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Tag: Food and Beverages Business

  • SupplyNote Success Story: Helping Food & Beverage Businesses Automate Their Supply Chain Entirely

    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 SupplyNote.

    The global food and beverages market grew from $6,729.54 billion in 2022 to $7,221.73 billion in 2023 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.3%. In businesses specific to the F&B industry, customer service is of the utmost importance. And to offer highly valued services, the F&B industry needs to strengthen its supply chain networks. Thus, there is an upsurge in demand for supply chain management in the F&B industry. Along with advances in technology, the supply chain industry is evolving.

    SupplyNote provides a full-stack platform for the entire supply chain management process. It helps Food and beverage businesses with inventory management, vendor management, and logistics supply chain needs.

    SupplyNote – Company Highlights

    Startup Name SupplyNote
    Headquarters Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
    Industry SaaS, E-Commerce Platform for Food Businesses
    Founder Kushang, Nitin Prakash, Harshit Mittal, and Abhishek Verma
    Founded 2019
    Website supplynote.in

    SupplyNote – About
    SupplyNote – Industry
    SupplyNote – Founders and Team
    SupplyNote – Idea and Startup Story
    SupplyNote – Name, Tagline, and Logo
    SupplyNote – Products and Services
    SupplyNote – USP
    SupplyNote – Business Model and Revenue Model
    SupplyNote – Acquiring Clients
    SupplyNote – Challenges Faced
    SupplyNote – Growth
    SupplyNote – Funding
    SupplyNote – Advisors and mentors
    SupplyNote – Tools Used in The Company
    SupplyNote – Future plans

    About SupplyNote 

    SupplyNote – About

    SupplyNote is a B2B SAAS platform for F&B businesses that provides a platform for end-to-end management of supply chains with an integrated marketplace.

    Talking about the long-term vision of the company, its aim is to become the backbone of the F&B supply chain by evolving into a one-stop solution for all supply chain needs – software, service, and marketplace.

    In the short term, the idea is to provide a marketplace where merchants can discover suppliers for their raw materials and transact with them, orders from which will be fulfilled by SupplyNote.

    SupplyNote – Industry

    The global food and beverages market is projected to reach $9,225.37 billion in 2027, experiencing a CAGR of 6.3% from 2023.

    The industry has been operating its supply chain using traditional methods (pen and paper) and needs a digital transformation, which SupplyNote intends to bring in. Every F&B outlet suffers noticeable losses due to inventory mismanagement, procurement flaws, etc. For a business that runs on major fixed costs, it becomes more important than ever to maintain the margins. Following the major blow from the pandemic, they observed an accelerated tech disruption in the industry. Therefore, they believe that five years down the line, the industry will be completely digitized in terms of operations.

    SupplyNote – Founders and Team

    Kushang - Co-founder and CEO of SupplyNote
    Kushang – Co-founder and CEO of SupplyNote

    The founding team has Kushang (CEO), Nitin Prakash (CPO), Harshit Mittal (CTO), and Abhishek Verma (COO). They are a bold, intrepid, highly passionate group of tech-loving geeks, foodies, change-makers, doers, and entrepreneurs who are committed to empowering F&B businesses with technology & innovation.

    Four friends from IIT Kanpur came together to build SupplyNote, with Kushang leading the idea, Harshit Mittal leading the technological development, Abhishek Verma leading the Business Operations, and Nitin Prakash leading the Product. During the final year, Adcount Technologies Pvt Ltd was incepted (parent company of SupplyNote).

    The company currently has a strength of 75, and they believe in flexible work culture. More than the hours spent in the office, they care about making progress toward the goal. They work as hard as they play. They like people who like to take on challenges and ownership, who are competitive and yet they care about nature. Most of the team comprises foodies. And they love sports.

