Tag: D2C

Avni’s CEO on Insights on Starting & Scaling D2C Brand

In this new Insight series we connect with industry professionals to gain idea on starting and scaling a D2C Brand. It features startup experience, growth hacks, D2C industry highlights and learnings directly from expert!

A little background, D2C brands are companies that built its offering around direct digital marketing channels as opposed to selling through an online marketplace, retailer, or auction site. In D2C (Direct to Customer) business model, any seller/manufacturer willing to sell their products directly to end-customers can set up an online website cum store, or promote the products on various social media platforms eliminating the middleman.

StartupTalky exclusively interviewed Sujata Pawar, Co-founder & CEO of Avni to know her perspectives on D2C Brand & how she and Apurv scaled Avni to over 27 retail stores & served 5,000 women in just 1 year! Founded by wife-husband duo Sujata Pawar and Apurv Agrawal in 2020, Avni provides innovative and eco-friendly menstrual care products.

D2C Brand Avni – Company Highlights

D2C Startup Name	Avni
About	Menstrual Healthcare Startup
Founders	Sujata Pawar (CEO), Apurv Agrawal
Founded	2020
Headquarters	Mumbai
Industry	Femtech, Health & Wellness
Website	myavni.com

Excerpt from the interview –

1.From where did it all begin? It’d be great to walk through the initial journey of Avni.

Sujata Pawar comes with a background in pharmacy. She was already working on a venture when she had an uncomfortable personal experience using commercially available sanitary pads which led to rashes. She started researching the issue and figured that the only reason for the skin troubles she was facing was the chemical-based pads. She got to know that not only were these sanitary napkins causing skin troubles but also affecting the environment and sanitation workers.

When she wanted to opt for a more sustainable alternative, she learned that there were no products that were viable on all these three grounds. Then she decided to address this gap by launching Avni, a menstrual healthcare startup, which is also environment friendly. Over the period, the co-founders realized that sanitary napkins cannot alone replace all the products that cater to menstrual needs as a lot of women use different products that are causing harm. The brand then launched the Avni Ezeepad and Avni cups.

As an entrepreneur moves ahead, one by one he notices other obstacles too. Along the journey, the co-founders realized that there is less awareness, and more fear due to the lack of reliable support for women when it comes to the choice of products. Thus, the brand launched India’s First 24X7 period helpline accessible via whatsapp/call/sms which will make the transition smooth and help women develop a sustainable period routine. Putting the efforts in the right direction did prove fruitful for the brand. The brand raised INR 65 Lacs in seed funding in April 2021 from WeFounderCircle. All in all, the brand has already reached over 5000 customers.

2. How do you differentiate yourself from other D2C brands in the ecosystem? Highlight the USP, Features & the problems that Avni tends to solve.

Avni has been putting all its efforts towards creating menstrual care products that are skin-friendly, chemical-free, and do not cause any harm to the environment too. While pursuing this ambition, co-founders came across the fact that the traditional methods that women used to follow during periods were way more effective than the current commercially popularized options. For example, cloth-based pads were never harmful, only the use of dirty cotton cloth can cause infection. Digging deeper unfolded the better alternatives and formed the foundation of Avni product line.

Avni Menstrual Products — Products – Avni Ezeepad, Avni Cloth pad, Avni Menstrual Cup

3. The pandemic has posed its own challenges & opportunities. We are intrigued to know how it impacted the D2C industry in general and Avni in particular?

The pandemic did impact all the industries and activities. However, we maintain availability on most of the eCommerce platforms including – Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, 1mg, Qtrove, Shycart, Vayas Sakhi, Upciclo, ThePinkBox etc. However, what intrigued us more during the pandemic was that even the lesser privileged face this monthly cycle and the challenge of unavailability of the products. In order to address the same, we tied up with local NGOs in different regions across the country and ran a drive to educate them and provide the young girls, and underprivileged women with the Avni product kits. Each of the product kits could easily cover their periods for over 4 years.

