul Preet Singh, Mira Kapoor; Ashutosh Valani and Priyank Shah from RENEE Cosmetics, Nikhil Gandhi from MX Player, as well as Harsh Vardhan Bhandari and Jeenendra Bhandari, among others.

Wellbeing Nutrition operates in the D2C segment and faces competition from brands such as Power Gummies and Fast&Up.

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WickedGud

• Founded In: 2021
• Founders: Bhuman Dani, Soumalya Biswas, Monish Debnath 
• Funding Raised To Date: $1.34 Mn
• Investors: Mumbai Angels, NB Ventures, Dholakia Ventures, Jalaj Dani Family Office, Ashutosh Valani, Priyank Shah, Ravi Shroff, Ravi Nigam, Ashwini Deshpande, Jorge Fernandez Vidal, AkshayGurnani, Titan Capital, Archana Priyadarshini, Gaurav Ahuja, Amit Chaudhary, Aman Gupta, Sameer Mehta, Harsh Vakharia, Jorge Fernandez Vidal
• Headquarters: Mumbai 

WickedGud sells pasta, noodles, malted beverages and other snacks via its website and ecommerce marketplaces. According to its website, its products are wholly vegan and contain plant-based protein. 

In April, WickedGud secured $1 Mn from Mumbai Angels, NB Ventures, Dholakia Ventures, Jalaj Dani Family Office, Ashutosh Valani and Priyank Shah from Renee Cosmetics, Ravi Shroff from Excel Industries, Ravi Nigam from Tasty Bite, Ashwini Deshpande from Elephant Design, among others. 

Prior to this, it had secured $340K in its pre-seed funding round from Titan Capital, Archana Priyadarshini from Point One Capital, Gaurav Ahuja from Chrys Capital, Amit Chaudhary from Lenskart, among others. 

The startup targets customers in the 26-42 years age group and claims to have an average order value of INR 450.

This is a running article, we will keep adding more names to the list.

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Last updated on May 26, 2023

The post From Slurrp Farm To TagZ Foods: Here Are 30 F&B D2C Brands Reshaping Indian Consumer Market appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The world of smart wearables has evolved so quickly and seamlessly that few would think twice before ‘donning’ the technology – personal gadgets like smartwatches, fitness trackers, neckbands, headphones and more. They have blended into our everyday life and doubled the benefits of technology beyond pure convenience or entertainment without boundaries. 

For instance, smartwatches are no longer considered fancy upmarket devices but reliable health monitors, keeping track of vital signs that matter and sending us health-related reminders around the clock.

The rise in market demand has pushed the made-in-India boom, with homegrown brands like boAt, Noise, Fire-Boltt and Boult experiencing a never-before surge. 

Among these, Boult has moved from change to change, entering the earwear market with entry-level neckband models on Myntra and foraying into the sophisticated smartwatch segment in 2022. 

Incidentally, despite being a new entrant in the smartwatch segment, Boult stood fifth among Indian players like Fire-Boltt, Noise, boAT and Titan and grabbed a 3.2% market share in Q1 2023, a report by IDC stated. 

The report also indicated that the overall TWS category experienced a YoY growth of 97.4% in units shipped in 1Q 2023. boAT alone accounted for 30.6% of the market share in the TWS category, followed by Boult at 15.5%. However, Boult saw the highest YoY growth in units shipped in 1Q 2023 at 341.2%, followed by pTron at 248.3%. 

Of course, innovation and the latest tech are effective growth drivers. But in a price-sensitive market like India, consumers are mainly drawn towards brands that can combine quality and affordability. Here, domestic brands like Boult have also made a kill by offering products on par with global standards at significantly lower costs. 

Talking about the hearables and wearables market scenario, Varun Gupta, founder of Boult, said, “The hearables and wearables sector has witnessed tremendous growth in recent years, driven by tech advancements and the increasing demand for smart, connected devices. Consumers today look for products that not only deliver exceptional audio quality but also offer additional features such as fitness tracking, heart rate monitoring and voice assistants.”

Varun also acknowledged the role of AI/ML embedded in these gadgets for providing personalised experiences.

The bootstrapped D2C brand offers 100+ SKUs under five categories, including TWS, neckbands, headphones, speakers and smartwatches. Starting from INR 999, Boult’s ‘hearables’ cater to both audiophiles and gaming enthusiasts, while its multitasker smartwatches sport affordable price tags ranging between INR 1,199 and INR 2,999. The company claims to have sold 10 Mn units to date.