    SupplyNote – Idea and Startup Story

    SupplyNote was formerly known as Adurcup. AdCount Technologies was originally founded in 2015 by IIT-Kanpur alumni Kushang, Abhishek Verma, Harshit Mittal, and Nitin Prakash with the idea of monetizing paper cups. Over the period, the company built its network of merchants and started dealing in a variety of supplies. The company was using its own software, which was developed in-house, for managing its supply chain, when a client discussed the requirement of such a solution for their inventory management purpose. The team customized the software as per the client’s requirement, and that gave birth to SupplyNote in 2019, a platform that is actively being used across not less than 2000 outlets today.

    SupplyNote Logo
    SupplyNote Logo

    The name itself is made up of two words, Supply-Note, which essentially means noting down the supply. They discovered that inventory management isn’t digitized yet in a major part of the F&B industry in India. As they started the mission of digitizing the supply chain, they came up with the name that means recording the inventory data—SupplyNote, for short.

    The logo of SupplyNote might look like an arrow pointing towards the top (that signifies growth), but it’s more than that. That arrow is made up of two letters, S and N, which are the initials of Supply-Note.

    The tagline of SupplyNote is ‘Fix Your Supply Chain,’ enabling companies to expand into new geographies faster by eliminating the hassle of building supply chains or discovering suppliers. SupplyNote has already solved those challenges for them, making it much easier for companies to scale and explore markets. Hence, the logo represents growth—in numbers, in business, in every aspect.

    SupplyNote – Products and Services

    SupplyNote is an ecosystem of software and services for the management of Supply Chain for F&B businesses. It has 4 products under its umbrella:

    1. The Point of Sale Solution: Having an exclusive strategic partnership with Posify, SupplyNote offers its customers a platform for the management of sales, such as billing, kitchen management, table management, rider tracking, web ordering, and more.
    2. The Inventory Management / Supply Chain Management Software: Integrated with Point of Sale, SupplyNote IMS takes in the data of sales, and its advanced algorithms break down the sold items into the raw material that has been consumed and updates the inventory in real-time. It also helps with the management of suppliers, the generation of purchase orders, sales orders, and more.
    3. The Fulfilment Services: SupplyNote helps merchants and vendors transact with each other without worrying about operational challenges, as SupplyNote offers warehousing and logistic services (dry and cold) to fulfill supply chain needs.
    4. The Marketplace: A product of SupplyNote that helps merchants discover suppliers and transact with them, getting more options and flexibility on price, payment terms, quality options, and more.

    SupplyNote – USP

    SupplyNote is the only full-stack platform for supply chain management, as all the other companies are only solving a part of the supply chain and not the entire supply chain.

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    SupplyNote – Business Model and Revenue Model

    The clients pay a subscription fee for using the SAAS, while they pay per usage for their fulfillment services. In the marketplace model, they only charge for the fulfillment of delivery (storage and transport) currently and do not charge any commissions from either party.

    SupplyNote – Acquiring Clients

    Back in 2015 when the company was incepted, the strategy for the acquisition of clients was Feet-on-Street. The team went from door to door, proposing the offerings of the company at that time and built its network of clients. Later, they got great clients who gave us referrals for other clients and word on the streets picked up gradually. Further, in 2019 when SupplyNote was launched, they already were doing business with over 300 clients that showed interest in the software and some of them even turned out to be the first users.

    SupplyNote is solving various challenges related to the supply chain and they reach out to every F&B business to discuss the problems they are facing, further contemplating how SupplyNote can solve it for them.

    For 100 to 1000, their approach was more linear, with their teammates reaching out to all businesses in the nearby area and pitching them with their propositions. However, as it reached the mark of 1000, they started marketing and taking up branding initiatives, spreading awareness around the significance of digitizing the supply chain, the cost that a good Inventory management software can save, and much more. They are also tying up with companies to provide multiple value propositions to their clients to retain them longer.

    SupplyNote – Challenges Faced

    One of the earlier products of AdCount Technologies Pvt. Ltd. was Adurcup, an e-commerce platform that was supplying various raw materials to F&B businesses. The challenge was the disorganization of the entire F&B industry at the time, and digitization was yet a foreign concept within the Industry. That is why they decided on solving that challenge, and discovering a bigger opportunity.