4. What are the offline & online marketing strategies adopted by Avni? How do you ensure that your D2C brand is known across the nook & corner of the target market?

As we are in a space which is sensitive and has taboos associated with it, we are working on increasing the awareness regarding best menstrual health practices. We conduct live interview sessions with experts from this field who share their views, their experience which could be useful women & girls across ages. As we started during Covid times, we only had online channel at our exposure. One thing that worked in our favor was that ours is an essential commodity. To have reached to various customers, we listed our products in the most common and trusted online platforms in India. We are now present on Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal,1 mg, Qtrove, Shycart, Vayas Sakhi, Upciclo, ThePinkBox with presence in few more platforms expected to be completed in the next month.

5. Amongst 1000s of companies in the D2C domain, how did you evolve Avni’s brand identity & create brand loyalty amongst customers?

With information overload these days due to accessibility of internet, everyone is confused on the correctness or authenticity of source. Since our founders are from healthcare background, we wanted to ensure that information passed on by us if authentic and from a verified source. Once we are able to help customers with right set of information, trusts start building which results in long lasting customer loyalty.

6. How does Avni’s supply chain model add value to the company? What does the process look like?

All our products are developed in-house and Made in India, in line with our honorable Prime Minister’s vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat. All our products are manufactured as per our raw material and final product specifications. Once a customer places order, the order is dispatched from our central warehouse after quality checks and customized packaging. With a robust supply chain, we are able to cater to almost 29000 pin codes. Our customers receive emails messages at each and every stage of orders processing, right from order receipt, completion of packaging, pick up of order by courier partners from warehouse till delivery. Our customers also receive phone call if their delivery is missed to reschedule the delivery. This gives our customer visibility of their order status in a transparent manner.

7. How do you ensure a higher degree of personalization/uniqueness in your product range? Are prospective customers surveyed? Is your R&D strong? How do you stay on top of new technologies & changing customer habits?

We introduced our products with the option of customization for customers. Any customer who visits our website, can order Avni Ezeepad pack of 12 based on their preference from available 3 most commonly used sizes. This ensures customer to buy as per their needs. We are constantly in communication with our customers with our helpline number. We communicate with almost 1500 customers every month via our helpline taking their feedback and views on the products and sharing information available with us. These inputs along with our panel of experts are continuously working on developing new products, bringing in changes in the existing product to improve customer experience and interactions with Avni

8. What metrics do you analyze to compare your performance from that of your competitors & previous periods?

For us, the simplest way to analyze our performance in the track to growth is new customers every month and the number of repeat customers. More than 5000 customers and a repeat percentage of almost 30%, gives us motivation to keep on creating much better product and experience.

D2C space in India is evolving at a fast pace. Internet has been a boon for this industry and consumers are now well aware and well read about products, the options they have and pros & cons. India has witnessed huge growth in customers shopping online. This has given all start-ups like us to showcase products across wider set of audiences without much hassle. There is a huge scope to introduce new concepts and products in the Indian market. In our opinion, all budding entrepreneurs should just grab the opportunity as any time is right time to start.

June 29, 2021

Mother Sparsh CEO on Insights on Starting & Scaling D2C Brand
In this new Insight series we connect with industry professionals to gain idea on starting and scaling a D2C Brand. It features startup experience, growth hacks, D2C industry highlights and learnings directly from expert!

A little background, D2C brands are companies that built its offering around direct digital marketing channels as opposed to selling through an online marketplace, retailer, or auction site. D2C business model in India eliminates middlemen to reach the end consumers and thus saves costs spent on distribution.

StartupTalky exclusively interviewed Dr. Himanshu Gandhi, Co-Founder and CEO of Mother Sparsh to know his perspectives on D2C Brand & how he scaled Mother Sparsh from INR 10 lakhs investment to achieving an annual turnover of approximately INR 22 crore in FY20. Mother Sparsh is an innovative eco-friendly baby & mother care brand focused on delivering a holistic experience to the mothers and babies with their natural, eco-friendly, biodegradable, paraben-free and chemical-free product offerings.