How Boult Is Upping The Game Across Audio, Wearables

Tech experts predict that the future will be ‘ear’, and industry behemoths like Apple, Google and Amazon are reportedly working on high-priority projects to blend traditional audio with smartphone-like utilities.

 Aware of the road ahead and the hardware likely to be mass-market hits, brothers Varun and Tarun Gupta launched Boult in 2017. The goal was to offer a diverse range of wireless audio devices with exceptional sound quality, innovative technology and appealing designs to create immersive listening experiences. 

Boult products were sold on popular ecommerce marketplaces like Amazon and Flipkart for easy access to huge swathes of customers. However, the founders aimed to broaden their online presence and establish themselves as a one-stop D2C (direct-to-customer) brand for hearables and wearables.   

As a business graduate, Tarun knew that in a fiercely competitive market brimming with global products from top technology companies, the biggest hurdle for a new brand was to differentiate itself. In other words, Boult must create a unique selling proposition to ‘disrupt’ the market. After some in-depth market research (Varun’s area of expertise, as he holds a marketing degree), the Guptas realised that Indian consumers wanted high-quality devices at affordable prices. 

The duo doubled down on in-house R&D, created proprietary tech and also embedded third-party offerings to develop cost-effective solutions to bring down prices and enhance device efficiency.

For instance, Boult’s fast-charging technology (Lightning) for the audio range lasts up to 36-48 hours on a single charge, depending on the model and the usage. Additionally, a quick 10-minute charge ensures enough juice for 100 minutes or so. Overall, its (wireless) earbuds guarantee an immersive gaming experience through effective noise cancellation, ultra-low latency of 45 milliseconds and an integrated mic for seamless communication. The brand also claims it uses lightweight batteries for fast charging, thus reducing device weight and overall cost.  

Varun mentioned on his LinkedIn that the idea of the fast-charging across devices popped up in his mind when he overheard a conversation at the Delhi airport in 2021. Two students near a charging pod were grumbling that they only had 10 minutes to spare, which meant their sparsely charged cell phone batteries would not last the entire flight. It got him thinking, and he decided to create the tech for users’ convenience.  

But the brothers wanted to go beyond amplifying music and gaming experiences. So, five years after Boult’s launch, they forayed into the smartwatch space and integrated a comprehensive health monitoring system with their wearables range. 

With a Boult smartwatch, users can monitor heart rates 24×7, measure blood oxygen and blood pressure, access sleep data, track steps and menstrual cycles, and set up several reminders to enhance their well-being. Additionally, one can make and receive calls using Bluetooth, save contacts and see dialled numbers on display. Some of the top-rated models also feature multi-sport modes for enthusiasts.

Boult leverages Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity to turn the data collected from the device into actionable feedback, insights and guidance. 

Varun says that 90% of devices are manufactured in India in Boult’s own Delhi-based manufacturing plant as well as a third-party plant.

Its website also provides informative blog posts on products, tech features and usage, enables online commerce and lists daily deals.

Democratising Hearables With Simpl

Customer-centricity lies at the core of Boult’s USP, and the founders have gone all out to make their products pocket-friendly for consumers across Tier 2 and 3 locations. But its focus on the larger Bharat market is not surprising, as Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities account for 26% and 49% of Boult’s revenue, respectively, while the rest comes from Tier 1 markets. 

To drive sales further, the D2C brand has joined hands with Simpl, a fintech soonicorn and one-click checkout network with more than 26K+ merchant partners. 

Many of Boult’s customers, especially from Tier 2 cities and beyond, opt for Simpl’s pay-in-three option to buy its products. Varun claimed that Simpl’s hassle-free payment has helped buyers make high ticket purchases with ease. 

Varun also stated that Simpl’s solutions enhance the experience for the brand’s users as the fintech’s one-tap checkout enables registered users to click and pay without re-entering shipping details, often a cumbersome process. Moreover, multiple payment options (cards, UPI, pay-in-3, pay later and more) can help lower RTO (return to origin) rates as users are no longer plagued by the unavailability of cash during CoD transactions. Boult collaborated with Simpl in October, 2022.

Additionally, by leveraging its own social media channels and app, Simpl aided in driving traffic on Boult’s website by offering heavy discounts during festivities and special occasions. Simpl claims to have increased Boult’s prepaid orders by 20% during one of these sales. It also claimed to have increased Boult’s prepaid orders from 60% to 80%.  

