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Tag: 📄Company Profiles

  • CommerceIQ – Enabling Merchants To Expand Profitably

    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 CommerceIQ.

    When most of the world’s shopping went online as a result of the pandemic, entrepreneurs providing technology and other solutions to help with the transition began to attract venture capitalists’ attention. CommerceIQ is the latest company to gain late-stage funding, as we’ve seen firms throughout the e-commerce infrastructure and enabling ecosystem to raise larger and larger amounts.

    Enterprise Business Platforms are a collection of interconnected application software and/or systems that may be used to develop Enterprise Business Solutions or Apps by combining their capabilities and shared data.
    Order processing,  customer information management,  procurement, energy management, production scheduling, and accounting are among the company operations that enterprise businesses handle. It is usually housed on servers and offers several users simultaneous services across a computer network.

    CommerceIQ is a business platform that enables merchants to expand profitably by making data-driven marketing decisions. By combining the fields of machine learning and data science to e-commerce, the firm’s solution automates operations across marketing, sales, and operations, allowing retailers to increase their efficiency through automation and generate sustainability.

    CommerceIQ – Company Highlights

    Startup Name CommerceIQ
    Legal Name Boomerang Commerce Inc
    Headquarters Palo Alto, California, United States
    Industry Analytics, Consumer Goods, E-Commerce, Machine Learning, Sales, Software
    Founders Guru Hariharan
    Founded 2012
    Areas Served Worldwide
    Current CEO Guru Hariharan
    Website www.commerceiq.ai

    About CommerceIQ and How it Works?
    CommerceIQ – Industry
    CommerceIQ – Name, Logo, and Tagline
    CommerceIQ – Founders
    CommerceIQ – Startup Story
    CommerceIQ – Vision, and Mission
    CommerceIQ – Business Model
    CommerceIQ – Growth
    CommerceIQ – Employees
    Commerce – Funding, and Investments
    CommerceIQ – Competitors
    CommerceIQ – Future Plans

    About CommerceIQ and How it Works?

    CommerceIQ is a frontrunner in assisting companies in winning through retail e-commerce platforms like Walmart.com, Instacart, and Amazon, which account for 85 percent of all e-commerce. To help organizations discover the key to winning a share of the market profitably, the company’s unified platform integrates machine learning and automation across the supply chain, marketing, and sales processes.

    To maximize e-commerce performance, CommerceIQ connects people, processes, and technology platforms. People can now make more decisions, better decisions, and make them faster. An online firm that remains on the top implies more sales volumes, more considerable revenues, and a larger market share.

    CommerceIQ – Industry

    Enterprise Business Platforms, and Solutions, are utilised to carry out cross-functional organisational duties by combining capabilities that are often provided by several enterprise systems. The following terms are more precise when it comes to defining this industry: Enterprise Business Platforms are a collection of interconnected software applications and/or systems that may be used to develop Enterprise Business Solutions or Apps by combining their capabilities and shared data.

    Due to the increased prevalence of cloud applications in diverse modern enterprises and the rising use of customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning in over 70% of companies, the global enterprise platform market is predicted to develop significantly.

    Many small and medium-sized firms’ increased investments in cloud software due to increased scalability, robustness, and return on investments have fueled market development, fueled demand for applications and software such as ERP and CRM across multiple organizations.

    Increased automation in various end-use sectors is also critical for market expansion. Cloud-based corporate apps like Panama are gaining much traction in the market, indicating that consumers are becoming more interested in automated business procedures.

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    CommerceIQ – Name, Logo, and Tagline

    CommerceIQ tagline says, “Unlock profitable e-commerce growth”

    Company Logo of CommerceIQ
    Company Logo of CommerceIQ

    CommerceIQ – Founders

    Guru Hariharan founded CommerceIQ in 2012.

    Guru Hariharan

    Founder and CEO of CommerceIQ - Guru Hariharan
    Founder and CEO of CommerceIQ – Guru Hariharan

    Guru is an experienced IT and marketing executive with over fifteen years of e-commerce expertise. Guru spent more than five years with Amazon developing out automatic procurement and supply chain before starting the firm in 2012. He also became a 3P seller’s AI-based selling coach.

    CommerceIQ – Startup Story

    The company’s founder, Hariharan, has a history in machine learning and e-commerce, and while at Amazon, he stated that the objective was to eliminate humans from the retailing equation, thus his team created software called Amazon Selling Coach to teach people how to connect with businesses.

    Hariharan wanted to establish a firm that would power where all of that money was going as individuals began to migrate their purchases, from equipment to toothbrushes, to Amazon and other platforms.