Let’s see what Dr. Himanshu Gandhi, Co-Founder and CEO of Mother Sparsh has got to say –
1.From where did it all begin? It’d be great to walk through the initial journey of the company from ideation, team building to launch, funding, revenue & growth.

The inception of Mother Sparsh happened after my marriage with Rishu Gandhi, who happens to be the co-founder of the company. Prior to our entrepreneurial journey, I was a government officer while Rishu was a Java Developer at Infosys. After our marriage, we discovered our shared zeal to identify and fill the gaps in the baby and mother care segment.

We got into rigorous Research & Development (R&D), which was inclined towards recognizing the specific personal care needs of babies as well as mothers, and evaluating it in lieu of the gaps in the market. Therefore, our relentless endeavor to fill the gaps in the segment by working on a need-based proposition led to the birth of Mother Sparsh in 2016. We started with a seed funding of nearly INR 10 lakh, which was used in R&D and development of our first few products. We were able to break even in FY ’20 and went on to close the previous financial year with revenue of nearly INR 22 crore.

2. How do you differentiate yourself from other D2C brands in the ecosystem? Highlight the USP, Features & the problems that your brand tends to solve.

There are several D2C brands in the personal care segment, but the same does not stand true in the case of baby and mom care brands in India. Even if there are a few, they are mostly the ones with product portfolios laden with harmful chemicals and toxins. We are probably the only Indian nature-based baby and mom care brand that caters directly to the end consumers with its wide range of innovative products. For instance, we were the first D2C brand in India to introduce 99% Pure Water unscented biodegradable baby wipes that are good not just for the sensitive skin of the little ones but for the environment as well.

As mentioned earlier, our USP is that we bring the power of nature-based ingredients and Ayurvedic herbs in the most unadulterated manner, in a form that suits the modern lifestyle of millennial moms as well as their babies. While working on a need-based proposition, we have introduced products like Dashmoola Hair Lep, which new moms can use to deal with all kinds of post-pregnancy hair and scalp related troubles. Over past few years, we have fulfilled our commitment to solve or personal care woes of moms and babies with solutions that originate from mother nature.

3. The pandemic has posed its own challenges and opportunities. We are intrigued to know how it impacted the D2C industry in general and your company in particular? What strategies, plans etc., did you adopt and where do you stand at present?

The pandemic has brought about a significant change in the buying pattern of the consumers, with the trend now being more inclined towards online buying. This stands true for the consumers based in metro cities and those based in tier-2 cities. Further, for D2C brands, the consumers are much more willing to adapt and evolve to purchase products directly from the official brand website. This has been enabled by the increased assurances that the consumers have gained with regard to buying products and merchandise from the brand website.

For D2C brand, the marketing strategies were focused to increase the website sales and the marketing orientation has changed towards website. Moreover, the brand has worked and developed a loyalty & good customer retention programs. For example, we have curated a specific set of offers for our website to help retain our customers.

We observed a significant increase in the traffic during the pandemic which also helped us to make a change in our marketing orientation and eventually we had invested a decent amount on our website to get the traffic along with the specific set of offers for customers.

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4. Target-based marketing is the craze these days! What are the offline & online marketing strategies adopted by your brand? How do you ensure that your brand is known across the nook & corner of your target market?

Mother Sparsh has always tried to work towards baby-mom specific set of products and bring innovation through its merchandise. In terms of reaching to our target audience, Mother Sparsh worked for better penetration via hospital sampling amongst premium hospitals across PAN India, catering specifically to expecting mothers during the early phase of pregnancy. We have effectively worked in this manner to achieve success and the brand continues to working on the sampling mechanism this year as well.

Besides, the brand campaign designed is ensured to serve with the right set of communication for reaching out to the influencers. As per the feedback from various mothers, we have witnessed a big concern over hair fall in the post-pregnancy stages. So while making the effort of understanding the consumer need and bringing innovation as a factor, we launched Ayurvedic Dashmool Hair Lep.