When asked about the partnership, Nitya Sharma, founder of Simpl said, “Boult has emerged as a popular brand among Indian youth, and its focus on affordability and quality has paid rich dividends. This also aligns with Simpl’s ideology, as we aim to provide customers with easy access to high-ticket products. By partnering with us, Boult has seen an increase in conversion rate and top line.”

The Growth Trajectory And The Road Ahead

Boult is working on expanding its hearable and wearable product lines and entering the UK, the US and the EU markets by 2023 to position itself as a global brand. But this is not a runaway ambition, as many would think.

Consider this. When India became the biggest smartwatch market in Q3 2022, homegrown brands like boAt, Noise and Fire-Boltt entered the wearable technology race, eyeing a global market likely to exceed $97.5 Bn by 2028. The country has also demonstrated steady growth in the smart personal audio segment, and Indian D2C brands are keen to expand overseas to leverage this opportunity. The market for wireless audio devices is expected to grow at a CAGR of 18.8% and globally reach $195 Bn by 2027, driven by the growing demand for smart infotainment.

At home, the scenario is equally heartening. According to an IDC report, local brands Noise, Fire-Boltt and boAt topped the smartwatch list by market share in CY22, pushing global giant Samsung to a nondescript fourth. Again, in the TWS space, boAt, Noise and Boult Audio held the top three slots last year. Industry experts expect this trend to continue as Indian startups bring better tech innovations even to entry-level products and keep the prices down.

To leverage the local markets further, Boult has gone one step ahead of many peers still stuck in Tier 1 cities for high-value growth. It explores the mass markets beyond to discover their product followings and preferences. The brand has reached out to regional influencers on social platforms and tapped into local languages, cultures and communities, as these resonate well with local audiences and help create engagement at a more granular level.

Boult also opted for celebrity endorsements, signing Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan and cricketer Suryakumar Yadav as brand ambassadors last year for a larger impact. The idea is to reach out to all customer demographics – national, regional and beyond. The startup is eyeing the O2O (online-to-offline) business model to expand its sales funnels.

In addition, it is pushing its omnichannel initiatives (online-offline integration) for seamless growth. “Connecting with consumers at every touchpoint, personalising their journey and mapping their needs to innovate and create products is critical to our business,” said Varun. 

“Powered by the data and analytics derived from such interactions, we will work towards more breakthrough technologies with every device we launch,” said Varun. 

Currently, 13% of Boult’s revenue comes from its website, while ecommerce marketplaces account for 84% of its earnings. Recently, the startup added a customer friendly login module on its website and will add more video content to it. In the coming years, Boult will leverage the omnichannel approach to tap offline sales.

What is the way ahead for Boult? 

If the future is all about user-friendly hearables and wearables (imagine in-ear computers trashing our much-pampered smartphones or an on-the-wrist fitness-cum diagnostic centre providing constant care), the impact will be dramatic.

Varun said that in the coming years, Boult will focus on creating a complete IoT ecosystem by adding IoT sensors to its devices to personalise customer journeys. For instance, customers’ phones will be able to connect with Boult smartwatches without a bluetooth feature. This will enable them to pick calls and control the music using the Boult smartwatches. 

And it will be a lucrative business opportunity for all tech-focussed D2C brands exploring and embracing innovation. The only worry: How prepared the Indian startup community is to lock horns with big tech. When Apple and its ilk are in contention, their Indian counterparts must create a unique playbook to help them stay ahead of the curve

The post How D2C Brand Boult Is Carving Its Niche In India’s Audio Market appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The aggressive growth of D2C (direct-to-consumer) brands in India during 2020-2022 was fuelled by several factors. With a penchant for product discovery, combined with the rising demand for doorstep deliveries in Covid times and people’s desire to stay connected with the brands, the Indian D2C market is estimated to surpass $100 Bn in 2025, growing at a CAGR of 25%, according to an Inc42 analysis.

Given this market outlook, it is easy to understand which direction the D2C ecommerce players took when fierce strategy debates on profitability versus no-holds-barred growth erupted time and again.

Vedang Patel, Aditya Sharma, Harsh Lal and Rohin Samtaney, founders of the omnichannel lifestyle D2C brand The Souled Store, could not overcome the allure of rapid growth, either. They adopted an omnichannel approach for maximum reach, floated high discounts, did some expensive hiring and increased the marketing budget. But these resulted in a high cash burn.