    He left Amazon to establish his own firm, focusing on the sale side of the equation for brands to sell and the purchase side’s interaction with retailers. CommerceIQ’s retail e-commerce management tools automate and consolidate areas such as retail media management, category analytics, operations, and sales for companies underneath one umbrella. According to Hariharan, customers should expect an average sales increase of 18 per cent.

    More than 2,200 companies, including Bayer, Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly-Clark, and Kellogg’s are now collaborating with this Bay Area-based startup to manage incremental sales, unit profitability, and category market share through online retailers such as Amazon, Target, Instacart, and Walmart,

    CommerceIQ – Vision, and Mission

    CommerceIQ’s mission statement says, “to empower brands to move from analogue to algorithms.”

    CommerceIQ – Business Model

    Essentially, the company sells tools that allow retailers to take action on e-commerce platforms before an item runs out of supply. It also aids firms in streamlining their supply chains and taking the necessary procedures in the event that a product is not displayed on the e-commerce platform’s homepage.

    There are four main product categories for this SaaS company. Offerings for firms to be more visible on e-commerce search sites, as well as tools to manage advertisements and optimise promotions with the least amount of human intervention, are among them. Large firms may also use CommerceIQ to simplify their supply chains by forecasting their needs and requirements and allocating resources accordingly.

    In addition, the company provides a professional services model. The company provides advisory services to ‘clients that are trailing behind in the e-commerce market and want to catch up.’

    The business is built on an annual subscription model with valuation-based charging.

    CommerceIQ – Growth

    In 2021, CommerceIQ, an algorithmic platform for e-commerce channels, had a 267 percent growth in revenue and a 77 percent increase in personnel year over year.

    CommerceIQ, which uses machine learning, analytics, and automation systems to enhance e-commerce channels across distribution chain, advertising, and sales operations, is strengthening its tech governance in India with new hires in application, design and development, data science and analytics, support, and product operations.

    “From a business growth standpoint, it’s been phenomenal,” said Guru Hariharan, CEO, CommerceIQ. “It was blistering growth in the US. E-commerce penetration of retail was about 16% when we went into the pandemic. When we got out of the pandemic, it was 20% in the US. And it was similar across the world. There was a massive jump in e-commerce penetration of total retail.”

    According to Hariharan, the firm has had a 267 per cent increase in revenue yet, with a 300 per cent increase in 202. He went on to say that although CommerceIQ has dominated IQ in the US, it has won with EQ in India, particularly during the second wave of the pandemic, when a lot of their professionals in India were affected.

    CommerceIQ – Employees

    • COO – Piyush Lumba
    • CEO & Founder – Guru Hariharan
    • VP Sales – Tim Wilson
    • VP Finance – Adrian Seet
    • Sr. Product Manager – Rajath Raman
    • Senior Account Executive – Cory Lund

    Commerce – Funding, and Investments

    Date Round Amount Lead Investors
    Mar 21, 2022 Series D $115M SoftBank Vision Fund
    Jun 22, 2021 Series C $60M Insight Partners
    Jan 14, 2016 Series B $12M Shasta Ventures
    Jul 16, 2014 Series A $8.5M Madrona Venture Group, Trinity Ventures

    CommerceIQ – Competitors

    CommerceIQ’s top competitors include A2X, Webgility, Helium10, Jungle Scout, Perpetua, ChannelAdvisor. Wholesale Suite, and DataHawk.

    CommerceIQ – Future Plans

    CommerceIQ, a retail e-commerce management software, has received $115 million in Series D financing from SoftBank Vision Fund 2. With this, the SaaS startup’s overall valuation has risen to more than $1 billion, putting it in the coveted unicorn category.

    Existing institutional investors such as Insight Partners, Trinity Ventures, Shasta Ventures, and Madrona Venture Group also participated in the round.

    CommerceIQ will utilise the resources to finance its global operations and expedite the development of its ‘unified Retail Ecommerce Management Platform.’ It also intends to grow its services in India, and as a result, its algorithmic components have been adjusted to adapt to buyers’ behaviour not only on Amazon but also on local e-tailers like Flipkart.

    The Bengaluru office now employs over 150 workers, with ambitions to roughly treble that number by CY22. The money will also be used to hire more people in a variety of areas, including data science, software development, customer service, analytics, and product operations.

    Hariharan said that the company had a strong presence in the United States and Canada and that it was planning to expand to Europe shortly. Furthermore, the firm intends to use the funds to accelerate its organic expansion and form new collaborations along the road.

    CommerceIQ – FAQs

    What does CommerceIQ do?

    CommerceIQ is a business platform that enables merchants to expand profitably by making data-driven marketing decisions.

    Who founded CommerceIQ?

    Guru Hariharan founded CommerceIQ in 2012.

    How does CommerceIQ make money?

    The company provides a professional services model. The business is built on an annual subscription model with valuation-based charging.

