Show-cause notices have been issued to Brainbees Solutions, the parent company of FirstCry, in relation to employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) expenses that were close to INR 80 crore and were incurred during the fiscal years 2018-19 and 2021-22.
The notices have been sent by the Income Tax Department in accordance with clause (b) of Section 148A of the Income Tax Act.
Firstcry in Its Defence
According to the filing that the company made with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the company is determined in its belief that the claim of ESOP expenses that it has made in its tax returns for the assessment years mentioned above is in compliance with the provisions of the Income Tax Act of 1961 and is in accordance with judicial precedents established by a variety of courts as well as the advice of our external tax advisors.
A comparable employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) expenditure claim was previously allowed by the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) for the assessment year 2015-16, according to the company to which SoftBank provided financial backing. Consequently, the organisation is of the opinion that “no income that is subject to tax has evaded the assessment.”
As was stated earlier, the corporation is of the opinion that it has a solid case on merit, and at this point, there has been no order of any type having been passed. According to the filings, the corporation will, in due course, provide a response that is suitable to the show cause notices.
Not the First Time for the FirstCry
In 2023, it has been reported that the tax department, which is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance in India, has sent notices to the creator of FirstCry, Supam Maheshwari, requesting him to explain why he did not pay more than $50 million in taxes on equity transactions that were carried out in privately held FirstCry. The tax department has requested that they not be named because the information is not publicly available.
In addition, queries concerning the problem have been received by at least six investors in FirstCry, according to the statement. These investors include the private equity firm ChrysCapital Management Co. and the family office of Sunil Bharti Mittal. In order to resolve the investigation, Maheshwari had several meetings with the tax agency.
The financial year that ended on March 31, 2021 was the first time that FirstCry had generated a profit after years of operating at a loss.
FirstCry’s IPO
An initial public offering (IPO) of $500 million was submitted by FirstCry earlier this year. The IPO featured a fresh issue of INR 1,666 crore as well as an offer for sale of 543 lakh equity shares by existing shareholders. FirstCry is a company that offers a wide variety of products meant for infants and toddlers.
The omnichannel retailer finished the first day of trading on the Indian stock markets with a market value of $4.1 billion, an increase of 44.8% from the previous day’s trade.
Brainbees Solutions Ltd, the multi-channel retail platform that runs the ‘FirstCry’ brand, had a successful initial public offering (IPO) on Tuesday. The NSE listed price of a FirstCry share was INR 651, which was 40% more than the issue price of INR 465.00 per share.
Shares of FirstCry were launched on BSE at INR 625 each, representing a premium of 34.41%.
The market anticipated FirstCry’s IPO listing on Tuesday. Grey market indicators pointed to a successful launch of Brainbees Solutions shares prior to the listing. The grey market premium, or FirstCry IPO GMP, on August 13, 2024, was INR 80, which, according to stock market observers, was approximately 17% higher than the upper price range of FirstCry IPO.
IPO’s Particulars
Brainbees Solutions’ initial public offering (IPO) was offered for subscription to the general public from August 6 to August 8. August 13, was the first day of the FirstCry IPO, which had its allotment determined on August 9.
The company raised INR 4,193.73 crore at the upper end of the price band for its first public offering (IPO), which was set at INR 440 to 465 per share. A total of 3,58 crore equity shares, with a face value of 1,666 crore INR, and 5.44 crore shares, with an OFS component, totalling 2,527.73 crore INR, made up the book-built issue.
According to subscription data on NSE, the FirstCry IPO was oversubscribed by 12.22 times, with bids for 60.64 crore equity shares compared to 4.96 crore shares on offer.
A total of 2.31 retail bookings, 19.30 QIB bookings, and 4.68 NII bookings were recorded for the initial public offering.
Company’s Future Plans
Among the many planned uses for the IPO money are the opening of additional “BabyHug” and “FirstCry” retail locations, growth into new global markets, investments in data science and technology, and other business expansion projects.
The major book-runners for the FirstCry IPO are Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Ltd, Avendus Capital Pvt Ltd, JM Financial Ltd, Bofa Securities India Ltd, and Morgan Stanley India Company Pvt Ltd. The issue is being registered by Link Intime India Pvt Ltd.
With its FirstCry brand, Brainbees Solutions Ltd has become the leading multi-channel retailer in India for products for moms, infants, and children. The company has established itself as a frontrunner in the specialised but fast-expanding sector because of its extensive product line and robust online and offline presence.
In addition to India, FirstCry is increasing its presence in certain other foreign countries. Financially, Brainbees Solutions was all over the place in FY24, despite the company’s dominant market position. Net sales for the quarter came to INR 6,480.9 crore, and the company’s EBITDA was INR 70.5 crore.
Starting a business from scratch can be a daunting task, especially when you consider the risks involved.
It is a thrilling yet challenging endeavor, especially in a diverse and dynamic market like India. For those who want to minimize risks and leverage established business models, franchising is an excellent option. The good news is that several franchise opportunities in India require low investment but offer promising returns. In this blog, we’ll explore some of the best low-investment franchise businesses in India, detailing the area required, investment, royalty, and potential returns.
Why Franchise Business is a Good Option
Franchise businesses are a great way to start your entrepreneurial journey. They offer a tried and tested business model, which significantly reduces the risk of failure. Moreover, franchises often come with brand recognition, comprehensive training, and ongoing support from the parent company. This means you don’t have to start from scratch; instead, you can leverage the success and experience of an established brand.
Top low-cost investment franchise businesses in India:
Chaat Adda
Franchise
Chat Adda
Area Required
100-200 sq. ft.
Investment
INR 5-10 Lakhs
Royalty
5% of sales
Returns
High demand for street food ensures a quick break-even period, usually within 6-12 months
Best Low Investment Franchise Business in India – Chaat Adda
Who doesn’t love street food? Chaat Adda is a popular brand that offers delicious Indian snacks. It’s an excellent choice for those looking to invest in the food and beverage sector without breaking the bank.
DTDC Courier and Cargo
Franchise
DTDC Courier and Cargo
Area Required
250-300 sq. ft.
Investment
INR 1.5-2 Lakhs
Royalty
N/A (No royalty fees, but a commission-based model)
Returns
With the rise of online shopping, the demand for courier services is ever-increasing. Expect steady returns and a loyal customer base.
Best Low Investment Franchise Business in India – DTDC Courier and Cargo
DTDC Courier & Cargo is one of the oldest and most trusted courier services in India. With a vast network and a strong brand presence, DTDC offers a lucrative franchise opportunity. In the age of eCommerce, courier services are indispensable. DTDC is a well-established name in the logistics industry, offering a reliable franchise model.
Giani’s Ice Cream
Franchise
Giani’s Ice Cream
Area Required
150-300 sq. ft.
Investment
INR 10-12 Lakhs
Royalty
4% of sales
Returns
High foot traffic and brand loyalty can lead to a quick break-even period, typically within 12-18 months.
Best Low Investment Franchise Business in India – Giani’s Ice Cream
Ice cream is a treat enjoyed by people of all ages, making it a lucrative business opportunity. Giani’s Ice Cream offers a well-known brand name and an attractive low-investment franchise model. Known for its delicious and diverse range of ice creams, Giani’s offers a franchise model that doesn’t require a hefty investment. The brand is well-recognized and enjoys a loyal customer base, making it a lucrative option for investors.
Jawed Habib Hair and Beauty Salon
Franchise
Jawed Habib Hair and Beauty Salon
Area Required
300-500 sq. ft.
Investment
INR 10-20 Lakhs
Royalty
10% of sales
Returns
With a strong brand reputation, expect steady customer flow and a breakeven period of 1-2 years.
Best Low Investment Franchise Business in India – Jawed Habib Hair and Beauty Salon
Personal grooming is a booming industry in India. Jawed Habib is a renowned name in the beauty and salon sector, offering a franchise model that requires low investment.
High potential for profitability due to strong brand and high demand
Best Low Investment Franchise Business in India – Domino’s
Domino’s Pizza is one of the most popular and successful pizza chains worldwide. Known for its fast delivery and a wide variety of pizzas, Domino’s has a strong brand presence in India.
Dominos with its strong brand recognition, established customer base, and efficient supply chain management is a great option for the franchise.
Lenskart
Franchise
Lenskart
Area Required
300-500 sq. ft.
Investment
INR 20-30 Lakhs
Royalty
10% of sales
Returns
Strong brand presence and high demand for eyewear lead to a breakeven period of 1-2 years
Best Low Investment Franchise Business in India – Lenskart
Eyewear is a necessity for many, making it a stable business opportunity. Lenskart is a leading brand in the eyewear industry, offering a franchise model with good returns. It offers a wide range of eyeglasses, sunglasses, and contact lenses. With its innovative approach and strong brand presence, Lenskart has quickly become a popular choice among consumers. The franchise model is well-structured, providing extensive training and support.
High demand for quality baby products ensures a quick break-even period, typically within 1-2 years
Best Low Investment Franchise Business in India – FirstCry
The baby and kids’ products market is growing rapidly in India. FirstCry is a well-known brand in this sector, offering a franchise model with low investment.
Khadi India
Franchise
Khadi India
Area Required
300-500 sq. ft.
Investment
INR 5-10 Lakhs
Royalty
5% of sales
Returns
Growing demand for sustainable products ensures steady returns and a breakeven period of 1-2 years
Best Low Investment Franchise Business in India – Khadi India
Promoting sustainable and eco-friendly products, Khadi India offers a unique franchise opportunity. This brand has a strong appeal among eco-conscious consumers.
EuroKids
Franchise
EuroKids
Area Required
1500-2000 sq. ft.
Investment
INR 10-20 Lakhs
Royalty
15% of sales
Returns
High demand for quality preschool education ensures a quick break-even period, typically within 1-2 years
Best Low Investment Franchise Business in India – EuroKids
Education is a sector that never goes out of demand. EuroKids is one of the leading preschool chains in India, offering a franchise model with low investment and high returns.