Also, we ensured a wider outreach via various campaigns on Instagram and Facebook groups & mom communities so as to reach every nook & corner of our target market.

5. Amongst thousands of companies in the D2C domain, how did you evolve your brand identity and create brand loyalty amongst your customers? How do you control the 4P’s (Price, Place, Promotion, Product) of your brand.

In India, the culture of buying products via D2C companies is evolving at a very nice pace and is currently in a dynamic phase in our country. For Mother Sparsh, the key for creating a brand identity has always been its offering. In terms of our efforts, we have managed to provide India’s first water based wipes which is eco-friendly. The brand has maintained its ethos and launched products on Need-based Proposition and throughout worked to evolve the market.

The journey of Mother Sparsh has evolved with bringing innovation from its products, whether it be India’s first water-based wipes or After-bite solution for babies, which is very unique and one of its own kind of curative action.

As mentioned earlier, the brand recently launched Ayurvedic Dashmool Hair Lep, specifically curated product for hair-fall for post-pregnancy. The concept of this product was introduced from home remedy which is positioned against chemically made gel/crème based products available in the market.

With regard to controlling the 4 Ps of Marketing Mix –
- For products we strive towards innovation and need-based positioning
- For pricing we work on a valued pricing mechanism.
- For place, we cater to aspirational consumers hailing from middle to higher income group, and
- As far as promotion is concerned, we have relied majorly on brand website offers, hospital sampling and top e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Firstcry etc.
6. How does your supply chain model add value to the company’s process? From product development, making the prospective customer aware of the product to order placement, distribution & post sale services, what does the process look like?

The brand inherits a culture of R&D and quality driven products, therefore, the value of pursuing or products starts from deep dive market research. Also, we incorporate the feedback of consumers (mothers) about the need and requirement for their wellbeing. With this extensive study, comes the quality work of our R&D team to understand and recommend the most suitable offerings in sync with the ethos of innovation of the organization.

While different types of media vehicles are leveraged, we enable effective communication by inking associations with various influencers on social media as well as tools like Facebook ads, google ads and print ads.

With every effort of launch, we are always willing to provide the feedback to our team members so as to continuously work on our offerings which eventually helps us to evaluate and create future path for new development and process enhancement.

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7. Product Differentiation is the key! How do you ensure a higher degree of personalization/uniqueness in your product range? Are prospective customers surveyed? Is feedback mechanism reliable? Or any other strategy? Is your R&D strong?How do you stay on top of new technologies and changing customer habits?

The uniqueness of our product range comes from the fact that we provide expertly crafted nature-oriented solutions in the form of ready baby products. The brand inherits a culture of R&D and quality driven products. The journey of Mother Sparsh has evolved with bringing innovation from its products and inheriting the values of innovation. We stay on the top of the things majorly by motivating our R&D team to attend webinars and encourage them to widen their area of study.

8. What metrics do you analyze to compare your performance from that of your competitors & previous periods? (E.g. conversion rate, unique customer, visitors rate etc., ) Real-life case studies/metrics information would be much appreciated.

Mother Sparsh’s offerings for the niche nature-based baby and mom care market have no competition as such with any other brand. This is primarily because most baby and mom care brands thrive on chemicals and toxins rather than nature-oriented ingredients. More or less, the way we serve our consumers is different where we indulge in consolidating our understandings about home remedies & natural remedies to develop new products.

9. It’s be great if you could share any Advice/expert’s opinion/findings on the D2C ecosystem in India. And what do you think is the future of this industry? What should the budding entrepreneurs have a look out for?

D2C undoubtedly is the future in the market. But as a founder, we are concerned about the quality parameters which we feel should be enhanced so as to give value to the end consumer. It is also imperative that any entrepreneur who introduces new products in the market must ensure that while they are conducive to the needs of the consumers, they should not leave any harmful after effect on the environment.