    Which companies do CommerceIQ compete with?

    CommerceIQ’s top competitors include A2X, Webgility, Helium10, Jungle Scout, Perpetua, ChannelAdvisor. Wholesale Suite, and DataHawk.

  • Especia: One-Stop Solution to Your Startup Challenges

    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 Especia.

    Getting an idea and starting a Startup Project is just a start of entrepreneurship. Sustaining your business and growing subsequently are the biggest challenges. The startup ecosystem works on the theory of survival of the fittest, and startups need to be competent enough to maintain their position in the market. Finding customers, securing funding, managing finances and focussing on your core products/services, all need to be managed in parallel. When it comes to finances, obtaining startup financial support is the biggest startup challenge faced by entrepreneurs.

    Especia works as a finance partner for startups. It gives customized solutions for startups according to the stage of startup and the business requirements. It saves your involvement in financial activity so that you can focus on your core product or services offered by your business.

    Read the success story about Especia, founders and team, its services, and how it works?

    Especia – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Especia
    Headquarters Noida, Uttar Pradesh
    Offices Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Hyderabad
    Industry Startups Finance Partner (CA, CS, Legal, and Valuation)
    Co-Founders CA Harshil Goyal (FCA, Regd. Valuer) and CA Sajal Goyal
    Founded 2010
    Website especia.co.in

    Especia – About
    Especia – Founders and Team
    Especia – Startup Story
    Especia – Logo and Tagline
    Especia – How it Works?
    Especia – Services
    Especia – Growth

    About Especia

    Especia – About

    Especia

    Any startup needs a dynamic push to overcome its growth barriers. The new business owners have a stark of becoming successful, are full of vigor, and are ready to put into their efforts up to any extent that gives wings to their objectives. The beginning phase of any startup is crucial as it requires long-term decision-making skills and high accountability for their actions. The new startups tumble at this point. Underestimating the importance of an efficient finance partner consultant hampers their long-term objectives in future fundraising & due diligence.

    Their team fulfills the role of an efficient finance partner. They are well versed in business legalities with the sound knowledge that improves the financial efficiency of your entity & has fewer red flags in future Due diligence.

    Especia identified this growth barrier and started working out an innovative solution. Firstly they demarcated the startups at the ideation stage, Growing stages, and maturity stage and identified the cause of failure of early startups in the early stage, and drafted their services according to their requirement at several stages. They discovered that financial restrictions at an early stage prevent them from getting efficient consultation as the markets had fewer options of the one-window solution to the end-to-end finance outsourcing of the startups.

    They identified this underlying incapacity of the market and gathered a team of individuals from various segments. Especia now bridges the gap and provides one window solution as a finance partner of the startups from Valuation, Secretarial, and Regular Tax & Compliance services that help them focus on the core. They act as a Virtual CFO Partner for Transaction Advisory & Due Diligence services as well.

    Especia – Founders and Team

    CA Harshil Goyal and CA Sajal Goyal are the Co-founders of Especia.

    CA Harshil Goyal (FCA, Regd. Valuer)

    CA Harshil Goyal, Co-Founder Especia
    CA Harshil Goyal, Co-Founder Especia

    CA Harshil Goyal, Co-Founder Especia, is a Fellow Member of the ICAI, holds a Master’s degree in Commerce and is a Registered Valuer by IBBI. He possesses over 12 years of experience in Start-up consulting, Valuations of startups & Startup fundraising transaction advisory services.

    In his 12 year career, CA Harshil Goyal has proven himself as a passionate Entrepreneur committed to easing out multiple pain points existing in the end to end finance outsourcing for startups from Valuation, Transaction Advisory, Due Diligence, and Business compliance domain using technology as a major disruptive force to change some of the age-old practices prevalent in the industry. He possesses expertise in Valuation, Secretarial Services, Transaction Advisory Services, Fund Raising, Due DiIligences, Structuring the Cap Table & ESOP Services.

    CA Sajal Goyal

    CA Sajal Goyal - Co-Founder, Especia
    CA Sajal Goyal – Co-Founder, Especia

    CA Sajal Goyal possesses 15 yr experience in this sector and has richly contributed to the growth and expansion of several startups and corporations. His expertise in CFO, business restructuring, process implementation, and reporting key indicators uplifted several startups and helped them achieve their desired pace of growth. In the 15 years of his career, he has spearheaded the entire gamut of finance & accounting and attained expertise in managing startups in a challenging environment. He has successfully implemented several effective processes & solutions in different businesses.

    His diligence in controlling and planning the finance and thorough understanding of Finance Processes, Management Reporting, Budgeting, and People Management for Multinational & Fortune 500 companies took Especia to greater heights.