Amul Ice Cream Parlor
Franchise
Amul Ice Cream Parlor
Area Required
300-500 sq. ft.
Investment
INR 5-10 Lakhs
Royalty
N/A (No royalty fees)
Returns
Strong brand presence and high demand for ice cream lead to a quick break-even period, usually within 6-12 months
Best Low Investment Franchise Business in India – Amul
Amul is a household name in India, known for its quality dairy products. Investing in an Amul Ice Cream Parlor is a safe bet with assured returns.
Kidzee Preschool
Franchise
Kidzee Preschool
Area Required
2000-3000 sq. ft.
Investment
INR 12 to 15 lakhs
Royalty
15% of total revenue
Returns
With a growing demand for quality early childhood education, the returns on investment can be quite promising, often within 1 to 2 years
Best Low Investment Franchise Business in India – Kidzee
Kidzee Preschool is part of Zee Learn Limited and is one of the largest preschool chains in India. With a focus on providing quality early childhood education, Kidzee has established itself as a trusted brand among parents. The franchise offers comprehensive training and support, ensuring that you have all the tools you need to run a successful preschool.
The telecom sector’s continuous growth ensures a steady flow of customers, making the return on investment achievable within 1 to 2 years
Best Low Investment Franchise Business in India – Reliance Jio Store
Reliance Jio Store is part of Reliance Industries, one of India’s largest conglomerates. With the telecom sector booming, a Jio Store franchise can be a profitable venture. The franchise offers a range of products and services, from SIM cards to broadband connections, ensuring multiple revenue streams.
Conclusion
Investing in a franchise business in India with low investment is a smart way to minimize risks while taking advantage of established brand names and proven business models. Whether you have a passion for food, fashion, education, or logistics, there’s a franchise opportunity out there that fits your interests and budget. From the popular Chaat Adda to the reliable DTDC Courier and Cargo, these franchises offer promising returns with low initial investment.
FAQs
Which are the top low-investment franchise businesses in India?
The top low-investment franchise businesses in India are as below:
Chaat Adda
Lenskart
Domino’s
Giani’s Ice Cream
Jawed Habib Hair & Beauty Salon
DTDC Courier and Cargo
FirstCry
Khadi India
Kidzee Preschool
EuroKids
Reliance Jio Store
Amul Ice Cream Parlor
Why franchise business is a good option for business?
They offer a tried and tested business model, which significantly reduces the risk of failure. Moreover, franchises often come with brand recognition, comprehensive training, and ongoing support from the parent company.
Which are the profitable sectors for franchise business in India?
Profitable sectors for franchise business in India are:
FirstCry’s parent company, BrainBees Solutions Ltd, has announced that its red herring prospectus (RHP) indicates that the IPO would begin on August 6 and conclude on August 8.
FirstCry reportedly plans to ask for a valuation between $2.9 and $3 billion when it goes public. Among the components of FirstCry’s IPO revealed in its revised DRHP was an offer for sale (OFS) of up to 54,391,592 equity shares and a new issue of equity shares totaling up to INR 1,666 crore.
Since FirstCry’s total sales were more than INR 6,500 crore in FY24, the numbers suggest that the company will seek valuation multiples of roughly 3.5x revenue. Although many were disappointed by its value, experts believe that a lower valuation would be a smart move that would appeal to institutional and retail investors alike.
Annual Financial Report (FY24)
From INR 5,633 crore in FY23 to INR 6,481 crore in FY24, FirstCry’s revenue from operations increased by 15%. In the most recent fiscal year, FirstCry mostly generated income from the sale of its items through its online store and brick-and-mortar locations. The company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, GlobalBees, was a major revenue generator, adding INR 1,209 crore.
According to the company’s DRHP, there were 1,018 brick-and-mortar outlets nationwide as of the end of the last calendar year (2023). Of these, 632 were franchise-owned, while the remaining 832 were company-owned.
Thanks to a better EBITDA margin, the Pune-based company was able to cut its losses in FY24 by 34%, to INR 321 crore.
Around the first week of August, FirstCry will join Ola Electric as the second SoftBank-backed business to conduct an initial public offering (IPO). The firm, which is headed by Bhavish Aggarwal, had scheduled the opening of the issue for August 2 and its closing for August 6.
So, Who’s Selling in the Initial Public Offering?
SoftBank will sell 37.35 percent of the 5,43,91,592 shares that make up FirstCry’s offers for sale (OFS). A number of other investors will also be participating in the OFS, including Mahindra and Mahindra, Premji Invest, TPG Growth, and NewQuest Asia. The firm will probably finalize the price range by today.
Mahindra & Mahindra and Premji Invest are the next two largest shareholders in FirstCry, with 10.97% and 10.36% of the company’s shares, respectively. SoftBank is the largest shareholder in FirstCry, holding 25.53% of ownership. Even though the total ESOP pool accounts for 8.4% of the cap table, the creator of the company, Supam Maheshwari, holds a 6% share.
Brainbees Solutions, the parent company of omnichannel retailer FirstCry, has submitted its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with plans to raise ₹1,816 crore through the issuance of fresh shares and an offer for sale of more than 54 million shares. The Pune-based company intends to utilize the raised capital for establishing new stores and warehouses, as well as facilitating international expansion. Despite being valued at under $3 billion in the private market, the company is anticipated to launch its public issue at a valuation of approximately $4 billion.
Notably, existing investors such as SoftBank Vision Fund led by Masayoshi Son, Premji Invest, Mahindra Retail, and TPG Growth, among others, will divest a portion of their shares in FirstCry. In addition, all four co-founders of FirstCry will also sell part of their stakes to new investors through the offer for sale, with the proceeds not contributing to the company’s funds.
Ratan Tata is set to sell nearly 78,000 shares, while SoftBank plans to sell 2 crore shares, Mahindra Retail 28 lakh shares, and Premji Invest will offload 86 lakh shares, as revealed in the filings. Currently, SoftBank and Premji Invest hold 25.5% and 10.36% of FirstCry, respectively, with SoftBank being the sole investor possessing more than a 15% stake in the company.
CEO Supam Maheshwari has also diluted his holding, reducing from about 8.15% a year ago to 6%. The remaining co-founders – Sanket Hattimattur, Amitava Saha, and Prashant Jadhav – own 0.58%, 2%, and 1.44% of the startup, respectively.
Additional selling stakeholders encompass PI Opportunities Fund, NewQuest Asia, Apricot Investments, Valiant Mauritius Partners, TIMF Holdings, Think India Opportunities Master Fund, and Schroders Capital Private Equity Asia. The funds generated from these transactions are earmarked for several purposes, including the establishment of new contemporary stores and warehouses in both India and Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, the funds will be allocated for lease payments related to existing stores, acquiring a supplementary stake in indirect subsidiaries affiliated with GlobalBees Brands, financing marketing and technology expenses, and supporting inorganic growth initiatives.
FirstCry has indicated the possibility of exploring a private placement of equity shares for specific investors, with a potential infusion of up to Rs 363 crore, as outlined in the filing. If the pre-IPO placement materializes, the funds raised will be subtracted from the fresh issue, with the total amount not exceeding 20% of the overall size of the fresh issue.
The company boasts in-house brands such as BabyHug, CuteWalk, Pine Kids, and Babyoye. Its comprehensive omnichannel approach encompasses 80 warehouses and stockists spread across 47 cities in India, boasting a cumulative capacity of 3.07 million sq ft to support 936 modern stores. Among these, 615 stores operate under franchise ownership, while 321 are directly owned and operated by the company.
For the efficient execution of its expansion strategy, FirstCry plans to allocate Rs 357.2 crore from the net proceeds. These funds will specifically be channeled into capital expenditures for fit-outs, inventory costs, and security deposits, facilitating the establishment of 483 new stores in India by the fiscal year 2026-27.
The book-running lead managers for the IPO are Kotak, Morgan Stanley, Bofa Securities, JM Financial, and Avendus, with Link Intime India Private Limited serving as the registrar of the offer.
Although the specific dates for FirstCry’s IPO subscription have not been disclosed in its DRHP, various media reports suggest that the public issue is anticipated to open in early 2024. Details such as the offer price and IPO price band are yet to be announced.
Established in 2010 by Maheshwari and Amitava Saha, the company initially commenced operations as an online baby care brand but swiftly transitioned to an omnichannel strategy, mirroring the approach of many direct-to-consumer entities. Despite experiencing consistent revenue growth, FirstCry encountered ongoing losses over the years. In the past decade, the company managed to achieve brief profitability in FY21, attaining a profit of Rs 216 crore.
FirstCry Financials
However, the financials for FY23 reveal a substantial six-fold increase in losses, reaching Rs 486 crore for the year. This escalation in losses occurred despite a twofold surge in sales, with the company reporting revenue from operations amounting to Rs 5,632 crore during FY23, more than double the Rs 2,401 crore recorded in the preceding year.
The expenses for the year exhibited a notable 146% increase, rising from Rs 2,568 crore in FY22 to Rs 6,316 crore in FY23. Virtually every cost component experienced a significant uptick for the company during this period.
According to the DRHP, FirstCry primarily contends with organized entities in the Indian Childcare Products market. This includes horizontal online platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, and Meesho, as well as vertical online platforms such as Hopscotch, Myntra, and Ajio. Additionally, it competes with multi-brand and exclusive retailers like Reliance Trends and Gini & Jony. Notably, there are no significant organized specialty vertical multi-channel players in India’s Childcare Products market.
A RedSeer Report indicates that India boasts the largest population of children globally, with approximately 309 million children under 12 years of age as of July 1, 2022, and a birth rate of 16.4 births per thousand people in the calendar year 2021. Despite the current nascent spending per capita on childcare products in India at ₹7,975 in the calendar year 2022, it is projected to grow rapidly, with an estimated CAGR of around 15% from 2022 to 2027. This growth rate surpasses that of mature markets, such as the USA (3%) and China (7%), as outlined in the DRHP.