The idea behind the endeavors of any budding entrepreneur should be to thrive on eco-friendly and organic product range that leads to holistic wellbeing of both individuals and environment.
June 28, 2021
Top 24 Leading D2C Brands in India to Watch Out for in 2022

The pandemic has majorly affected startups around the globe. It has entirely changed the perspective of consumers towards brands and the marketplace. Consumers are widely preferring well-established brands and raising great concern towards hygiene, sanitation, convenience, quality and health.

In these times, the Direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands are gaining great profit and upraise in the market. On this note, tons of conventional brands such as LG, Havells, Ajanta-Orpat and Piaggio picked up the D2C model and applied it in their business.

Brands across the globe are shifting towards the D2C business model, removing the middle source. These brands are launching their native stores so that consumers could directly contact them. In India, D2C startups are running to a great extent.

However, in pandemics, these D2C brands suffered as well. As the D2C brand’s investment rate declined by 69% as compared to previous records. Meanwhile, the total funding was raised around $117.6 million throughout the year.

The D2C brands from all sectors including home decor, fashion & cosmetics, FMCG and electronics experienced advancement in numerous aspects. In this article, we have listed the top 24 D2C brands in India. Let’s get started!

What Is a D2C Business?
How Does the D2C Business Model Work?
Advantages of D2C Business
Top D2C Brands in India

What Is a D2C Business?

D2C brands are companies that build their offering around direct digital marketing channels as opposed to selling through an online marketplace, retailer, or auction site. D2C business model in India eliminates middlemen to reach the end consumers and thus saves a lot of costs spent on distribution.

How Does the D2C Business Model Work?

In the D2C model, Any seller or manufacturer willing to sell his products directly to his customers can set up an online website or store and promote the products on various social media platforms. This business model completely eliminates the middleman.

A study revealed that around 55% of consumers prefer to buy products directly from a brand or manufacturer’s website rather than retailers and distributors. This is a benefit for D2C brands in India and gives them an edge over conventional methods that involved middlemen.

Advantages of D2C Business

Increase in Sales

As more and more consumers are finding it convenient and reliable to buy products from the manufacturer’s website, it assures a rapid increase in sales.

Understanding Consumer’s Needs

Establishing a direct relationship with consumers enables the companies to clearly understand their needs and in turn, personalise their experience so that they visit their store again.

Cost Reduction

When the company is self-sufficient in reaching its customers, it negates the role of any third-party distributors who earlier had to be paid.

Diverse Catalog of Products

Now that the companies do not require a physical area for selling their products, they can sell from a diverse catalogue of products, enabling them to offer extensive variety to attract customers.

Top D2C Brands in India

1. Bombay Shaving Company

Bombay Shaving Company is a prominent men’s grooming brand based on the D2C model. This is one of the leading D2C brands in India. Bombay Shaving Company is the first-ever personal care brand that fulfils all the requirements of the consumers, globally. The Company was founded by Shantanu Deshpande in 2016 and is headquartered in Delhi NCR.

Today, Bombay Shaving Company have over 2 million users and has around $3.4 billion market value.

2. Mamaearth

Mamaearth Website

Mamaearth is a well-distinguished brand that received huge customer engagement and loyalty. As the consumers are putting generous efforts into fulfilling personal care needs, Mamaearth made its appearances over all the e-commerce websites such as Amazon, Flipkart, Firstcry and Nykaa, which resulted in the company with huge profitable deals.

The users are widely preferring Mamaearth for their skincare and that’s why the company grew a huge consumer base. The revenue of Mamaearth has increased by around 3 times from the last 2019 records.

3. The Moms Co.

The Moms Co.

The very amazing personal healthcare brand for mothers. The Moms Co. sells personal care products, for all purposes like mom and baby care and postnatal, certified toxin-free by Australia. Its products are available on all e-commerce as well as physical shops. And its major source of revenue directly comes from its selling. The Moms Co. holds a market value of $6.5 billion.