    Especia – Startup Story

    Everything that it needs to maintain the finances of your company from basic bookkeeping to high-end valuation and due diligence services accompanied by well-drafted secretarial services fulfill the requirements of the start-up, in the long run. All the services suiting the needs of any startup are embedded in their entire gamut of offerings. From book-keeping to valuation and secretarial services, Especia team is ready to take charge of all your corporate financial management requirements.

    Time and again Especia has proved its utility to several growing startups and helped them bloom with their prospects. They had the privilege of outsourcing several new and running startups. They started as a traditional CA Firm but expanded rapidly as a One-Stop Finance Partner with tons of promising initiatives that suit your startup requirements. Their expert team proved its efficiency in outsourcing the accounting and secretarial services of several new and old businesses leaving them to work out on their business expansion.

    The technological blend in their services adds to your advantage as they are always ready to assist you through their virtual CFO services. They have attained maximum use of technology in their day-to-day proceedings with in-house technological advancements to avoid any human error that may hamper progress towards your futuristic goals.

    LegalWiz Success Story – Legal, Tax Filling and Accounting Services | founder
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    Especia – Logo and Tagline

    Especia Logo
    Especia Logo

    The tagline of Especia is “we work from start to finish”. It defines their working strategy and their timely and productive services. They have a well-defined social media platform and their official website laden with segregated columns of your requirement. Any start-up seeking any kind of valuation, secretarial, or accounting services under one roof is always free to drop them a query.

    Especia – How it Works?

    Especia Associates is a group of dynamic professional experts in their domain. They have a team of Chartered Accountants and Company Secretaries to provide a one-stop solution to all the requirements of the startups being their finance partner.

    They manage your statutory compliances that add to your benefit at the time of any Fund Raising Due Diligence or M&A Activity in your business journey. Your statutory records are well maintained and monitored with due corporate governance. The requirements of a startup change according to their progress from one stage to other.

    Startup Development Stages
    Startup Development Stages

    They modify work according to the stage of the startup as the processes are in co-relation with the growth stage attained by the startup. At the ideation stage, they focus on maximum business retention and advise according to the cash flow generated by the business. They tend to long-term objectives and avoid any lucrative traps that may hinder your future growth.

    The growth stage is very crucial for any startup. It requires decision-making at several crucial instances that affect your prospects. Their expert team advises on retention activities and predicts deep insights to keep your start-up in a progressive mode. You get all the required services regarding your bookkeeping and Secretarial requirements to help your startup get the required push.

    The Growth Stage of any startup attracts the attention of investors. However, the startup tries to attract potential investors. They make your startup investment ready with all your compliances ready to satisfy the doubts of the investors. You get the best valuation and due diligence services with an aim to attract the most suitable investment to fulfill your growth objectives.

    Once you get the required investment from external sources, their scope of work also expands. Now, they provide you with all the facilities to retain your financial position and get a better insight into your future business journey.

    Especia – Services

    Especia services
    Especia services

    They start understanding your business operations and align & modify finance processes along with management vision how they want to structure the entire finance Department, Finance Processes & Reporting. Their services align with your business needs & vision of the management to give you the one-stop solutions as your finance partner that covers Valuations, Secretarial Services, Book-keeping Services, Compliance, and Management Reporting. Their team helps you in getting investment ready at the time of fundraising with all the compliances and due diligence ready at hand. With Especia by your side, you can surely scale new heights in your business venture.

    They identify the stage of your startup and render their services accordingly. Their services vary according to your business requirement and deploy full-scale operations to save your involvement, of any kind, in the day-to-day secretarial or any other financial activity. They focus on a “one-stop solution” for your accounting, compliance, and secretarial requirements. This facilitates your timely & accurate valuation and due diligence as they already possess all your vitals for the report. Their expert team saves your time, keeps a vigilant look on your finances, and gives you red flags beforehand.

    Especia – Growth

    Today Especia has 400+ clients with all their services outsourced to expert team with positive feedback for their services. They look forward to giving the most client-centric valuations, secretarial, and accounting services. Their team helps their clients qualify in due diligence and attract the best investors for their startup growth. The use of technology has played a key role in their service enhancement and making a more advanced approach towards technological advancements in their services to inculcate better outcomes of their services.

    FAQs

    When was Especia founded?

    Especia was founded in 2010 in Noida.

    Who is the founder of Especia?

    CA Harshil Goyal and CA Sajal Goyal are the Co-founders of Especia.

    What are the services offered by Especia?

    Especia services include:

    • Taxation Services
    • Secretarial Services
    • Audit and Assurance Services
    • ESOP Solutions
    • CFO Services
    • Valuation Services

  • Colgate – Story of the World’s Most Trusted Oral Care Brand

    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 Colgate.