The Souled Store started as an algo-driven business using data to identify trends, designs and product-market fit. It was run from a friend’s place, earned revenues from Day 1 and remained bootstrapped for five years with an initial capital of INR 5.25 Lakh in its kitty. More interestingly, the D2C brand was profitable for six consecutive years.

But the hurry to grow at any cost landed the founders in deep trouble. Despite the near-2x rise in operating revenue (cash flow from the primary business), the startup slumped to a net loss of INR 26.72 Cr in FY22, a 52x YoY fall from INR 51.27 Lakh net profit, at a negative EBITDA margin of 10%, Patel told Inc42 during a recent interaction.

“It was a big mistake. We have very supportive investors, but we got influenced by the ecosystem pressure. All startups were burning cash and growing and raising more money. So, you start to think that’s the right way [to do business],” he added.

The founders had to balance, almost on a razor edge, and returned to the drawing board to rethink and rework their operations. And The Souled Store was back on track after six to eight months of hard work.

According to Patel, the startup has hit an annual revenue run rate (ARR) of INR 400 Cr (in GMV) for the current financial year. He claimed a 2% positive EBITDA margin for FY23, while the startup eyes a 15% EBITDA margin for FY24. It has 5 Mn registered app users and aims to cross INR 1K Cr in GMV in the next three years.

Despite the ongoing funding winter, the D2C brand recently raised INR 135 Cr in a strategic round led by Xponentia Capital. Existing investors Elevation Capital and RPSG Capital also took part in this round.

In a candid one-to-one with Inc42, Patel revealed the D2C brand’s 360-degree turnaround story, the strategies implemented and the key lessons learnt from past mistakes.

Cash Burn Will Not Ensure Profitability

The Souled Store raised its first funding worth $3 Mn in November 2018. That’s when the founders increased product prices every three-four months to cope with the growing demand, recalled Patel. Meanwhile, marketplaces like Amazon and Myntra used to offer steep discounts.

“We kept increasing the prices, and marketplaces kept decreasing them. It looked like a missed opportunity [as we could not scale fast enough]. We decided to secure funding to fund our growth because our profits were not enough to support the kind of expansion the company needed.”

The D2C brand raised another $10 Mn in a Series B round from Elevation Capital in 2021. Flush with cash, the trio decided to raise the bar this time. Their advertising budget shot up 3x. They nearly doubled their employee benefit expenses and tripled travel and repair costs.

And then the company culture went awry. Profitability and accountability (taking complete ownership, according to Patel) were deeply ingrained in the company’s DNA. But with losses piling up, aligning everyone with the big picture became difficult.

“We rectified it, though. FY23 ended on a positive note, and we grew by 70-80% even after stopping aggressive marketing and reducing discounts from 20% to 7% max. I realised that business growth doesn’t have much to do with the burn. Also, growth and profitability are not necessarily different, and both can happen simultaneously,” said Patel.

Influencer Marketing Is Not For Everyone

The Souled Store started in 2014 as a branded merchandise specialist but diversified into casual wear, athleisure, loungewear, footwear and bags in the past few years. It currently holds licensing agreements for branded merchandise featuring 300+ characters from Disney, Warner Bros, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), the Indian Premier League (IPL), the English Premier League (EPL) and more.

The founders also decided to spend a major chunk of their advertising budget on influencer marketing in FY22. But after spending about $1 Mn (INR 8 Cr+), they realised this kind of promotion did not work for their product range.

The reason? Initially, shoppers at The Souled Store came to purchase ‘fandom’ casual wear, say, a Batman or Spiderman Tee, said Patel. But soon, they started buying non-fandom items due to their superior quality.

“I would say pop culture is the design language, and people are now buying us for our quality of clothes, not fandom. More than 40% of our products are not related to fandoms. For example, our best-sellers throughout the year are plain T-shirts in solid colours,” he added.

“Moreover, influencers do a good job but just think of this. They wear your black T-shirt and dance with a girl in the video. While the audience ogles the girl, the product gets lost. It is a big waste of money,” he said.

Patel emphasised that the main thing about branding is the long-term impact, and expenses should be able to justify things from that perspective.

“Instead of influencer marketing, which was quite expensive, an email survey on brand awareness/recall would have helped us more. That was another thing we learnt.”

Repeat Customers Matter Most

As the focus was more on growth in FY22, the founders pushed customer acquisition rather than retention. “Our user base continued to increase, but we lost many repeat customers on the way,” recalled Patel.