4. Plum

Plum Website

Plum is an organic omnichannel clean beauty brand. Plum has experienced great profit since the consumer shift to the internet. The brand holds a value of around $23 billion by the year 2022.

Plum’s team size has heightened twice that of actual and catering of over 250M+ consumers per month.

5. Loom Solar

LOOM SOLAR is a D2C startup, a manufacturer of Solar Panels and Lithium batteries in Renewal Energy space based out of Faridabad, Haryana. It is founded by two brothers Amol and Amod (Ex- Schneider, Airtel) in 2018.

The Company helps Home Owners to reduce electricity bills in urban areas, while in small towns, it helps consumers to have 24X7 electricity by putting solar panels and Energy Storage Systems on the Rooftop

Recently, it reached a milestone of powering 50,000 homes from Solar Power across India.

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6. Wakefit

Wakefit Website

During the pandemic, people have put immense concern and time into the style of their houses. And for this, the innovative sleep & Home Furniture Solutions Startup has experienced extensive growth. As of 2019, Wakefit had revenue of INR 80 crore and by the time of 2023, it has targeted up to INR 10,000 crore.

7. Wow

Wow Website

Wow is a widely famous skincare pharmaceutical D2C brand founded by Arvind Sokke and Ashwin Sokke; Manish Chowdhary and Karan Chowdhary. Wow is a total of $50 million worth of business.

Wow has its products in over 5,000 stores and pharmacies across India.

8. Sugar

Sugar Cosmetics Website

The immensely growing beauty and makeup startup, Sugar Cosmetics was founded in 2015 in India. Sugar Cosmetics mainly targets women between the age of 18 to 25. Today, it has more than 2500 retail locations in over 130 cities across India. Its products are easily available at Lifestyle, Health & Glow, Shoppers Stop and NewU.

9. BoAt

BoAt Website

BoAt is a very famous and distinguished electronic lifestyle company that provides stylish and high-quality electronic devices, at reasonable prices. BoAt’s products are available on every e-commerce website including Amazon and Flipkart. The company sells over 10,000 products every day and has more than 20 million users in India.

10. Noise

Noise Website

Noise is a D2C startup with a duo partnership with Chinese manufacturers to develop smartphone cases and sell them in India. Noise has a total revenue of INR 430 crore.

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Top D2C brands in India

11. Licious

Licious Website

Licious is a distinct meat and seafood d2c brand that provides absolutely clean fish, eggs and meat. The company runs on a farm-to-fork model and provides its customers with the highest quality and totally fresh meat and seafood.

Licious has over 3500 employees and receives millions of orders every month. Its customer base is over 1 million.

12. Sleepy Owl

Sleepy Owl Website

The cold-brew coffee brand, Sleepy Owl caters for the demands for brewed and epicurean coffee across India. Sleepy Owl has numerous outlets in different cities and also, many online channels for selling its amazingly flavorful brewed coffee.

13. Country Delight

Country Delight Website

Country Delight is a leading startup for supplying fresh and pure milk at the doorstep of customers. It runs on the D2C business model and refers to consumers immediately.

Country Delight improves the wholesome practice of Indian farmers and pays the price before its date in order to beat the competitors.

14. Pepperfry

Pepperfry Website

Pepperfry is known to be India’s biggest and very famous online furniture startup. It provides furniture, kitchen equipment, bath, housing and dining appliances. Today, the startup has over 3.5 million active users and more than 5 million visitors per month.

Pepperfry holds over 20 studio locations across India and 500+ vehicles for delivering the furniture consumer’s houses.

15. Healthkart

Healthkart Website

Healthkart was founded by two IITians: Sameer Maheshwari and Prashant Tandon in 2011. This D2C brand offers great quality fitness products and assistance to help the consumer in attaining their fitness purpose.

Healthkart offers customers to order fitness products online as well as from offline stores. Its products are available in over 110 offline stores in 40 cities across India.