    Our Teeth are an important part of our body and human being has been taking care of them since primitive times. Interestingly the world’s first toothpaste was made as early as 4 AD. Today, there is n number of oral hygiene products available in the market. However, when it comes to oral hygiene, one company that has stayed on top of the game for centuries now is  Colgate. In 1873, the first-ever commercially produced toothpaste was launched by Colgate, and the company is still maintaining its charm. Even today a considerable chunk of the population worldwide uses Colgate toothpaste and oral hygiene products. Here is the story of Colgate, which is now a household name across the Globe.

    Colgate – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Colgate
    Headquarters New York, United States
    Sector FMCG
    Founder William Colgate
    Founded 1806
    Parent Organization Colgate-Palmolive
    Website colgate.com

    Colgate – About
    Colgate – Founder
    Colgate – Startup Story
    Colgate – Mission and Vision
    Colgate – Tagline and Logo
    Colgate – Business Model
    Colgate – Funding and Investors
    Colgate – Acquisitions
    Colgate – Competitors
    Colgate – Growth
    Colgate – FAQs

    Colgate – About

    Colgate is an American Brand. The brand derived its name from its founder William Colgate. The company at its inception was known as William Colgate and Company, and it was just a small business, where Mr. William used to sell soaps and Candles. In 1857, when after William Colgate’s demise, his son Samuel Colgate took over the business, the company was renamed Colgate and Company.

    In 1873, Colgate launched the first-ever commercially manufactured toothpaste. This aromatic toothpaste was then sold in jars. Colgate toothpaste is still one of the most sold products of the company. In 1896, Colgate launched Colgate Ribbon Dental Cream, which was the first toothpaste available in a tube.

    Colgate and Company came to be known as Colgate-Palmolive -Peet Company after the acquisition of Colgate by Palmolive-Peet Company in 1928. Palmolive Peet was an association between Palmolive and Peet Brothers.  Palmolive was the maker of the world’s best-selling soap Palmolive in the early 20th century. While Peet Brothers was a soap manufacturing company in Kansas.

    In 1953 Colgate-Palmolive-Peet was renamed Colgate-Palmolive, which is currently the parent company of Colgate.

    Colgate-Palmolive is successfully holding on to its legacy to date and has a wide range of products including personal hygiene & care products, various cleansers, and pet food, that are sold all over the world.

    Colgate – Founder and Team

    The founder of the company is William Colgate.

    William Colgate began his career with a little candle and soap business in the 19th century in New York City, which happened around two hundred years ago. William was born in Hollingbourne, Kent, England. He was an American industrialist born on the 25th of January 1783. William passed away on the 25th of March 1857.

    William Colgate, Founder, Colgate

    Colgate – Mission and Vision

    Colgate’s Mission statement says – ‘Colgate-Palmolive is committed to act with compassion, integrity, honesty and high ethics in all situations, to listen with respect to others and to value differences. The Company is also committed to protect the global environment, to enhance the communities where Colgate-Palmolive people live and work, and to be compliant with government laws and regulations.’

    Colgate’s Vision statement says – ‘As we plan our strategies to sustain growth for the years to come, our core values of Caring, Global Teamwork, and Continuous Improvement will continue to drive our future initiatives.’

    The first tagline of Colgate is ‘It cleans your breath while it cleans your teeth.’

    Over the years, Colgate has come up with many taglines to promote its products. Some of Colgate’s popular slogans are-

    • Cleans more than just teeth.
    • Fights germs for 12 hours.
    • So clean, you can feel it.
    • Smile with strength.
    • What a refreshing idea.
    Colgate Logo
    Colgate Logo

    Colgate – Business Model

    Colgate Palmolive is one of the top FMCG companies in the world. Colgate products include –

    Oral Care

    Toothpaste, mouth rinses, toothbrushes, tooth whitener, dental floss, and drug store products for health professionals such as dentists are available under this category.

    Household Surface and Fabric Care

    Dishwashing fluid, Palmolive, and home cleansers are the major products available under this category.

    Pet Nutrition

    Pet care products like pet nutrition food and supplements are available under this category.

    Personal Care

    Shower gels, body sprays, shampoos, conditioners, shaving products, fluid and bar hand soaps are available under this category.

    The company spends a considerable part of its revenue on advertising and marketing. In 2021, Colgate spent nearly 2 Billion US Dollars on advertising worldwide. With intelligent market segmentation, and by building trust with the target audience, Colgate has established itself as a top player in the FMCG category, particularly in the oral hygiene segment worldwide.

    The company also keeps adding new products and phasing out old products from time to time to meet changing customer requirements. Some of the popular products that Colgate discontinued over time are Fab One-Shot detergent, Coleo soap, Cashmere Bouquet Soap, and Peter Pan Beauty Bar with Chlorophyll, among many others.