    SupplyNote – Growth

    Since April 2020, the company has grown 12X in GMV and has become the second-largest F&B Supply Chain Company in India (By GMV).

    SupplyNote – Funding

    SupplyNote has successfully raised a total of $4.7 million in funding across seven rounds from a diverse group of investors. Among the recent investors are Cogniphy and DSP Family Office, and other notable investors include LetsVenture, SucSEED Indovation, Soonicorn Ventures, Venture Catalysts, SOSV, Artesian VC, and more.

    Here are the details of SupplyNote’s funding rounds:

    Date Funding Round Amount Lead Investors
    July 12, 2023 Series A $2.3 million Artesian VC, Venture Catalysts
    October 20, 2022 Series A — —
    October 28, 2021 Seed Round $1.2 million Venture Catalysts
    October 21, 2021 Seed Round $667K —
    September 10, 2021 Convertible Note — —
    October 21, 2020 Seed Round $600K Artesian VC, SOSV, Venture Catalysts
    February 22, 2020 Seed Round — MOX (now Orbit Startups)

    SupplyNote – Advisors and mentors

    SupplyNote Advisors and Mentors
    SupplyNote Advisors and Mentors

    Yogesh Bellani, William Bao Bean, Vikram Upadhaya, and Apporv Ranjan Sharma are the mentors and advisors of SupplyNote.

    SupplyNote – Tools Used in The Company

    They use many tools within the company like- Zira, Asana, and Slack to manage work, and Google Suite for emails, meetings, calendars, docs, slides, and sheets. They use Figma for designing, Hubspot as their CRM, MixPanel, and Google Analytics for data analytics and insights, and more.

    SupplyNote – Future plans

    They are planning to launch a new kind of marketplace in Delhi NCR which they will be expanding across the country shortly.

    FAQs

    What is SupplyNote?

    SupplyNote is a B2B SAAS platform for Food & Beverage businesses that provides a platform for end-to-end management of the supply chain.

    Who is the founder of SupplyNote?

    Kushang, Nitin Prakash, Harshit Mittal, and Abhishek Verma are the founders of SupplyNote.

    When was SupplyNote founded?

    SupplyNote was founded in 2019.

    What is AdUrCup?

    SupplyNote was formerly known as Adurcup – one of the earlier products of AdCount Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

  • Meatwale.com – Story behind India’s Fastest Growing Retail Chain for Fresh Meat & Non-veg Snacks

    For ages, Indians have been buying meat and other non-vegetarian products from the nearby market. But the new generation wants a better and more convenient shopping experience when buying non-veg items. With the e-commerce revolution, the way people shop for non-veg food products is also changing. Several startups have cropped up that are working towards not just proving fresh non-veg food products, but also creating an improved shopping experience. Noida-based startup Meatwale.com is a fast emerging startup that is offering fresh meat and meat products straight to your home. They also have a vast chain of hygienically maintained retail outlets where you can shop fresh and hygienically stored meat minus the nuisance of visiting any smelly meat market. Here is the Story behind Meatwale.com.

    Meatwale.com – Company Highlights

    Company Name Meatwale.com
    Headquarter Noida
    Industry Food & Beverages
    Founder Krishna Kumar
    Founded 2017
    Funding Angel Funding
    Website www.meatwale.com

    Meatwale.com – About
    Meatwale.com – Founder
    Meatwale.com – Startup Story
    Meatwale.com – Business Model
    Meatwale.com – Competitors
    Meatwale.com – Challenges
    Meatwale.com – Future Plans

    Meatwale.com – About

    Meatwale is one of the pioneer companies in India that delivers raw and fresh meat right to the consumer’s doorstep. Although 73% of Indians eat meat and seafood, the entire industry is highly unorganized. The idea behind starting Meatwale was to change the way Indians experience meat. Meatwale mainly deals in raw mutton, raw chicken, and non-veg snacks like kebabs, salamis, sausages, gym diets, kofta, chops, galouti kebabs, momos, and many more.