FirstCry acknowledges potential risks in its future endeavors, highlighting concerns about expenses related to marketing, expansion, retail distribution, and stock options that could adversely affect its financial condition.
The DRHP explicitly states, We cannot assure you that we will continue to grow our customer base at this rate or at all in the future. Further, if we fail to acquire new customers, or fail to do so in a cost-effective manner, we may not be able to maintain or increase our revenues or grow our operations.
From Amazon to Pepperfry, the eCommerce industry thrives in India, especially in B2C eCommerce companies. In fact, India is ranked first in the fastest-growing eCommerce market globally, with an estimated market value of $16.6 trillion by 2022.
B2C means business-to-consumer, which refers to the business model where the companies directly sell their products to consumers. The market offering B2C services has gained speed in recent years. According to the report by Grand View Research, the B2C eCommerce industry is set to reach a valuation of $7.65 trillion by the year 2028.
This brings us to the article’s primary content, top B2C eCommerce companies across India. So, let’s get started.
When it comes to B2C eCommerce websites, Amazon tops the list. The company was initially started in the United States as an online bookstore and was later converted into a marketplace for other products. Initially, it was created as a platform where customers could purchase books on a wide range of subjects.
With time, Amazon grew into an eCommerce site with monthly visitors of over 322.54 million, as per the 2010 data. And it became widely popular in the Indian eCommerce industry. Today, the company reached out to a total of 89 percent of the Indian audience.
Flipkart
Founded
2007
Founders
Sachin Bansal, Binny Bansal
Headquarters
Bengaluru, India
Category
Ecommerce
Website
flipkart.com
Flipkart Website
Founded by two former Amazon employees, Binny Bansal, and Sachin Bansal, in 2007, Flipkart is a well-known privately hosted eCommerce website in India. After its highest acquisition of 16 billion in 2018 by Walmart, Flipkart now comes under the ownership of Walmart. The company owns 39.5 percent of the market share of the Indian eCommerce industry, with the most significant competition from none other than Amazon.
Flipkart gained massive popularity due to its Big Billion Days Sale, where it reached a large audience base by offering huge discounts on its merchandise of all categories. With a solid online presence, Flipkart is considered one of the best eCommerce websites following the B2C business model.
FirstCry
Founded
2010
Founders
Amitava Saha and Supam Maheshwari
Headquarters
Pune, India
Category
Online Baby Products
Website
firstcry.com
FirstCry Website
FirstCry is considered the best eCommerce platform for babies and children’s merchandise, following a B2C business model. The product quality and variety offered by FirstCry are excellent and worth all the praise. It provides more than 200,000 products from over 5,000 manufacturers. FirstCry was introduced in 2010 by Amitava Saha and Supam Maheshwari.
In addition to its eCommerce platform, Firstcry also operates physical stores across the country, which allows customers to experience its products before making a purchase.
The website has also launched its own private-label brands to offer quality products at affordable prices. FirstCry has over 400 outlets across India, covering cities like Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, and many more.
Paytm Mall
Founded
2016
Founders
Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Headquarters
Bengaluru, India
Category
Ecommerce
Website
paytmmall.com
Paytm Mall Website
Yes, you heard it right. Paytm isn’t limited to digital payments and financial services; it has also expanded to eCommerce. In 2016, Paytm introduced an online shopping platform based on the B2C business model, Paytm Mall.
From all kinds of clothing to exclusive gadgets to home furnishing, you can find everything at Paytm Mall. As per the reports published by findly, Paytm Mall is estimated to receive 60 million orders in a month.
Paytm Mall offers high-quality products at affordable pricing. Plus, you can use different coupons for discounts and cashback offered by Paytm Mall.
Snapdeal
Founded
2010
Founders
Kunal Bahl, Rohit Bansal
Headquarters
Gurgaon, India
Category
Ecommerce
Website
snapdeal.com
Snapdeal Website
With an estimated monthly visitor count of 56.41 million, Snapdeal is considered an eCommerce giant with a B2C business model. It’s an online shopping platform with various products from different categories such as electronics, clothing, home decor, books, beauty, and many more. Among these, Snapdeal’s electronic category is the largest shopped one.
This eCommerce platform was launched in 2010 and has attracted top investors such as Softbank, Alibaba Group, and Foxconn.
Myntra is among the premier fashion, lifestyle, and home eCommerce platforms with a B2C business model. It has around 48.03 million monthly visitors. It earned impressive profit and popularity after the acquisition of Jabong.com, its competitor in the market.
Myntra is known for its fantastic collection of high-end fashion from top brands all around the globe and as per 2012 data, Myntra added more than 350 Indian and Foreign brands to its manufacturer’s list. Plus, it has many private clothing labels, such as HRX and Moda Rapido, which are exempted from expansion vastly.
The website is also a fashion retailer with a wide range of products from international to local brands in all sections.
Estimated Retail Ecommerce Sales in India in Million US Dollars from 2016-2022
1mg
Founded
2013
Founders
Prashant Tandon, Gaurav Agarwal, Vikas Chauhan
Headquarters
Gurugram, India
Category
Healthcare
Website
1mg.com
1mg Website
1mg is categorized as an Indian online pharmacy founded in 2015 by Prashant Tandon, Gaurav Agarwal, and Vikas Chauhan. 1mg offers a wide range of healthcare products including medicines, healthcare devices, health supplements, personal care products, and more. The website features products from over 3,000 brands and has over 2 lakh products available on its platform.
1mg also provides features such as online medicine ordering, diagnostic tests booking, and wellness package booking to provide a comprehensive healthcare experience to its customers. In addition to healthcare products and services, 1mg also provides health-related content through its blog and social media channels.
LimeRoad
Founded
2012
Founders
Prashant Malik, Manish Saksena, Ankush Mehra, and Suchi Mukherjee
Headquarters
Gurugram, India
Category
Fashion Ecommerce
Website
limeroad.com
LimeRoad Website
Headquartered in Gurugram, LimeRoad is a pretty famous fashion and clothing eCommerce website following B2C business models. The company was founded in 2012 with the specification of online shopping. It was founded by Prashant Malik, Manish Saksena, Ankush Mehra, and Suchi Mukherjee.
In its initial three funding rounds, the company raised 50 million USD. LimeRoad is the first-ever women’s social shopping platform in India. It also offers a wide range of categories dealing with men, women, and kids.
Shopclues
Founded
2011
Founders
Sandeep Aggarwal, Radhika Aggarwal and Sanjay Sethi
Headquarters
Gurugram, India
Category
Online Shopping
Website
shopclues.com
Shopclues Website
Shopclues is another online shopping company based in Gurugram, Haryana, India, founded by Radhika Aggarwal, Sandeep Aggarwal, and Sanjay Sethi in 2011. With revenue of above $40 million and 1080+ employees, the company has established a strong image in the marketplace. It’s a privately owned company that specializes in online shopping.
ShopClues operates on a marketplace model where it connects buyers and sellers on its platform. The website has over 5 crore products from 9 lakh+ merchants across 3,300+ categories. Apart from the regular products, ShopClues also offers several exclusive features like Sunday Flea Market, Wholesale, and IndiMarket which showcase products from small and medium-sized businesses in India.
Pepperfry
Founded
2011
Founders
Ambareesh Murty & Ashish Shah
Headquarters
Mumbai, India
Category
Home Decor and Furniture
Website
pepperfry.com
Pepperfry Website
Pepperfry is a popular eCommerce B2C website in India that primarily focuses on home decor and furniture. The website was launched in 2012 by Ashish Shah and Ambreesh Murthy. Pepperfry has become one of the leading online shopping destinations for furniture and home decor in India.
They offer products from over 10,000 sellers and has over 1.2 lakh products available on its platform. It also has more than 100 outlets across 57 cities in India. The website also has a feature called “Studio Pepperfry” which is a concept store where customers can get a hands-on experience with the products before making a purchase.
BookMyShow
Founded
2007
Founders
Ashish Hemrajani, Parikshit Dar, and Rajesh Balpande
Headquarters
Mumbai, India
Category
Online Ticket Booking
Website
bookmyshow.com
BookMyShow Website
BookMyShow is a popular eCommerce B2C (business-to-consumer) website in India that primarily focuses on providing online ticket booking services for movies, events, and other entertainment activities. The website was launched in 2007 by Ashish Hemrajani, Parikshit Dar, and Rajesh Balpande.
BookMyShow offers a range of services including movie ticket booking, event ticket booking, sports event ticket booking, play and theater ticket booking, and more. The BookMyShow website features listings of events, movies, and activities happening in various cities across India. They also provide reviews and ratings of movies, events, and activities to help customers make informed decisions.
Nykaa
Founded
2012
Founders
Falguni Nayar
Headquarters
Mumbai, India
Category
Cosmetics, Beauty, Personal Care
Website
nykaa.com
Nykaa Website
Nykaa is a popular eCommerce B2C website in India that primarily provides beauty and wellness products to its customers. It was launched in 2012 by Falguni Nayar. Nykaa offers a wide range of beauty and wellness products including makeup, skincare, hair care, personal care, fragrance, wellness, and more.
The website features products from over 1,500 brands and has over 2 lakh products available on its platform. It also provides content related to beauty and wellness through its blog and social media channels.
In conclusion, with the massive adaptation of machine learning, consumers are getting more personalized services from B2C eCommerce companies. The best thing about B2C websites is the level of convenience and security they provide consumers.
It shows products based on the previous purchasing history of the users to fulfill their unique needs. These above-mentioned B2C eCommerce websites are truly extraordinary with their services and products. And because of this only, the competition within the eCommerce industry is relatively high, which is also the reason for its growth.
FAQs
Which is India’s number 1 eCommerce company?
Flipkart is considered India’s number 1 eCommerce company with 39.5% of the market share from the Indian eCommerce industry.
Is Zomato a B2C?
Yes, Zomato is a B2C company.
Who is the father of eCommerce in India?
K Vaitheeswaran is considered the father of eCommerce in India.