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16. Lenskart

Lenskart Website

Lenskart is known as the biggest organised eyewear brand in India. The company offers over 5,000 designs of frames and around 45 different types of personality lenses. Lenskart has over 600 outlets in more than 66 cities across India. Its revenue as of 2020 is INR 967 crore.

17. Melorra

Melorra Website

The first-ever lightweight jewellery startup, Melorra, was developed by Saroja Yeramilli. Melorra is a Bengaluru-based leading D2C company in India that offers jewellery in a wide range at affordable prices.

Melorra is known as the biggest distributor of jewellery in India, which has delivered its jewellery in more than 1,700 towns.

18. Flatheads

Flatheads Website

Flathead is a prominent Indian footwear startup that offers very stylish as well as comfortable footwear, suitable for every occasion. Flathead was founded by Ganesh Balakrishnan and Utkarsh Biranda. It follows the D2C business model and has grown extensively.

19. Bewakoof

Bewakoof Website

Bewakoof is a very popular clothing brand that widely targets the young generation in India. Bewakoof has over 10 million active users every month and has revenue worth INR 200 crores as of 2020.

Bewakoof generates ML models to optimise their customer’s accession channels and enhance broad customers’ accession costs.

20. Candes

Candes Website

Candes is one of the top D2C brands in India that recently raised its funding up to $3 million. Candes is a Delhi-based startup founded by Sandeep Agarwal and Vipin Agarwal in 2015.

The annual revenue of Candes is around INR 200 crore. And have sales worth INR 10 crore every month.

21. MyGlamm

MyGlamm has recently opted for the most intriguing way of reaching more consumers. It has adopted the lifestyle content platform POPxo, in order to enhance the digital reach and create the 3C funnel.

Today, the company has over 2 million active users. MyGlamm generally targets women between the age of 16 to 25 and through this, it has witnessed a growth in its revenue up to INR 200 Crore.

22. Zissto Sauces

Zissto Website

Zissto Sauces is a Mumbai-based company that offers a selection of convenient, tasty, and authentic sauces. Launched by Kanhai Porecha in 2017, the company aimed to save cooking time, especially for bachelors and working couples.

Kanhai started Zissto after returning to India from the UK where he did his graduation. He said he wanted to introduce authentic and easy-to-go Indian cooking sauces.

Today, the brand sells 50,000 sauces bottles across Mumbai, Chennai, and online portals like Amazon and Flipkart.

23. Everpret

Everpret Website

Everpret is one of the top Indian D2C brands. It manufactures and sells designer bags for working women. The founder, Yashas Alur, worked in a Bengaluru-based company before starting his own business. There, he noticed many women employees carrying more than one bag which was highly inconvenient that didn’t suit their work attires.

From there, the idea of redesigning workbags to fit all essentials seeded inside him. So he quit his job and raised funding of Rs 8 lakh for his idea from his former boss.

Yashas launched the Everpret website in January 2018 and started selling designer bags for working women that had enough room to fit all their essentials and also complimented their work clothes.

24. Super Smelly

Super Smelly Website

Super Smelly is India’s first and only certified zero toxins personal care brand that offers products specially formulated for teenage skin. The company was launched by Dipali Mathur and Milan Sharma in 2018.

As the brand is still too young to have its own manufacturing setup, Super Smelly products are manufactured at third-party facilities located across other parts of India. However, R&D is done in-house. They only use fragrances that are completely free from any toxins and allergens. The product is effective and completely toxin-free as well.

Super Smelly is available across all major e-commerce channels. The brand also serves US and UK customers through Amazon. It is now witnessing a month-on-month sales growth of 70 percent.

Conclusion

The internet has brought people closer than ever before. Today, with the internet not just being a luxury for a few, but turning into every household commodity, we have seen the emergence of direct to consumer (D2C) brands in India and as a commerce model in the consumer arena. D2C Model is the future of Indian trade and retail.

FAQs

What are D2C brands?

Direct to consumer companies in India have created a new methodology for eCommerce success which is taking their products directly to their buyer. Direct to consumer is a term that means when brands sell directly to their end customers eliminating the role of retailer, distributor, wholesaler, or other outlets.