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    Colgate – Funding and Investors

    Colgate has raised a total amount of $15.2 million in funding over the two funding rounds.

    Date Transaction Name Money Raised Lead Investor
    March 16, 2021 Post-IPO Equity $15.2 million Vontobel
    September 21, 2016 Post-IPO Equity – –

    Colgate is funded by two investors, ‘Vontobel’ and ‘Taylor, Cottrill, Erickson & Associates, Inc.’

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    Colgate – Acquisitions

    Colgate has acquired 9 organizations to date.

    Date Acquired Organization
    January 23, 2020 Hello Products
    July 11, 2019 Filorga Cosmetiques
    December 18, 2017 PCA Skin
    December 18, 2017 EltaMD
    October 29, 2014 Laser Brands Toothpaste
    March 23, 2011 Sanex
    March 22, 2006 Tom’s of Maine
    December 18, 2003 GABA International
    February 14, 1992 Mennen Company

    Colgate – Competitors

    The competitors of the company are Crest, Sensodyne, and Pepsodent respectively.

    Crest

    Crest is the top competitor of the company Colgate. The company was founded in 1955 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Crest specializes in oral hygiene products only.

    Sensodyne

    Sensodyne is one of the top competitors of the company Colgate. The company was founded in 1907 and is headquartered in the United Kingdom. Sensodyne has specially positioned itself as an oral care brand for sensitive teeth.

    Pepsodent

    Pepsodent was founded in 1915 and is headquartered in the United States of America. Peposedent is a brand owned by Unilever. However, in Canada and United States, the rights for selling Pepsodent lies with Church & Dwight.

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    Colgate – Growth

    From being just a small business selling soaps, candles, and starch, to becoming an MNC, the journey of Colgate is truly exemplary. As per 2020 reports, Colgate Palmolive holds the largest share in the oral hygiene segment Globally. Colgate Palmolive’s oral care brands include Colgate, Tom’s of Maine, and Elmex.

    The company’s products are sold across 200+ countries and territories worldwide. The company is also no. 1 in the household products industry by Dow and Jones Sustainability Indices. As per Statista reports, in 2021, Colgate-Palmolive generated net sales worth 17.42 billion U.S. dollars worldwide. In the Q4 of 2020, Colgate reported a 7.5% increase in Net sales.

    In FY 2020-2021, Colgate-Palmolive India recorded net sales worth Rs. 4,810.5 crore, which is a 7.2 % increase from that of FY 2019-2020. In India, Colgate- Palmolive has launched new products like Colgate toothpaste for Diabetics, Colgate Vedshakti Spray, and Oil Pulling to capture more consumers. Colgate has also come up with attractive offerings like the first AR toothbrush that makes brushing fun for kids. Colgate has also been ranked No.1 Most Trusted Oral Care Brand from 2011-2019 by The Economic Times – Brand Equity – Most Trusted Brands Survey, which was conducted by Nielsen.

    Colgate – FAQs

    Is Colgate an Indian Brand?

    No, Colgate is an American Brand.

    Who is the CEO of Colgate?

    Noel Wallace is the CEO of Colgate-Palmolive. He has been associated with Colgate-Palmolive for over 3 decades.

    What are the products of Colgate?

    Besides oral care products, Colgate deals in personal care and personal hygiene products, household cleaning products, and pet food.

    How did Colgate get its name?

    Colgate is named after its founder William Colgate.

  • Gallabox – Empowering Businesses to Connect Effectively with Customers

    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 Gallabox.

    Digital technologies have revamped business processes, culture, and customer experience across verticals. To be competitive and profitable in a growing digital environment, end to end transformation is necessary for every business, be it a SME or the big giants.

    Gallabox is an easy-to-use, no-code conversational growth engine on WhatsApp for SMBs.

    Gallabox helps businesses increase sales and streamline all customer interactions. By deploying intuitive workflows, the tool puts an end to mediocre and broken conversations.

    Gallabox – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Gallabox
    Headquarters Chennai
    Industry SaaS
    Founder Karthik Jagannathan, Yathindhar Panchanathan, and Yogesh Narayanan
    Founded 2020
    Website gallabox.com

    Gallabox – About
    Gallabox – Industry
    Gallabox – Founders & Team
    Gallabox – Idea & Startup Story
    Gallabox – Name, Tagline, and Logo
    Gallabox – Products & Services
    Gallabox – Business Model & Revenue Model
    Gallabox – Customer Acquisition
    Gallabox – Funding
    Gallabox – Competitors
    Gallabox – Recognition and Achievements
    Gallabox – Future Plans

    About Gallabox

    Gallabox – About

    Gallabox helps companies run their business on WhatsApp empowering them to market, sell, and support better — via a communication channel that feels robust to the core. Whatsapp is becoming India’s favourite super app and that has left room for a plethora of opportunities in the fast growing super app genre.