What are B2C website examples?
Some of the B2C website examples are Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, LimeRoad, Pepperfry, Shopclues, 1mg, Snapdeal, Paytm Mall, Firstcry, etc.
The city of Pune is the cultural capital of Maharashtra and a hub for the automotive and IT sectors. Pune is a favorable destination for investments in India. It has paved way for several emerging startups. The city’s close proximity to Mumbai adds to its advantage in trade, business, and lifestyle. Thus, Pune is popular among investors seeking to launch their business. This post outlines some of the most popularstartups in Pune.
800+ stories, thousands of founders, and millions of visitors. Want to be the next?
StartupTalky is where founders, entrepreneurs, startups and businesses hang out and look up to for inspiration. If you have the means, we have the medium! Inviting founders and startups who are building sustainable solutions from ground zero! Startups who run the show, StartupTalky will let the world know!
Founder: Supam Maheshwari Year Founded: 2010 Industry: Baby Products
FirstCry Logo | Startups in Pune
FirstCry is Asia’s largest online store for baby and kids products. It caters particularly to the needs of parents expecting children or those with toddlers. In general, FirstCry offers a massive catalogue for children till their early teens. The venture was started by Supam Maheshwari and offers the best deals in products meant for kids. The endeavor aims to ensure that the customer gets the widest choice of top-rated brands and products at the best price in India. FirstCry is known for its service and the timely delivery of products.
Founders: Rishabh Gupta, Mayank Batheja, and Pranay Swarup Year Founded: 2010 Industry: Recruitment
Letsintern logo | Startups in Pune
Very few people know that Letsintern is a Pune-based startup. Letsintern is a platform for students to grab their favorite internships. Over 12,000 organisations have tied up with the company to streamline the process of hiring interns and employees. The platform claims to get more than 280,000 visits on its website and mobile app every month.
Letsintern was founded by Rishabh Gupta, Mayank Batheja, and Pranay Swarup in 2010. Aspiring minds, a job-finding platform, acquired Letsintern in 2015. After the acquisition, the company’s headquarters was shifted to Gurgaon.
InTouchApp
Founders: Sarang Lakare Year Founded: 2012 Industry: Mobile App
InTouchApp | Pune Startups
InTouchApp is a simple yet useful app that helps you manage your contacts. It was developed keeping businessmen and entrepreneurs in mind. InTouchApp allows you to save contacts from business cards. It automatically updates the contacts and assists in managing both personal contacts and business contacts. The app is free of cost on all major platforms. As of now, it has over 1 million downloads and manages billions of contacts.
The app was founded by Sarang Lakare. Sarang has 12 years experience in application development. He has a master’s degree and a PhD in Computer Science from Stony Brook University.
PortraitFlip
Founders: Sunny Choudhary Year Founded: 2018 Industry: Art and Handicrafts
PortraitFlip | Startups in Pune
PortraitFlip makes handmade paintings from photos and delivers them to the customer’s doorstep. You can order custom handmade paintings from its website. PortraitFlip ships worldwide and experiences many orders from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and Singapore. The company flaunts a 100% satisfaction guarantee because it trusts the artists who makes these custom paintings with utmost precision. The paintings are hand-painted by artists in mediums like oil, charcoal, pencil, acrylic, coloured pencil, and watercolor.
PortraitFlip is famous for its ‘compilation portraits’ wherein the customers can convert characters from multiple photos into one painting. The company is also known to make pet portraits, couple portraits, and landscape portraits. It offers you customization options like size, medium, framing options, unlimited characters, custom messages, etc.
Mr. Sunny Choudhary, the founder, currently directs PortraitFlip. This Pune-based startup has made a revenue of $600,000 since its inception in 2018. PortraitFlip is targeting a revenue of $14,00,000 by the year 2021.
Helpshift
Founders: Abinash Tripathy and Bishampayan Ghose Year Founded: 2011 Industry: Business Solutions
Helpshift Logo | Startups in Pune
Helpshift is a business service provider. It offers smart solutions to businesses for maintaining and improving customer interaction. With the aid of Helpshift’s AI chatbots and other personalized products, businesses can automate their customer service tasks and focus on what matters the most. The startup also provides other related services.
Helpshift was founded by Abinash Tripathy and Bishampayan Ghose. It has received a total of $38.5 million in funding from different ventures in the Silicon Valley.
EarlySalary
Founders: Akshay Mehrotra and Ashish Goyal Year Founded: 2015 Industry: Fintech
EarlySalary logo | Fintech Startups in Pune
EarlySalary is a fintech startup that provides short term loans to salaried people. With the help of EarlySalary’s app or website, people can apply for hassle-free and instant loans up to INR 1,00,000. No pre-payment fees are applied on the loan.
EarlySalary was founded by Akshay Mehrotra and Ashish Goyal. Akshay is the CEO of the company while Ashish is the CFO. The startup has raised $23.2 million from different ventures.
MindTickle
Founders: Mohit Garg, Krishna Depura, Nishant Mungali, and Deepak Diwakar Year Founded: 2011 Industry: Business Solutions
MindTickle | Startups in Pune
MindTickle provides a sales enablement solution that uses data-driven analytics to show the impact of sales readiness programs on revenue growth. It is a readiness platform that creates an excellent sales culture, thereby permitting products to be sold quickly and with efficacy. It combines an award-winning platform and the best practice methodologies to improve sales performance and knowledge. The results of this combination include improved customer engagement, higher win rates, and bigger deal sizes.
MindTickle was launched in 2011 by Mohit Garg, Krishna Depura, Nishant Mungali, and Deepak Diwakar. It has raised INR 174 crores in Series B funding. Some prominent investors include Accel Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Canaan Partners, and Qualcomm Ventures.
DataTorrent
Founders: Milind Mukund Barve and George Michael Kelakos Year Founded: 2012 Industry: Computer Software
Data Torrent | Startups in Pune
DataTorrent captures real-time data and combines it with the existing data to generate insights. DataTorrent is useful for companies where millions of events need to be monitored on a per-second basis. It is a YARN-based application and is open-sourced as Apache Project Apex. This Pune-based software startup received $24 million in funds from Morado Ventures, August Capital, and AME Cloud Ventures.
Founder: Reema Sathe Year Founded: 2016 Industry: Food
Happy Roots | Startups in Pune
Happy Roots started as Reema Sathe’s vision to create a business model around healthy products. Happy Roots connects with local farmers for the manufacturing of delicious products like cookies, crackers, and other kinds of snacks.
Reema Sathe, the founder of Happy Roots, has received several awards such as Business Today’s Most Powerful Woman (2017), Nari Shakti Puraskar 2017, etc.
MarketsandMarkets
Founder: Sandeep Sugla and Aman Gupta Year Founded: 2001 Industry: B2B Research
Markets and Markets | Startups in Pune
MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research and consulting. It provides data related to technology, new product offerings, and market performance. MarketsandMarkets currently serves 7500 customers worldwide. It includes 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as its clientele. MarketsandMarkets provides high level analysis of major market segments and helps with the identification of opportunities.
It offers service to multiple industries such as aerospace, defense, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, mining, construction, healthcare, agricultural, automotive, and other industries. MarketsandMarkets provides reports on information related to market segmentation, patent analysis, forecasting solutions, market dynamics, and technology information. MarketsandMarkets has received a total of $56 million in funding from FTV Capital, Zodius Capital, and Mantra Ventures.
Plobal Apps
Founder: Atul Poharkar Year Founded: 2015 Industry: Software Development
Plobal Apps | Startups in Pune
Plobal Apps is an online commercial venture available for both Android and iOS users. It promotes Shopify and has a number of features like apply pay, promotional coupons, push notifications, etc. The app aims to increase sales.
Plobal Apps was launched in 2015 by Atul Poharkar. Atul is a graduate from Fergusson College who later went on to do his engineering from Maharashtra Institute of Technology. The company has around 50 team members.
Docplexus
Founder: Phanish Chandra Year Founded: 2013 Industry: Healthtech
Docplexus | Startups in Pune
Docplexus is an online community for doctors across India. It has more than 1 lakh doctors from more than 1500 cities with 89 specialties registered on its platform. Docplexus is the largest community of doctors online and continues to grow.
Phanish Chandra, the CEO of Docplexus, is a social entrepreneur who aims to connect patients and the Indian healthcare system through this app. He has skills in software development and this skillset was of great help to him during the Docplexus app’s development.
Founder: Kapil Shelke Year Founded: 2009 Industry: Automobiles
Tork Motors | Startups in Pune
Tork Motors is India’s first electric motorcycle company. Kapil Shelke is the founder and CEO of Tork Motors. Tork Motors was founded in 2009 with a vision to create a zero-emissions vehicle that could perform on par with petrol machines.
The key to Tork Motors’ success is the engineering of the motorcycle which reduces the cost of the vehicle and makes it affordable for middle-class Indians.
Repos Energy
Founder: Aditi Bhosale Walunj and Chetan Walunj Year Founded: 2017 Industry: Fuel Delivery
Repos Energy | Startups in Pune
Repos Energy offers doorstep delivery of fuel for industries to minimize diesel loss. Repos works on cloud-based technology and IoT devices. The customer orders diesel via the Repos App and a Repos petrol pump operator reaches the customer location to complete the diesel delivery. Repos Energy uses smart fuel dispensers to make transactions quick and easy. Repos Energy currently offers door-to-door delivery of diesel in around 65 Indian cities. Ratan Tata has invested an undisclosed amount in this startup.
ShoppinPal
Founders: Pulkit Singhal and Sriram Subramanian Year Founded: 2012 Industry: Business Solutions
ShoppinPal | Product based Startup in Pune
ShoppinPal provides software products for businesses to better understand their sales and management verticals. Some of its products are Stockup, Prosxdata, POS-ERP Sync, and eCommerce Sync. It also provides a suite of these offerings.
Pulkit Singhal and Sriram Subramanian founded ShoppinPal in 2012.