    Meatwale ensures that customers get farm-fresh, antibiotics-free chicken and good-quality meat. Customers can place their orders online at Meatwale.com or can buy from Meatwale’s 70+ retail outlets present across twelve Indian states. Meatwale is currently operating in 20+ cities including Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Faridabad, Gurugram, Ghaziabad, Greater Noida, Jaipur, Kundli, Mangalore, Mumbai, Manipal, Mohali, New Delhi, Noida, Patna, Pune, Ranchi, Sonipat, Udupi, and Shahjahanpur.

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    Meatwale.com – Founder

    Meatwale founder Krishna Kumar
    Meatwale founder Krishna Kumar

    Meatwale founder Krishna Kumar is an MBA graduate. Krishna started his career at IndiaMART.com, where he worked for 7 years. At IndiaMART, the support of seniors taught Krishna a lot in terms of client servicing and managing business.  After IndiaMART, Krishna joined dutch e-commerce solution provider Eperium Business. Eperium was managing big e-com projects from Netherlands and Krishna was responsible to create a similar market for Eperium in India. During his days at Eperium Business Solutions, Krishna played a key role in the growth of the company in India.

    Krishna Kumar is a passionate learner. He loves to keep learning and believes that interacting with young talent is the best way to learn. Krishna Kumar has visited many Colleges, Universities, and educational institutes like Lovely University, GLA University, ICFAI University, Asia Pacific Institute, RCM Bhubaneswar, SOA University Bhubaneswar, Ishan Institute, Jaipuria College, KIET, and many others to exchange thoughts and with the new generation.

    Meatwale.com – Startup Story

    The idea to start Meatwale cropped up from a personal experience. Once the founder Krishna Kumar was having a late-night meeting at his office in Noida. He was craving home-cooked chicken, but when he reached home it was already 9 PM and to his dismay, he realized that it was now impossible to get raw chicken home delivered. That very night, Krishna Kumar booked the domain Meatwale.com, and thus began his entrepreneurial journey.

    Meatwale started as just a shopping store in Delhi NCR. Krishna Kumar knew that his idea was a hit when he started receiving a good number of orders within only one week of launch. However, being self-funded, it was not easy for the business to sustain, and the store was eventually shut down.

    But, Krishna Kumar was determined to make a comeback and the company was restarted with a store in Noida. Initially, the company had to face issues managing store sales, salaries, and budgets, in the absence of any external funds. However, the company was receiving a good response and soon was able to get funds from the bank, which helped the company to grow profitable.

    Meatwale.com – Business Model

    In the initial days, the plan was to open Exclusive Meatwale stores, where Meatwale was solely authorized to sell its products. But soon that team at Meatwale realized that there were major challenges in running exclusive stores. Huge manpower was required to run the business on a large scale. So, the company later adopted the franchise model. Currently, Meatwale has two types of Franchise stores viz, FOCO(Franchise Owned Company Operated) and FOFO (Franchise Owned Franchise Operated). Meatwale’s first franchise was started in Ghaziabad.

    The Investment needed for starting Meatwale.com’s franchise varies between INR 12 Lac to INR 18 Lac, and the company helps by searching for a nice decent store to start and managing the hiring of employees and trained staff for the store. Franchise stores offer a business opportunity to entrepreneurs and create multiple jobs. Today the franchise model of Meatwale.com is successful and a lot of entrepreneurs are doing it as their full-time business.

    Meatwale.com – Competitors

    Some of the major competitors of Meatwale.com are Licious, Freshtohome, Nandus, and TenderChicken. Of these competitors, while Licious does not have its retail stores, Freshtohome, Nandus, and TenderChicken have several retail stores.

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    Meatwale.com – Challenges

    Many challenges cropped up for the Meatwale team when the company started expanding and opening new stores. One of the major challenges was the procurement of fresh chicken and other items on time. Another challenge was establishing the brand and marketing Meatwale as a trusted brand for raw meat and non-veg snacks.

    Meatwale.com did door-to-door marketing by giving pamphlets, and brochures and putting canopies outside apartments nearby its stores, to gain initial traction.