    In terms of vision, Gallabox believes that all organisations – small, medium, and large need a powerful messaging platform like WhatsApp to manage their inbound and outbound customer conversations. Thus, Gallabox is proving to be a key player in providing customised business solutions over WhatsApp.

    Gallabox – Industry

    Gallabox focuses upon three major problems:

    1. There are about 50 Billion WhatsApp messages that get sent and received every day, but unfortunately, businesses struggle to manage their customer interactions on WhatsApp at scale.

    2. Businesses are still sending around 1.3 billion SMS Per day whereas their customers have already moved to WhatsApp

    3. Businesses find it very hard to build their workflows on WhatsApp, integrating their existing databases with APIs require coding knowledge.

    In terms of the industry size, they see a huge opportunity in the related circles. There are 500 million users that use WhatsApp, and at least 95% of this demographic opens the app once in a day. From this we can infer that WhatsApp has swiftly become apart of their daily lives. Among 500 million users of WhatsApp in India, there are at least 20 million WhatsApp business users. Assuming that about one-third of these businesses require a more sophisticated solution, where they are able to leverage the possibilities of WhatsApp makes this opportunity worth $4 billion per year.

    The second opportunity is that the SMS market globally has reported revenues of $90 billion dollars. According to a recent study about 40 million SMS’s get sent per month and the estimation is that there are a hundred thousand businesses in India sending SMS till date. SMS is really analogue in nature and it really doesn’t allow for any kind of interactivity. So, Gallabox took this as an opportunity.

    The two large opportunities for Gallabox are:

    • To move businesses that are already on WhatsApp business to offering them a more sophisticated solution that can help them leverage the possibilities of this super app: better team collaboration via a shared team inbox, streamlining marketing efforts through broadcast campaigns, simplified support with chatbots and easy integrations to build better workflows.
    • To move companies that are sending SMS today onto the WhatsApp messaging platform thereby empowering them to increase sales and support efforts to scale their business.

    For the last three years, Gallabox’s founders have been observing and working very closely with the WhatsApp team, they recognized the kind of feature functionality that is possible. In the market today, there are some companies that are building their product to use WhatsApp as a messaging channel but over the next couple of years, Gallabox predicts that WhatsApp could transform into an end-to-end business platform where customers can literally do everything from discovery of products, to purchasing, and accessing required support. Gallabox at this position is being able to leverage this opportunity ahead of us.

    Gallabox – Founders & Team

    Gallabox Founders – Yogesh Narayanan, Karthik Jagannathan, and Yathindhar Panchanathan

    Karthik Jagannathan, Yogesh Narayanan, and Yathindhar Panchanathan are the founders of Gallabox. Karthik is the CEO of Gallabox, Yogesh serves as CTO, and Yathindhar serves as CPO at Gallabox.

    A common denominator among the three co-founders has been that they have worked at Sulekha for almost A decade together starting from 2007/2008. All three of them have worked in different roles. It gave an in-depth view of how SMBs and midsize businesses were digitizing the marketing operations, trying to acquire leads from the internet and that was another generation where they saw the SMBs up-close.

    Yogesh has 13 + of experience in full life cycle software development for consumer internet, digital marketplaces and products. Just after Sulekha, he spent three years building the fintech Marketplace at Cred Avenue. Yogesh is a largely self-taught self-made engineering person who has a fantastic balance between Engineering Technology Outlook as well as a business Outlook. He is able to toggle between the two.

    Yathindhar has 17 plus years of experience managing the SMB facing product while at Sulekha, where he also managed the entire value delivery piece so they were collecting money from SMBs which means delivering value back to them in some form. Yathindhar built entire infrastructure to be able to track that and he has also spent a significant part of his career on digital marketing. Just before Sulekha, he was with Xerago, a digital marketing company that manages large clients and after Sulekha, Yatin spent a couple of years at Matrimony where he helped build wedding services Marketplace.

    Karthik has 20 plus years of experience in marketing sales and overall P&L management. He has a strong India SMB focus and mid-market customer expertise. He started his career in advertising and then he spent a good part of his career at Sify between 2000 and 2005. Then after that, he worked at Tata Teleservices in telecom sales for a couple of years after which he was at Sulekha for a little over a decade, where he was part of the original founding team that built this Sulekha local services business and subsequently, Karthik spent a couple of years at Matrimony where he was the business head for the wedding service marketplace business.

    They came from a very strong consumer internet background and were very interested to see how businesses can be helped using technology. This was their core focus as they dabbled in multiple Ideas.