HotFut Sports
Founders: Pavit Singh and Nikhil Year Founded: 2012 Industry: Sports
HotFut Sports | Startups in Pune
HotFut is a sports development company which aims at providing world-class sports facilities to the people in India. It gives youngsters an integrated sporting experience that will help build sports in India at the grassroots level. The company also organizes tournaments for sports lovers and corporate events. Hotfut has an academy of its own where people come to play outdoor games.
Hotfut sports was launched in 2012 by Pavit Singh and Nikhil. Hotfut is currently operational in Pune, Hyderabad, and Mumbai.
Founders: Nitin Lahoti and Vikrant Bhujbalrao Year Founded: 2015 Industry: Funding
111 Startups | Startups in Pune
111 Startups is a not-for-profit organization. It is connected with more than 300 startups across India and helps them secure funding. The startup wants to encourage entrepreneurship and promote well-calculated, risk-taking abilities. 111 Startups focuses on IT professionals, engineers, students, and startups that are in the early stages of entrepreneurship.
111 Startups is the joint effort of Mobisoft Infotech and Pesh Group. The company was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Pune.
Dark Reflections
Founder: Siddhi Shah Industry: Designer
Dark Reflections | Startups in Pune
Pune-based Dark Reflections Studio is a venture by Siddhi Shah, a designer. Originally from Chennai, Siddhi settled in Pune. The Studio sells dream catchers with the lowest price of a dream catcher being INR 300. It sells dream catchers for different occasions and in different sizes and colors. Dream catchers are generally used for décor and come in different sizes; hence, the price is determined accordingly.
Brandup
Founder: Shiv Singh Year Founded: 2006 Industry: Digital Marketing
Brandup Logo | Digital Startup in Pune
Brandup is a SEO and digital marketing firm in Pune. Brandup ensures that you get unique and recurring visitors by applying the right digital marketing tactics. Brandup provides services such as digital marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization, organic marketing, support services, and online advertising.
Icertis
Founder: Samir Bodas and Monish Darda Year Founded: 2009 Industry: Contract Management Software
Icertis Logo | Startups in Pune
The company is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington with 12 offices globally, including an engineering office in Pune, India. Key investors of Icertis include B Capital Group, Ignition Partners, Premji Invest, Greycroft Partners, Meritech Capital Partners, Eight Roads Ventures, PSP Growth, and Cross Creek Advisors.
The company provides contract management software. It aims at improving contract management efficiency and compliance by providing access to contract lifecycle information across many devices, including smartphones and tablets.
Xpressbees
Founder: Amitava Saha And Supam Maheshwari Year Founded: 2015 Industry: Logistics
Xpressbees is the fastest-growing express logistics service providing end-to-end supply chain solutions. The Pune-based startup works with several e-commerce firms. Xpressbees has seen huge growth as online shopping has become world’s second-largest internet market.
Xpressbees raised $110 million in November 2020. It is spread over 2000 cities and processes more than 2.5 million orders per day.
We hope this post encourages you to move ahead with your business idea and achieve something great. If you know about other startups based out of Pune, let us know in the comments. We will connect with them and feature them in this list.
FAQs
Which are the top startups in Pune?
Some of the top startups in Pune are:
Xpressbees
Firstcry
Faasos
EarlySalary
HappyRoots
MarketsandMarkets
DataTorrent
Letsintern
Brandup
InTouchApp
How many startups are there in Pune?
There are around 3100 startups in Pune.
Is Pune good for startups?
The great weather, proximity to Mumbai, and network of many big companies makes Pune an emerging startup hub in India.
The world we live in is always in need of innovation. Be it from domestic help to data analysis. For all of this one thing is unavoidable – investment. With an aim of investing in transformative technologies, The Japanese company SoftBank has initiated a $100 venture capital fund called the visions fund.
The Vision Fund was a materialisation of a talk between Masayoshi Son, Chairman of SoftBank and the crown prince of Saudi Arabia Muhammed Bin Salman. As the name suggests, the Vision Fund envisions a long-term growth of companies for the benefit of humanity.
Being the biggest venture capital fund in the world, their plans for investment are almost equal to the global venture capital investment of the world. Most of their companies are in the transportation and logistics sector followed by consumer services and frontier technologies. Here is a glimpse of a few startups that are funded by SoftBank’s Vision Fund
The banking startup is the latest unicorn now. In May 2021, it raised $250 million in a series C funding of Vision Fund. This has raised the value of the firm to $1.45 billion. It was founded by Bhavin Turakhia and Ramki Gaddipati in 2015. Zeta provides a modern and cloud native platform to improve the cost to income ratio and consumer experience.
ByteDance
With a mission to “Inspire creativity and enrich life”, ByteDance is a startup that is spread over 150 markets with offices in 126 cities. They offer high quality Global Creation and Interaction Platforms as and while ensuring that the digital life of billions of its users are made beautiful. It was found in 2012 in a four bedroom apartment. In 2019, SoftBank’s Vision Fund invested in ByteDance and its corporate value quadrupled soon after.
Trax
Making in-store execution easier, Trax has been very useful to both retailers and customers. They say that through them the best of digital technologies comes together in the physical reality for the best experience of the users. In 2021, it secured $640 million funding lead by SoftBank Vision Fund. Trax will continue to optimise its retail stores through creating awareness about changing store condition and improving purchasing intent.
Firstcry
Founded in 2010, It aims to be the largest retailer in child and mother care products in the world. In 2018, SoftBank Vision Fund bought a 40% stake at a rate of $400 million which makes them the biggest investor in the company. It also valued Firstcry at $1.1 billion at that time. Today, they have a customer base of over 20 million families. Under the leadership of Supam Maheshwari, they continue to conquer greater heights in the business realm.
It is a startup that revolutionised the untapped market of opticals. It is indeed a magical unicorn of India and there is no surprise in Vision Fund investing in Lenskart. Beginning from contact lenses, today it has a range of prescription glasses and sunglasses as well. It was launched in 2010. It fared really well in business and was aided by SoftBank Vision Fund in the year 2019. They invested a total of $275 million after which it was valued at $1.5 billion. In 2020, Lenskart generated a revenue of 1000 crore.
Meesho
The top rated reselling app of India was found by two IIT Delhi graduates Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal. They have transcended beyond earning profits for themselves alone by helping small businesses and individuals to set up their own online stores.
In the latest funding round of Vision Fund (2021), it invested $300 million which raised its value to an enviable $2.1 billion. Earlier, when it was valued at $700 million, they had received a funding of $125 million in 2019. The latest funding is three times greater than last time. It was the fourth deal in the second Vision Fund in India.
Oyo Rooms
The most popular hospitality firm that upturned the ways of hotel booking raised $807 million along with RA Holdings. In this SVF has picked up 9626 holdings of Series F CCPS for $506 million. This will make SVF entitled to 50.5% stake in the firm. Oyo has always surprised us by expanding to countries like wildfire. It is expected that this fund will be used to increase the efficiency of the company by delivering the best services.
Flipkart
Flipkart is a very familiar name in the e-commerce industry for the past few years. Its growth has been tremendous and inspiring. Softbank Vision Fund had invested a sum of $2.5 billion in 2017. Now, Flipkart is completing its merger with Walmart and SoftBank has only sold 20% of its stake during the process and thereby continues to stay invested. Softbank is now again trying to invest in Flipkart.
Unacademy
It is a Bangalore based Education technology firm which was founded in 2015. It began its journey as a YouTube channel in 2010 and its growth over the decade is commendable. Unacademy received a sum of $150 million from SoftBank’s Vision Fund in 2020. This will take the committed firm’s overall value to $1.4 billion. This is a triple gain as far as the firm is concerned in a span of 6 months. They will be using the fund to launch new products and expand the organisation.
The UK based bank for small and medium sized companies was founded in 2013. It gained regulatory approval in 2015. The firm was founded by Rishi Khosla and Joel Perlman. In February 2019, SoftBank invested $440 million in OakNorth and its value skyrocketed to $2.8 billion. Many times, it lends more than $5 billion which is higher than its counterparts. However, they recover more than 90% of that money. Today, it is one of the highly valued startups in Europe.
Softbank’s Biggest Investments
Grofers
Founded in 2013, Grofers is a grocery delivery service in India. It allows you to order a large variety of products through their online supermarket. Their potential did not skip the eyes of SoftBank either. In 2020, they invested $55 million in this firm to help them further improve their efficiency and services. The bank’s trust in the business can be further reiterated by the fact that they hold 46% of the total holdings.
Paytm
Since its launch in 2009, Paytm has transformed the money paying etiquette of people in India and many other e-commerce payment platforms followed suit. In 2019, it was founded by Vijay Shekhar Varma. Paytm raised $1 billion from Vision Fund along with Ant Financial Services. The new fund will be used to ramp up the expansion of the firm into rural India. They aim to popularise payments in rural India online.
Biofourmis
It is a health tech company that makes use of machine learning and AI to improve services in the health sector. It was founded by Kuldeep Singh Rajput with a team of committed members backing him. Together they have been successful in improving outcomes of major healthcare providers. In 2020, they raised $100 million through the Series C of Vision Fund. This was indeed a booster shot for them. They are now on their path to develop better portfolios which are inclusive of digital therapeutics for pain and cancer.
Klarna
Klarna Bank AB or Klarna, as it is commonly termed, is a Swedish fintech company that is mainly associated with online financial services to support payments for online storefronts, direct payments, and post-purchase payments. The company is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden and boasts of more than 3,000 employees, most of whom work from the headquarters.
With the latest investment round, Klarna announces an equity funding of $638 million. This equity funding has been led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, which was then followed by additional participation primarily from Adit Ventures, Honeycomb Asset Management, and WestCap Group. The latest round of funding raised the valuation of Klarna to $45.6 billion. This recent funding round is aimed to support the international expansion of the company and further capture global retail growth.