What are some of the top D2C brands in India?

MyGlamm, Wow, MamaEarth, BoAT, Bewakoof, Noise and Licious are some of the top D2C brands in India.

Why are D2C brands successful?

Most D2C brands are successful because they don’t have to share first-party data with retailers as they directly sell the products to consumers.

April 12, 2021
Recent Trends Fueling Investment in the Indian Market

India is fast becoming a home for startups. With several initiatives that were undertaken by the Government to strengthen the economic state of the country, startups have witnessed a growth in mobility, food tech, gaming, and many other fields. The Confluence of social as well as technological factors has deeply impacted the investment scenario in the country. With the private sector underutilized, investments in the Indian market have increased.

The 21st century is all about Technologies like augmented reality and IoT, the new addition to the family being Blockchain Technology. This technology is not only limited to the creation of Bitcoin but has other applications too, which has raised a hype on the market. If explored its full potential, this technology can bring about revolutionary changes in various segments.

Investment Trend in India

Over 22 major languages are written in 13 different scripts and over 19, 500 dialects, that’s India, a culturally and linguistically diverse nation. These numbers clearly indicate a massive opportunity in the Indian market for vernacular interface and content. It aims at accommodating non-English speaking users with internet access and a medium to pitch in their ideas. People are making investments in different industries that are trending in the startup world. Let’s take a look at the industries that are trending and are becoming hot zone for investments.

ESports
Social Commerce
Live Streaming
Fintech
Direct-to-Consumer
Blockchain Technology

ESports

Esports has exploded with popularity and is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. Esports and gaming took off with the release of Xbox in early 2000, even though the concept of video games had been there since the 1970s. Realizing the potential in this segment, developers pitched in this virtual world. By the year 2024, the global revenue of this industry is set to reach $1.08 billion

Social Commerce

Through social commerce, a user can browse and compare products on social networking sites, say Facebook, and then make the purchase on Facebook itself rather than going to the company’s website to make the purchase. Currently, there are three social media sites that own the social commerce space: Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. It is revolutionizing the face of online shopping and moulding e-commerce to give the customer a more social experience involving friends, family and peers.

Live Streaming

By providing real-time content, live streaming is a new way to attract and engage users by enabling them to connect instantly. The viewers can also communicate with each other on this platform. It gives the product or the service immediate feedback. This is a powerful marketing tool that the users find interactive and more engaging.

Fintech

With global giants zeroing on this space, financial technology is on the roll due to several reasons. With vast discrepancies in the country’s banking system, growing smartphone ownership, increasing access to the internet, a booming e-commerce market, and availability of a large talent pool with knowledge of both technology and financial services.

Direct-to-Consumer

Direct-to-consumer brands are transforming conventional and established marketing solutions by causing a fundamental change in the relationship of the brand with the consumers. Global suppliers are accessible now and consumers are willing to experiment with new brands that they discover online. Consumers are quite discerning in the quality of items they purchase, this is exactly what the DTC offers, a risk-free online shopping experience.

Blockchain Technology

Blockchain Tech has attracted the attention of people and has extreme potential to go big in the future. Apart from cryptocurrencies like Bitcoins, it has many other potentials in the field of healthcare, insurance, artist royalties, voting and welfare benefits. NFTs are also peeking its head through this technology and people are taking an interest in them.

Conclusion

The startup ecosystem in India is growing every day, people are finding this enigmatic and are keeping their interest in these fields. It is quite natural that investors are going to follow the trends as they give hints about which market is in for the long run. Investors create their strategies according to them and invest in those fields.

FAQs

What is Blockchain Technology?

Blockchain Technology is a public ledger that exists across the network and is decentralized in nature and it can be distributed digitally.

What is a Market trend?

A market trend is the moving of the market in a particular direction and it can be identified by price action.

Is Esports popular in India?

Esports is quite popular in India, the gaming industry has rapidly grown over the years.

June 20, 2020