    Presently, Meatwale has a robust logistic network, that helps the company manage all supplies within no time in any city across India.

    Meatwale.com – Future Plans

    From being just one store, Meatwale today has expanded to 20+ cities with 70+ franchise stores. With more funding indication, the company is planning to open stores in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities in India. The company has plans to reach almost every city in India, and also eyes are on global expansions.

    The Pandemic has created a market for hygienic stores in India. Also, India has a huge market for meat, and the scope of growth is immense. Meatwale aims to be a major player in this growing industry.

    FAQs

    What is Meatwale.com?

    Meatwale.com is one of the pioneer companies in India that delivers raw and fresh meat right to the consumer’s doorstep. The company also has an offline presence with its 70+ retail stores located across 12+ cities.

    Who is the founder of Meatwale.com?

    Krishna Kumar is the founder of Meatwale.com.

    Where is the headquarter of Meatwale.com?

    Meatwale.com is headquartered in Noida.

  • How ITC Can Benefit From the Russia Ukraine War?

    On the 24th of February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin shocked the world when he had announced the decision to launch a “special military invasion” in the eastern parts of neighbouring Ukraine in order to “protect the Russian-speaking people” there.

    While there are various reasons speculated for the war, such as Ukraine wanting to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) or Putin’s vision of bringing back the old erstwhile Soviet Union, the economic effects of the war have been brutal for the world.

    While the catastrophic effects of the invasion on the energy sector have been well-documented, given that Russia is one of the largest exporters of petroleum and natural gas and the subsequent oil embargo it has faced at the hand of the United States, this war also has effects on other sectors of the economy. One such sector is the agricultural sector, especially wheat production.

    Russia is the largest exporter of wheat in the world, and Ukraine is the fourth largest exporter of the same commodity. Together they combine for a whopping 30% of the worldwide wheat production. But now, due to the various instability issues in the supply chain, there is a need for other countries to fill the void. India can be one of those countries.

    And in India, one of the largest wheat exporters is the agribusiness section of ITC Ltd (formerly known as the Indian Tobacco Company). The agribusiness section of ITC accounts for about 21.88% of their revenue as per FY21 (Fiscal Year ranging from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021).

    With ITC’s agribusiness section being one of the major contributors to India’s wheat exports, this article would discuss how they can benefit from this war, like, for example, the geographical conditions which help India’s aims, unlike exporters. We would also briefly discuss how ITC procures wheat from its farmers.

    Procurement of Wheat by ITC
    How Much Wheat Does ITC Export?
    The Opportunity That Beckons
    How Can ITC Exploit This Opportunity?
    Role of the Government (Central and State)

    Procurement of Wheat by ITC

    ITC procures wheat through their e-Choupal initiative. Launched in June 2000, it has provided computer and Internet by e-Choupal kiosks access to the rural regions across multiple agricultural regions in the country.

    Through e-Choupals, farmers can negotiate with the representatives of ITC, eliminating the need for a third party. They also help farmers place orders for basic agricultural needs like seeds and fertilizers, which enhances their productivity.

    In 2020, ITC launched e-Choupal 4.0 which gives farmers information on weather and markets on a real-time basis. Today, around 4 million farmers growing a wide variety of crops like soybean, coffee, wheat, rice, pulses, and shrimp in over 35000 villages, are connected with ITC through 6100 e-kiosks. These farmers are spread across 10 states (Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu).

    How Much Wheat Does ITC Export?

    As per a March 2022 Business Standard report, out of the nearly 7.25 million tonnes of wheat exported in FY 2022, ITC is responsible for about a whopping 50% of it. With the Indian government targeting a record 10 million tonnes of wheat export for FY 2023, it is reasonable to expect that ITC would be a major contributor to it.

    According to domestic brokerage firm Edelweiss, the poor production of wheat in Russia and Ukraine in the third quarter of FY 2022 (July 2021- September 2021), was a major reason for a 100% YoY (year-on-year) increase in ITC’s agribusiness division revenue as they slowly started to fill the void. They were also aided by other factors, such as a growth in demand for spices and leaf tobacco.