Eightfold AI
Eightfold AI, as the name indicates, is a Talent Intelligence platform powered by Artificial Intelligence. Eightfold AI announced on Thursday, June 10, 2021, that the company has been successful in raising a fund close to $220 million in the Series E funding round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2.
The company has been successful in raising more than $410 million to date, with around $350 million coming in the past six months. According to Eightfold AI’s Founder and CEO, Ashutosh Garg, the company will continue to use the funds to widen its operations in India, with investments focused on the most talented data scientists and engineers across the country. This way Eightfold AI would ensure that its funds are used for fast and effective growth and development of its talent intelligence platform and further expanding its growing partner ecosystem.
Whatfix
Whatfix is a SaaS-based company, which primarily focuses on providing in-app guidance and support for software products and web applications. In the Series D funding round of the company, Whatfix announced that it has raised $90 million. This recent round of funding was led by Softbank’s Vision Fund 2, followed by other participations including that of Eight Roads Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, Dragoneer Investment Group, F-Prime Capital, and Cisco Investments.
Whatfix claims to have tripled its investments after the completion of this recent round of funding, according to TOI. The firm has reportedly raised around $139.8 million in the last segment alone and with that in, the company is presently valued at $600 million.
With the latest round of funding, Whatfix aims to strengthen its position in the US and look for further expansion in Europe and the Asia Pacific. It also strives to focus more on product innovation to provide personalized user experiences with effective use of Artificial Intelligence.
Here are a few other startups in which SoftBank’s Vision Fund have invested in
Name of the company
Year of Investment by SBVF
Amount of investment
Ola
2014
$210 million
Delhivery
2019
$350 million
Policy Bazaar
$200 million
OpenDoor Labs
2019
$300 million
Cameo
2021
$100 million
Banco Inter
2021
$471 million
Exeger
2019
$10 million
Zume Pizza
2018
$375 million
One Tap Buy
2018
$17.32 million
Compass
2018
$400 million
Conclusion
There was a lot of criticism with regard to the functionalities of Vision Fund. Many opinionated that the mode of its functioning was hitherto unseen. The loss it faced in the last year further sharpened the criticisms against it. However, it was able to come back with a bang and give a sharper reply to the critics through its economic performance.
The performance of the companies in which it invested is a testimony to the win of SoftBank as well. The Japanese multinational company has significantly helped a plethora of startups to ace in their business through the Vision Fund.
By extending help to startups, it also didn’t fall back in emerging as the biggest profit earning company in the history of Japanese companies. After a year of unprecedented loss it has emerged as one of the world’s biggest earning firms in the world. SoftBank and its Vision Fund will always remain as a ray of hope for all startups.
FAQ
Who owns SoftBank?
SoftBank’s founder and CEO is Masayoshi Son who is the third-richest person in Japan, with a $20.6 billion personal fortune. He owns $45 million worth of real estate in Tokyo as well as a $117.5 million estate in Silicon Valley.
What is SoftBank Vision Fund?
Softbank Vision Fund is the world’s biggest innovation-centered investment finance, with over $100 billion in the capital.
How does SoftBank earns?
SoftBank owns stakes in many technology, energy, and financial companies. It also runs Vision Fund, the world’s largest technology-focused venture capital fund.
“If you want to walk fast, walk alone. But if you want to walk far, walk together.” – Ratan Tata, Tata Group
Ratan Tata is a prolific investor and has made numerous investment in many Startups. His style of investment and funding are revered by many across the globe. And his investments are known to emerge as giants in their respective sectors with time. Ola Cabs is an example.
An investment from Ratan Tata gives a boost to startups in terms of publicity, acquiring finances, and brand-building. Here is a list of the startups that Ratan Tata has funded over the years. Consequently, the behemoth organization of Ratan tata – Tata Group has also infiltrated a number of markets such as telecom, software, groceries, and fashion.
Latest News
22 April, 2021 – Ratan Tata has recently made an undisclosed amount of investment in Mailit which is a Mumbai based logistics startup serving a lot of big corporates including Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, etc.
800+ stories, thousands of founders, and millions of visitors. Want to be the next?
StartupTalky is where founders, entrepreneurs, startups and businesses hang out and look up to for inspiration. If you have the means, we have the medium! Inviting founders and startups who are building sustainable solutions from ground zero! Startups who run the show, StartupTalky will let the world know!
The Recent investment by Ratan Tata was in 2021, as he invested in Mailit, a technology-driven mailroom management and logistics company. The terms of the investment are undisclosed but it comes at at a time when Mailit is planning to launch 500 mailrooms across India in addition to establishing fully mechanised warehouses and distribution centres in the next five years.
Tork Motors
Tork motors | Ratan Tata Investment
Tork Motors is a Pune-based electric motorcycle startup. Ratan Tata invested an undisclosed amount in Tork Motors in October 2019. He saw potential in the company and found the team to be commendable. Apart from Ratan Tata, Bharat Forge and Bhavish Aggarwal (Ola Cabs’ founder) have also invested in Tork Motors.
Snapdeal
Snapdeal | Ratan Tata Investment
Snapdeal is India’s first online marketplace for multiple categories. It has received funding from Ebay and Alibaba. Snapdeal was launched by Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal in February 2010. It has over 3 lakh sellers and hosts over 3 crore products across 800+ diverse categories from more than 1,25,000 regional, national, and international brands and retailers.
Ratan Tata made an investment in Snapdeal soon after Flipkart’s acquisition of Myntra. He bought 256 shares from the e-commerce venture’s angel investors. This move not only protected Snapdeal from losing market share but also prevented any potential attempt by Flipkart to monopolize the e-commerce segment.
Cure.fit is a health and fitness startup that has raised $170 million from investors like Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital, Chiratae Ventures, and Ratan Tata to date.
Cure.fit maintains a chain of fitness centers (under the ‘Cult.fit’ brand), a food delivery platform called ‘Eat.fit’, a chain of healthcare clinics called ‘Care.fit’, and the recently launched online mental-wellness platform called ‘Mind.fit’.
Paytm started out as a mobile recharging platform and later became an online marketplace for multiple categories. It became India’s first payment bank after receiving a license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Ratan Tata Made an investment in Paytm by raising a funding of INR 1 crore in March 2015 for One97 Communications – the parent company of Paytm. This funding fetched him the position of a business advisor on One97 Communications’ board.
Paytm is now among the most successful digital payment companies with millions of subscribers. It thrived when the demonetization scheme was implemented in India in November 2018. At present, the company’s gross merchandise value (GMV) is over $1 billion.
Ola is India’s first home-grown cab aggregator service and one of the nine Indian unicorn startups valued at $5 billion. The app allows users to book a taxi on their smartphone at the best fares. Ola provides cab services across price segments that range from economy to luxury.
Ratan Tata funded Ola in July 2015, 5 years after the company began its operations in 2010. He invested INR 95 lakhs in the company in personal capacity. Ratan Tata made also an investment through his investment company – RNT Capital Advisors – of INR 400 crores in Ola.
Repos Energy
Repos Energy | Ratan Tata Investment
Aditi Bhosale Walunj and Chetan Walunj founded Repos Energy. Repos Energy is a Pune-based startup responsible for the doorstep delivery of fuel to industries. It works using cloud-based technology and IoT devices. Customers can order diesel on the Repos app. A Repos petrol pump operator then arrives at the customer’s location and completes the diesel delivery. Ratan Tata made an undisclosed amount of investment in this startup.
ClimaCell
Climacell | Ratan Tata Funded Startup
ClimaCell is an app developed by Rei Goffer, Shimon Elkabetz, and Itai Zlotnik that provides accurate weather forecast to alert people about upcoming floods. It uses day-to-day devices as environmental sensors. ClimaCell focuses on error-free weather predictions and has garnered a lot of attention.
Ratan Tata participated in ClimaCell’s seed round funding in September 2016. ClimaCell has acquired $70 million over three rounds of funding.
Abra
Abra Logo | Ratan Tata Investment
Ratan Tata has also made an investment in a Silicon Valley based bitcoin startup with American Express where he with American Express invested $12 million in Abra. People can store digital cash and send money to any smartphone using Abra’s app. Abra earns money when users buy or sell digital currency through its app.
CarDekho
CarDekho Logo | Ratan tata Funded Startups
CarDekho is India’s leading car search venture that helps users purchase the right cars. Ratan Tata invested an undisclosed amount in GirnarSoft – the parent company of CarDekho, BikeDekho, and PriceDekho portals.
The CarDekho app has rich automotive content that includes expert reviews, detailed specs and prices, comparisons, and the visuals of the different car brands and models available in India.
The company deals with many automobile manufacturers, more than 4000 car dealers, and numerous financial institutions to facilitate the purchase of vehicles. The CarDekho portal accounts for about 30% of the automobile manufacturers’ combined annual sales today.
Holachef
Hola Chef | Ratan tata Funded Startups
Holachef was founded by Saxena and Anil Gelra in 2014. Holachef connects expert chefs with consumers via its website and mobile app (available for both Android and iOS platforms). The platform offers a new menu everyday and delivers food in a state-of-the-art packaging. Holachef received an undisclosed amount of investment from Ratan Tata in September 2015.
Ola-owned food delivery firm Foodpanda has acquired Holachef.
FirstCry is a baby care e-commerce platform. FirstCry is owned by BrainBees Solutions. It follows an omni-channel strategy of selling through online and offline stores. Ratan Tata invested an undisclosed amount in this startup in January 2016.
Lenskart
Lenskart Logo | Ratan Tata Funded Startup
Lenskart is a popular online retailer for eyewear. It was also been added to the list of companies invested by Tata as it secured funding from Ratan Tata in April 2016; the amount is undisclosed.
Lenskart sells sunglasses, eye glasses, contact lenses, and more. The officials from Lenskart said that Ratan Tata’s role was more of a mentor and an advisor than a financial investor. Some of the investors in Lenskart are TPG Group, IDG Ventures India, and Unilazer Ventures founder Ronnie Screwvala.