He did not share the drop rate of repeat customers during this period. But in the next fiscal (FY23), the D2C brand once again focussed on building great quality products, which would result in lower returns and a rise in repeat purchases.

The startup also maintains a strong feedback funnel. Every time a new product is launched, its return rates are checked every three to four months. Most customers get a call from the company to understand their reasons for returning an item so that necessary changes can be incorporated into the upcoming batches.

“Today, we have a one-digit return rate against 40-50% seen by Myntra and others. And the discard rate (for products) is less than 1%. We have a stabilised CAC (customer acquisition cost) of around INR 100 per order and a repeat rate of 130% a year, which are extremely competitive as per current industry standards. Your repeat rate needs to be more than 100%. If not, something is very wrong with the business,” said Patel.

Build Your Brand Well Before Selling On Other Channels

The Souled Store is one of the few pure-play D2C brands with a first-mover advantage. The founders spent INR 20K in 2014 to set up a dedicated website for online transactions, and 100% of the revenue came from that site for nearly five years. They started selling on Amazon only in 2019, and their offline stores became operational in the same year.

“Our intent was clear. Being pop culture fans, we wanted to celebrate fandom and make people aware of our brand. We didn’t want to focus solely on sales because you can’t make a hard sale in this category. A community cannot be built through marketing. It must uphold shared values, and brands must have genuine engagement with the audience,” said Patel.

Today, the startup earns most of its revenue via its website and apps [iOS and Android]. In contrast, most D2C brands rely on marketplaces like Amazon and Myntra to make money but struggle to optimise sales on their websites.

The D2C brand’s offline stores were started as part of a marketing strategy. While a billboard would cost INR 1 Lakh- INR 2 Lakh a month, the rent of a physical store would be INR 3-4 Lakh, generating more sales and helping with authentic feedback.

“Surprisingly, our stores were profitable from Day 1. The revenue per sq. ft is four to five times compared to industry standards,” said Patel.

Lage Raho To Crack It For Bharat

The Souled Store aims to expand its product categories and increase its presence from six to 15 cities in the near term. The founders also plan to grow offline stores to more than 30 from the current 10 and target 200 outlets in the next three to four years.

Incidentally, brands focussing on fandoms faced little competition a decade ago. But thanks to the surge in D2C brands since the pandemic and the rapid category expansion in branded merchandise, a new set of D2C brands are seen almost everywhere. Lifestyle brand Bewakoof, home décor brand Chumbak, Superhero merchandise brand Planet Superheroes and many others can easily give The Souled Store a run for its money.

Moreover, fandoms are no longer limited to celebs, Superhero characters, or big brands. In a digital-first world where content/communication is the new oil, creators from all genres are likely to rule this universe, and businesses must be in sync with all popular and niche demographics for seamless growth.

However, Patel was confident that the brand’s dual strength – data insights and a talented team – would provide a competitive edge and raise the entry barrier. Even during the Covid years, the brand earned INR 60-80 Cr in revenue and remained profitable, a feat many ecommerce apparel companies still struggle to achieve.

More importantly, the pan-India brand earns more than 50% of its revenue from cities away from the top 10 list. “That’s intriguing as it shows we have cracked the perfect (pop) design and pricing for Bharat,” said Patel.

As the founders’ passion for pop culture made them leave their cushy jobs and start The Souled Store, they are now trying to spread the same enthusiasm across the startup and its customer communities. However, they would now stick to their newfound knowledge, focussing on retaining and acquiring customers and staying profitable.

The D2C brand is also planning for an IPO. “Ab investors ko exit dena to banta hai (Our investors deserve a [good] exit now, after all these years),” chuckled Patel.

Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal

The post How D2C Brand The Souled Store Soared To Profitability After Slumping To 52x Losses  appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Gurugram-based logistics startup Delhivery has announced a strategic investment in software platform Vinculum. This investment aims at enabling omnichannel retailing for D2C enterprises, brands, brand distributors, and quick commerce companies. 

Delhivery has stated that this investment is the first part of a potential two stage deal that provides Delhivery the option to further increase its shareholding in the company after six months. 

The logistics startup is targeting the D2C enterprises and is expecting that this investment will strengthen its position as a fulfillment solutions provider in the segment. According to Delhivery, the two platforms will build a complete integrated stack to address the entire range of post-purchase needs of a D2C brand.