    The Opportunity That Beckons

    The invasion of Russia on Ukraine has further exacerbated the issue regarding the poor yield of wheat exports.

    In the case of Russia, it is because of the various sanctions the Western World has imposed on them due to the invasion. These sanctions also affect other Russian exports like petroleum and potash. In fact, Russia has even temporarily stopped exports to ex-Soviet countries in Belarus and Kazakhstan for the time being.

    In the case of Ukraine, it is mainly due to the Russian airstrikes on all their major port cities on the Black sea like Odessa and Chornomorsk. This has led to supply chain disruptions worldwide.

    So if we consider these two factors, then it should be no surprise that wheat prices have touched a record high of around $13.50 per bushel (roughly around $500 per tonne). This had led to a huge void in the market, especially with countries dependent on wheat imports like Egypt struggling right now, given its ever-increasing population at a rate of 1.9% per year.

    How Can ITC Exploit This Opportunity?

    Given that wheat is a crop that is mainly harvested in the months of April and May, it looks like India is at the right time to help the world overcome the consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine as there has never been a demand for wheat higher than what it stands right now.

    Another thing that needs to be considered as per the Edelweiss report mentioned before, the wheat produced in India is comparable in all parameters to Russian Red Sea Wheat, be it in quality, taste, or texture. Thus, all these factors help us conclude that the wheat produced in India is primed to fill in this huge void of wheat exported by Russia and Ukraine.

    And who else is better positioned than ITC here? ITC already has a strong market in Bangladesh, the Middle East, and countries based in southeast Asia like South Korea and the Philippines.

    Top Wheat Export to Countries From India
    Top Wheat Export to Countries From India

    No wonder it has started taking steps to exploit this advantage, such as scaling up its wheat development program and introducing location-specific superior seed varieties. It has also started exporting its wheat to countries like Lebanon as well.

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    Role of the Government (Central and State)

    Even the current Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, has acknowledged this need to fill this void and recently said that India should seize this opportunity of exporting the best quality of wheat the exporters can.

    The government has also decided to aid these companies so that India’s exports can be further boosted as per the directive of our Prime Minister. They have started establishing laboratories at a faster rate for quicker testing. They have also told port authorities to give priority to wheat exports.

    Admittedly, a major issue that still persists that the exporters continue to raise is state-specific taxes. For example, in Punjab, they have to pay 3% taxes as per the fee they have paid to the market and 1% service charges. Exporters have appealed to the respective state governments to give tax relief, which would ease their business a lot.

    Conclusion

    Thus, in this article, we have talked about why there is a huge gap in the wheat exports market due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and how ITC can exploit this gap. This gap is something that not only ITC but other exporters like Cargill or Olam Agro can take advantage of. And thankfully, it seems all of them are.

    As per various reports, India could potentially export 4 million tonnes of wheat (around 55% of what it used to export annually) within the next two months, so it can be seen that Indian exporters are seizing this moment. This bodes well for the Indian economy and, thus, the country as a whole.

    FAQs

    Was Russia a major exporter of grain?

    Yes, Russia is one of the largest exporters of wheat in the world and accounts for 16.5% of wheat production in the world. The country exported 37 million tonnes of wheat in 2020.

    Does Ukraine produce a lot of wheat?

    Yes, Ukraine accounts for 11.5% of wheat production in the world. It exported 18 million tonnes of wheat in 2020.

    Who does Ukraine export wheat to?

    Egypt, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, and Morocco are some of the top countries to which Ukraine exported wheat.

    Who does Russia export wheat to?

    Egypt, Turkey, Nigeria, Bangladesh, and Pakistan are some of the top countries to which Russia exported wheat.

    How can ITC benefit from the Russia Ukraine crisis?

    As the Russia Ukraine war has caused a huge shortage of wheat in the world, ITC can seize this opportunity by providing the wheat to the countries that Russia Ukraine exported to.