NestAway
nestaway logo | Ratan Tata Funded Startups
NestAway allows users to find, book, and move-in to a rental home of their choice across Indian cities. NestAway’s aim is to provide better rental solutions with the help of design and technology. The company presently caters to more than 35,000 tenants and 16,000 owners, providing homes to over 7000 families in cities like Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and others. Ratan Tata invested an undisclosed amount in NestAway Technologies Pvt. Ltd. in December 2017.
Urban Ladder is an online furniture seller. Urban Ladder was founded by Ashish Goel and Rajiv Srivatsa in July 2012. It currently offers over 1,000 products across 25 furniture categories such as wardrobes, beds, sofas, dining tables, and coffee tables. The online retailer secured funding from Ratan Tata in November 2015.
UrbanCompany
Urban Company Logo
UrbanCompany, previously known as UrbanClap, is a local services marketplace that raised an undisclosed amount in funding from Ratan Tata in December 2015. It is also funded by Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal.
The UrbanCompany app allows the online booking of services such as plumbing, electric work, beauty treatments, and salon. UrbanCompany has successfully penetrated the services sector and bridged the gap between workers and consumers. People can now easily overcome the challenges of household hurdles, troubles, fixtures, and anything related through UrbanCompany.
GOQii
Goqii Logo | Ratan tata funded Startups
GOQii makes healthcare watches that are similar to smart watches. It also makes GOQii Stride, a device people can attach to their shoes and keep track of the number of steps, etc. GOQii’s platform provides tools for real-time personalized coaching, scheduling health check-ups, and securing information in a health locker. GOQii was founded in 2014 by Vishal Gondal. It joined the list of Ratan Tata-backed startups after he invested an undisclosed amount in October 2016.
This might come across as an interesting trivia—Ratan Tata is the first Indian to buy a stake in Xiaomiandhe has also made an undisclosed amount of investment in the company. Xiaomi is the world’s fourth largest smartphone manufacturer and is based out of China. The brand is very popular in India. It entered the Indian market in 2014. The Chinese tech giant sells smartphones, laptops, air purifiers, tablets, LED TVs, fitness bands and more.
Some senior executives from Xiaomi were quoted saying that they would seek Ratan Tata’s advice on how to expand globally.
Lybrate
Lybrate Logo | Ratan Tata Funded Startups
Lybrate was founded in 2013. It connects patients and doctors. Lybrate launched an online lab testing facility in May 2016. A patient’s sample is collected right from his or her home and the results are then shared online. Lybrate secured about INR 64.8 crores ($10.2 million) funding from Ratan Tata in July 2019.
Infinite Analytics is a U.S. and Mumbai-based startup founded by two MITians – Akash Bhatia and Purushotam Bolta. It became Microsoft Dynamics AX’s first global OEM partner four months after Ratan Tata has also made an investment in this startup in August 2015.
Infinite Analytics is a cloud-based big data startup that predicts consumer behavior based on information shared by users on social networking sites. Infinite Analytics analyses raw data, maps out a person’s social genome, and then gives personalized recommendations to consumer brands with online presence. This information, which is collected without breaking privacy laws, allows a retailer to identify and recommend products that will appeal to customers. Infinite Analytics has expanded its predictive analytics technology to verticals beyond retail and e-commerce.
CashKaro
Cashkaro Logo | Ratan Tata Funded Startups
CashKaro is a cashback and coupons website that provides 30% cashback to customers who shop on its affiliates’ platforms. These platforms include Amazon, Paytm, Jabong, and ShopClues. The Gurgaon-based company was founded by Swati and Rohan Bhargava in 2013 and raised an undisclosed amount in Series A funding from Ratan Tata in January 2016.
Cashkaro generates revenue by taking commission from retailers and sharing a portion of it with customers in the form of cashback. It is the largest cashback website in India with over 10 lakh registered users and has given net cashback of more than INR 30 crores.
DogSpot
Dogspot Logo | Ratan Tata funded Startups
DogSpot is a Gurgaon-based online pet care platform that handles about 60,000 orders on a monthly basis with an average basket size of INR 1,700. DogSpot also promotes pet-centric events, drives, and related content. The startup was founded in 2007 and is run by PetsGlam Services Pvt. Ltd.
Ratan Tata invested an undisclosed amount in his personal capacity in DogSpot in January 2016. Ronnie Screwvala also invested in DogSpot alongside Ratan Tata.
BlueStone
Bluestone Logo | Ratan Tata funded Startups
Bluestone.com is an online platform for purchasing jewelry. BlueStone was founded by Gaurav Singh Kushwaha in 2011. BlueStone is backed by Ratan Tata and has also received a funding from him in 2014. It offers over 5,000 jewelry designs and plans to scale to 30,000 designs in the next three years.
Zivame
Zivame Logo | Ratan Tata funded Startup
Bangalore-based Zivame was founded in 2011 by Richa Kar and Kapil Karekar. Zivame is an online platform for one’s lingerie needs. It has raised $48 million in four years. The startup gained popularity through its quirky campaigns and is a well-known name today. Zivame received funding from Ratan Tata in September 2015.
Generic Aadhaar
Generic Aadhaar | Ratan Tata funded Startup
Ratan Tata has invested undisclosed amount in Generic Aadhaar, a Maharashtra-based pharmaceutical startup. Arjun Deshpande founded Generic Aadhaar in 2018. Generic Aadhaar provides generic medicines from reputed pharmaceutical companies at discounted rates—up to 80% cheaper than the retail price. It offers a catalog comprising branded, generic, homeopathy, and Ayurveda medicines from government-approved manufacturing facilities.
Generic Aadhaar aims to partner with 1000 pharmacies through a franchisee model in the coming months and expand its reach to places like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, New Delhi, Goa, Rajasthan, and Gujarat.
What are the names of some Ratan Tata funded startups?
Some startups funded by Ratan Tata are Ola cabs, Zivame, Paytm, Snapdeal, Xiaomi, Urban Ladder, UrbanCompany, Cash Karo, and Abra.
What sector does Ratan Tata like to fund in?
Ratan Tata does not prefer any specific sectors. He has funded startups in sectors ranging from e-commerce and real estate to electric mobility and food delivery.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by the organization it is based on.
India has traditionally been a risk-averse market, and most toy distributors focused on traditional categories like dolls, vehicles, and guns. Then came WinMagic Toys, which was launched by Mukesh Jagwani and the senior management team in 2017, which disrupted in the toy industry by launching new trendy categories and global brands into the market.
Read this article to know about the success story of WinMagic Toys, founder, growth, vision, mission, and funding.
WinMagic Toys is a company that creates and distributes world-class marketable & unique products that bring happiness for kids and fulfillment for parents.
They aims to be the ‘go-to’ company that makes it easy for all the international brands desirous of entering India in the kids & games space! WinMagic Toys acts as a catalyst that ongoingly transforms the industry and promotes the cause of India at international platforms.
For the customers, it is a marketing-oriented company that always creates new and innovative categories at retail, provides a significant product or price differentiation, and drives strong communication campaigns to create consumer demand and affect shopper conversions at retail.
For the employees, it is a company that empowers them to create the future they dream of, for themselves and their families, which makes them spring into action every day.
WinMagic Toys is a company that delivers a veritable portfolio in its space, that touches consumers from birth to their full lifecycle. They sees their final play to be a company with two separate and equally thriving divisions, third party distribution and owned portfolio marketed globally, with a host of owned brands, being made in India!
WinMagic Toys – About and How it Works
WinMagic Toys creates and spreads happiness, pride, and oneness amongst kids and families! A full portfolio-kids’ product creation, manufacturing, marketing & distribution company, that touches consumers from birth & remains a companion for life, through its product offerings.
The company dominates the pre-school retail aisle with Paw Patrol, PJ Masks, and Peppa Pig toy lines that are the top 3 licensed content and toy properties globally as well as in India. Similarly, this fastest-growing toy company of India has also transformed the girls’ aisle with brands like L.O.L Surprise! Dolls, Hatchimals, and Shopkins.
Products
To ensure product quality, the company only works with global brands that are already supplying to the US and Europe. Their products comply with American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), European Standard EN 71, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and other independent standards likes Facility and Merchandise Authorization (FAMA) certification by The Walt Disney Company.
Recently, the government of India conducted a survey where 66% of imported toys failed to comply with quality standards – these are all unbranded toys. WinMagic Laboratories have claimed that not even a single toy that it has offered into the country has ever failed a test.
WinMagic Toys – Products/Services
Fisher-Price and Thomas were given a run for their money, with WinMagic Toys distributing Spin Master’s – Paw Patrol, which is today the number 1 preschool licensed toy property at retail. Paw Patrol is a TV series that runs on Nick Junior, a content co-owned by Viacom and Canada’s Spin Master Entertainment (SME).
Paw Patrol Toys – WinMagic
Spin Master Toys, a top 5 listed toy company globally, and a sister concern of SME owns the global rights to Paw Patrol toys. Through its distribution partnership with Spin Master, WinMagic Toys brought into the country many trendy toy lines, like Hatchimals for example – that became toy retailer Hamleys’ number 1 selling toy when it was launched in 2016, while the inventory lasted.
Hatchimals – WinMagic
Hatchimals is an egg-shaped tech toy, that has a unique hatching feature, where with a kid’s love & care an electronic pet hatches itself out of an egg and there are various play possibilities at pre-hatching, during-hatching, and post-hatching stages. Hatchimals has since then developed into a veritable array of collectible and tech toys that have become one of the best-selling toy ranges in the girls’ aisle.
Through its partnership with Spin Master, the company is set to launch toy lines like Bakugan, a massive hit from a decade ago that is being relaunched by Spin Master globally, Batman & DCactionfigure lines based on the popular entertainment franchises and Monster Jam Monster vehicles lines based on World’s Number 1 Monster Truck racing show.