A deeper integration with Vinculum’s Order Management System (OMS) will be a first-of-its-kind fully-integrated E2E offering, claims Delhivery.

Vinculum enables brands to tap into the opportunity presented by ecommerce and omni channel formats. 

Commenting on the investment, Venkat Nott, founder, and CEO of Vinculum Group, said, “This lays the foundation for deep tech integration between both companies, tremendous collaboration opportunities, and immense business value for our customers.”

Delhivery claims to be operating across 18,500 pin codes. The startup provides a full suite of logistics services such as express parcel transportation, PTL freight, TL freight, cross-border, supply chain, and technology services. 

It further claims that it has fulfilled more than 2 Bn shipments since inception and today works with over 27000 customers, including large and small ecommerce participants, SMEs, and other enterprises & brands.

Delhivery seems to be trying to cope with its saga of losses. Its market share in ecommerce shipments dropped to 21.5% in FY 2022-23 (FY23) from 23% in FY22. Speculations are that the logistic startup’s market share is expected to fall further to 19% by FY30.

Consequently, in the quarter that ended in March 2023, Delhivery’s net loss jumped 32% to INR 158.6 Cr against INR 119.8 Cr in the year-ago quarter. However, net loss declined 19% from INR 195.6 Cr in the preceding December quarter.

Though Delhivery’s revenue from operations fell 10% to INR 1,859.6 Cr in Q4 FY23 from INR 2,071.7 Cr in the corresponding quarter of previous year. However, operating revenue saw a marginal increase from INR 1,823.8 Cr in the preceding December quarter of 2023.

The post Delhivery To Make A Strategic Investment In Vinculum To Strengthen Its D2C Offering appeared first on Inc42 Media.

D2C menswear brand XYXX has raised INR 110 Cr ($13.5 Mn) as part of its Series C funding round led by Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund.

The round also saw participation from its existing institutional investors such as Sauce.vc, Anicut Capital, DSG Consumer Partners and Singularity Growth Opportunities Fund. 

The startup will use the funding to fuel growth and enhance focus on core product categories. The capital will also be used to shore up the tech stack and scale, through which the startup aims to drive efficiency and profitability. 

“We are thrilled to welcome Amazon into our investor group. We’ve seen rapid growth, right from our inception in 2016 and we plan to use the investment to keep doing more of the same, focusing on our core product categories and driving efficiency and profitability through greater scale and better use of technology,” said Yogesh Kabra, the founder of XYXX.

“… In a short time, XYXX has created strong brand recall with their relentless focus on product market fit and we are excited to work with them for their next phase of growth,” said Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund’s spokesperson. 

Founded in 2017 by Kabra, XYXX is a D2C menswear brand that sells products across multiple categories such as underwear, loungewear and athleisure. The new fundraiser comes nine months after the startup raised $11 Mn in a mix of equity and debt from Singularity Growth Opportunities Fund and others.

Prior to that, XYXX raised INR 30 Cr capital as part of its Series B round in June 2021. The D2C platform is also backed by Indian cricketer KL Rahul, who is also the company’s brand ambassador.

The startup also sells its products online on 14 ecommerce platforms as well as its website. XYXX claims to have a pan-India presence, operating multi-brand outlets (MBOs) and exclusive brand outlets (EBOs) across more than 18,000 touchpoints in 150+ cities.

Going forward, the startup plans to open an additional six stores and grow the scale of its EBO by 2X by the end of the financial year 2023-24 (FY24). XYXX also plans to continue its focus on expanding the scale and scope of its operations to sustain its hyper-growth trajectory.

According to founder Yogesh Kabra, general trade will continue to be the startup’s ‘most important sales channel’ as it penetrates deeper into existing markets. The startup also plans to foray into newer product lines and strengthen its EBO presence across the Western and Southern parts of India.

With more than 1,000 SKUs, the startup reported a revenue of INR 57 Cr in FY22. It competes directly with the likes of players such as Almo and DaMENSCH.

XYXX operates within the larger D2C apparel, which has long been an investor favourite. Despite the funding winter taking the sheen away from the sector, D2C apparel platforms continue to steadily inch up. 

Home to thousands of D2C startups, India has incubated one of the biggest online fashion industries. According to a report, the homegrown D2C fashion space is projected to grow to a total addressable market size of $43.2 Bn by 2025, with the country’s total ecommerce opportunity expected to reach $400 Bn during the same period. 

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