The company has created the category of girls collectibles in India literally from scratch. Shopkins, from Moose Toys of Australia, was its entry into the girl’s collectibles aisle which took the industry by pleasant surprise in 2015 and kickstarted the trend of girls collectibles in India, like in global markets a few years ago. Along with Hatchimals, L.O.L, Hairdorables from Just Play, Bananas, and Twisty Petz apart from others, WinMagic Toys has been leading in the girl’s collectibles category in the Indian toy industry.
WinMagic Toys – Target Market Size
With 26% of the population under the age of 15 years, it’s no surprise that the Indian toy industry is accelerating. Valued at USD 1.5 Billion in 2018, registering a CAGR of 15.9% during the year 2011-2018. According to market research firm IMARC, the market is further estimated to cross USD 3.3 Billion by 2024, growing at a CAGR of 13.3% during 2019-2024.
The estimated Rs 2-lakh-crore global toy market is dominated by China (from a manufacturing point of view, America is the biggest from a consumption point of view), which sells close to Rs 1.4 lakh crore worth of products annually. In India, the toy market is dominated by unbranded Chinese products with 90% of the market being unorganized.
In a post COVID scenario, toys & games, and in general kids play assumes even more relevance with kids and parents staying more at home.
Mukesh has over two decades of practice including leadership roles in setting up multinationals in India to leading start-ups to profitability and turnover goals. He is a complete believer in empowering people to be the best they can be, unconditionally, and, in keeping commitments ruthlessly!
The management team comprises of:
Heena Natu – National Sales Manager (Key Accounts & Exports) with over 13 years of experience in modern trade (retail chains) account management, ex Mattel, Ex Pepe Jeans.
Shailesh Kumar – National Sales Manager – General Trade with over 18 years of experience in general trade distribution, Ex Funskool, Ex Nuby.
Surabhi Mathur – Marketing Manager (INDIA & SAARC) with over 10 years of experience in Marketing communications – ex EURO RSCG, EX Times of India, Ex Business Standard.
Sandeep Nirban – Finance Manager. Chartered Accountant, MBF with over 7 years of experience, Ex Reliance, CIPLA.
Heena, Shailesh, and Surabhi are part of the founding team along with Mukesh.
The current company size of WinMagic Toys is around 50 employees. The recruiting team is very selective about hiring talent. They always look for character and not personality. Since the team firmly believes that character is in-built and personality is what you acquire and get trained in.
To elaborate, they look for qualities like energy, enthusiasm, willingness & intent to take responsibility for not only their job description but also have a natural intent to help & support others, humility, integrity, and authenticity. In addition to character traits, they work on training people on maturity and ability to get things done through a work environment that is straightforward and holds people to account.
They focus a lot on training people for their development and growth – not just for business but overall holistic growth of an individual and the team looks at life as one. Not a split between work and life. When people grow, they bring all about growth to be it at home or work.
WinMagic Toys – Name, Tagline, and Logo
Winners with the magic of play made WinMagic Toys!
WinMagic Logo
WinMagic Toys – Startup Launch
WinMagic Toys are known for their freshness and new ways to play at retail. Since its inception, India has seen some of the categories that never existed in the country in the toys and games aisle before. It created Collectables as a category with iconic brands like Shopkins. They launched all globally successful brands including – LOL Surprise! Dolls, Hatchimals Colleggtibles, Hairdorables, Soft n Slo – squishable, etc.
WinMagic Toys always offers brands and play patterns that are trending globally. They are dominating the retail aisles with the latest DIY trends. For the girls, the categories were limited to dolls and a few accessories, however, the company has brought all these different categories into the country.
Preschool aisles were dominated traditionally by brands like Thomas or Fisher-Price which are owned by legacy players like Mattel, who has been in the country for 30 years. And nothing changed for the past 30 years, companies were averse to getting anything new to India. But, WinMagic Toys decided to change that and offered consumers products that have been trending globally and created that access for Indian consumers to world-class toys.
It launched the 3 biggest Preschool properties in India- Paw Patrol, Peppa Pig, and PJ Masks, which are the dominating brands at retail as well as on TV as content. From a retailer point of view, they always bring in a portfolio that is unique or differentiated from a price perspective.
The success of the WinMagic model can be attributed to three major factors that are key to their way of working:
Firstly innovative, on-the-trend, and unique feature-driven products and a category domination approach.
“We do not mind cannibalizing ourselves at the aisle, as, if we do not, then we are leaving ourselves open for a competitor to do that. We grow by increasing our category share even if we may have brands that compete within a category. Like Paw Patrol, Peppa Pig and P.J Masks, or the many collectible brands in the girls’ aisle.”, explained Mukesh.
The second factor is retail visibility & break-through marketing that enables their products to stand out at retail and have a strong recall amongst the kid fans.
“For example, at Toys “R” Us, we have 26 dedicated brand spaces and at Hamleys all our brands are present with key brands like Paw Patrol and Hatchimals occupying dedicated spaces. This approach has enabled us to be a top 3 vendor at all the retail points including an over 20% share of the shelf at top mom & pop retail outlets in the country.”, said Mukesh Jagwani, founder of WinMagic Toys.
Finally, the company’s industry and functional expert teams apply the right load of energy, ownership, and meticulousness from product selection to business operations at all levels.
They are a marketing-oriented company and their marketing team does not follow the box-in-box-out approach. They believe in launching unique marketable concepts and back them up with 360-degree marketing efforts. WinMagic Toys’ social media campaigns are appreciated by retailers and the team is the trailblazer on the digital front in the industry.
Some of the key marketing tie-ups of the company include:
Youtube Sensation and a famous toy reviewer – My Miss Anand
Hatchimals video that was viewed 4.2M times –
Hatchimals video
Wrapples Dance challenge with 3.8M Views –
Wrapples Dance challenge
WinMagic Toys has also partnered with Child actor Myra Singh, from Kulfi Kumar Bajewala.
Wrapples Dance Challenge
WinMagic Toys’ Social Media Handles
WinMagic Toys – Business Model and Revenue Model
Revenue Generation Model – WinMagic Toys directly sells to retail chains, and resellers on Amazon, Flipkart. It also sells to sister concerns of Amazon, Flipkart, etc. Being a foreign-funded company, they cannot do multi-brand retail. In the General trade sector, it supplies to the sub-distributors who then in turn supply to mom and pop stores. The company caters to 3000+ stores. It works on a Firm sale Model.
“We cater to an upmarket target group and follow a consumer-centric ‘perceived-value’ pricing model. We always strive to position our products well within the perceptual price elasticity that our consumers are willing to accept, happily. To achieve that we follow a line pricing financial model, and always work with suppliers who understand the Indian consumers’ price sensitivity and are willing to move most favorably on unit costing.”, added Mukesh Jagwani, owner of WinMagic toys.
This ensures that they can make the right pricing available to the consumer. For a target group looking at a lower price band, they have their private labels and they plan to aggressively expand this business. WinMagic Toys provides a price point of as low as Rs 50 to as high as Rs 15,000.
The challenges that WinMagic Toys faced were – Duplicates, unorganized nature of trade, government regulations, experiments: cash & carry model, launching collectible toys, new/trending brands like Paw Patrol, Hatchimals – even though expensive, PJ Masks, and branding the generic category like bubbles.
In India, the toy market is dominated by unbranded Chinese products with 90% of the market being unorganized. These Chinese toys do not comply with the channel, quality or safety norms and thus turn out to be much cheaper for the Indian consumer, whose purchase decision is heavily influenced by price. It’s not uncommon to see small mom and pop stores selling Chinese replicas of the Disney/Marvel or DC line of toys due to their ever-increasing demand.
However, making licensed, high-quality international brands available in India continues to be a challenge due to tough import norms and the recent increase in import duty. As a result, small businesses, who wish to legitimately license and sell these products suffer, while low quality, low-cost Chinese toys continue to flood the market.
With a veritable portfolio of world-class brands of toys, games & kids merchandise, WinMagic Toys has a presence across all the major toy retail chains namely Hamleys, Toys “R” Us, Landmark Stores, Shoppers Stop, Crossword, Hyper City, Lulu along with 3,000 Mom & Pop stores and over 20,000 outlets for mass products through wholesalers.
The company has also partnered with all major online channels including Amazon, Flipkart, Firstcry, Hopscotch, etc. With legendary brands in the portfolio like – Paw Patrol, PJ Masks, Hatchimals, Shopkins, etc., WinMagic Toys is the No.1 third party distributor in India in the toy specialty channel.
In under 3 years, the company has grown its portfolio to 40 plus brands and plays in 84% of addressable toys & games categories at retail. The year 2020 is the year of boys, with the likes of Batman, DC, Monster Jam and Bakugan from Spin Master slated to launch in the next few months, and brands like Infinity Nado, that was recently acquired & re-launched, and Treasure X the boys collectible brand launched in the first half of 2019, going steady at retail.
WinMagic Toys today are India’s largest independent distributor in the toy specialty channel, competing with a few of the legacy players, like Mattel, Hasbro, and Funskool who have had their presence in India for more than 30 years. In 2019, they sold more than 100 crores worth of toys from retail, which marks the fastest growth by any player in the industry over the years!
Some of the suppliers of WinMagic Toys are Spinmaster – World leader in innovative toys, Just Play – A manufacturer known for its high-class plush toys, and Moose Toys – A company that created a revolution in the collectible’s category. Some of the customers are Hamleys, Toys “R” Us, Crossword, Amazon, Flipkart, and Firstcry.
WinMagic Toys – Future Plans
WinMagic Toys has plans to constantly innovate & upgrade their portfolio. They will be soon adding world-class toys like Batman & DC action figures, Bakugan, Monster Jam vehicles, and its own unique private labels in categories like Games and Puzzles, Sports Goods, & Impulse Play.
The top 3 ranked vendor, with retailers like Hamleys & Toys “R” Us, WinMagic Toys has always been ahead of the curve. Having already crossed Rs. 60 crores in revenue in 2019, the company is sure to cross Rs. 100 crores by FY 2020. Marching forward, WinMagic Toys aims to go for listing besides generating a turnover of over Rs. 500 crores in the next five years.
Nitin Konde