    Towards the end of 2019 is when the three of them decided that they want to start something of their own and noticed a commonality of thoughts. One was the burning desire to be on their own and found a company. Second, was their passion to genuinely help businesses using technology. Third, they felt that an era of digitisation is coming up and they should be ready for it and contribute in some form to the digital transformation. After 6 months of brainstorming they incorporated the company in June 2020.

    Yathindhar manages the product design and the digital marketing piece. Yogesh takes care of the entire Technology architecture, the Visioning as well as the actual building of the product and deployment.

    Karthik takes care of overall distribution which is the sales marketing piece and fundraising activities. The company currently has 24 employees and is actively growing.

    Gallabox Team
    Gallabox Team

    The culture of the company is of shared ownership. The early team members bring a larger dose of passion into the team and new team members are equally amazing with the ability to quickly understand the business, understand the customer and being able to deploy it in the market.

    Their core values are that of focusing on the customer first. They believe that they exist to grow their customers business. They like to raise the standard. The team is always curious to know more and hungry to improve its best performance. They work fast to completion. They think simple is beautiful. Simple is the most sophisticated thing that you can ever ask for. So Gallabox team work hard to make products simple and light to use.

    They nurture talent, embrace the diversity of ideas and team members respect & rely on each other. They place integrity on a very high pedestal because integrity is about doing the right thing even when nobody’s watching. Each of the founders owns the cost and takes accountability for decisions & actions.

    They have a lot of fun at work. They have a Badminton Court next door. So, they go out there and play once a week at least. They also have a Gallabox Shuttles League (GSL). They arrange and play tournaments. They believe that Sports brings people together and it’s a great team-building exercise even if that goal is not team building it inadvertently happens.

    Their hiring funda is that they want to have people who want to build something. They want to build a product, they want to build on an idea, want to build on the career, want to build on the conviction. They look for builders. They do not look for managers. They look for team players who can take something up, own it and go about building it.

    Gallabox – Idea & Startup Story

    With the rapid digitization that we came to see through the last decade businesses started to rely on the Meta, Facebook, Alphabet, and Google ecosystem to attract users. They became the discovery engines to aid businesses in showcasing their product offerings and increase revenues by doing so. A key take back from this new workflow was that customer satisfaction was of utmost importance.

    Brands needed a platform that is readily available to be of service, personalized, and easy to access for users and team members. When Gallabox’s founders started to ideate on the best possible solution for digitising businesses, they realized that at least eight out of ten companies had the components to put together a better workflow but they did not have a platform to bring it all together. Either they were having a CRM or they were getting a CRM done, or they had integration partners that were aiding the workflow but, they weren’t able to unify all these processes into one singular flow.

    Apart from partnering platforms/services, businesses were ready to improve their customer services at scale. This meant for most of them that an increase in resources was the best possible solution. The founders of Gallabox wanted to change this thought, they truly saw potential in this grey area. This was how Gallabox was founded.

    They brainstormed the best solution for any small to medium size business – a single collaborative platform that allows for engaging interactions with customers, predefined or custom integration workflows, no-code conversational bot flows to services customers 24×7, an easy to use tool to launch marketing campaigns at scale and, a shared inbox for teams to better communicate without having to switch between channels.

    Gallabox was named after the cash register – Galla Petti. The Galla Petti symbolises healthy business.

    They focus on minimising marketing wastage, improving efficiencies in marketing as well as in sales effort and customer support efforts and focusing on enabling winning conversations with prospects and existing customers. Gallabox is building a product to streamline and reduce the multiple efforts of sales, support and marketing teams.

    The three large touchpoints of the customer are – Discovery, purchase, and support. Gallabox helps businesses to manage these customer conversations across 3 milestones. The goal is to provide their clients/customers with a tool that works like a charm, is simple to use and feature rich to scale their business operations.

    The Gallabox logo has two perspectives. One perspective is, it is supposed to be a box, a cube and therefore drawing parallel to the brand name. The other perspective is that of the blue arrow that is pointing towards the right side. It symbolises the rising graph of a business. The focus is to enable their clients’ business to improve. This Arrow symbolises what Gallabox wishes to provide to their clients business.

    Gallabox – Products & Services

    Companies want to be able to deliver a great experience to the customers across three milestones – Discovery, purchase, support and of course, there are multiple in between. In pursuit of these goals, most of them have a website, some of them have a mobile app and which is where their products, services and their profile and their reason to believe – all of these things really are sitting out there.

    Several of them also have CRM which is a repository of customer information. Often, CRM is integrated with the website so therefore there is a way in which the discovery, purchase, and support functionalities could be delivered to a certain threshold level of quality but unfortunately, their customers are sitting on WhatsApp and the island is not connected to any of these. So what WhatsApp is allowed to do and what Gallabox is building on – is being able to connect the website, mobile app, and the CRM with WhatsApp and be able to offer an end to end business solution for clients.

    Through Discovery, Purchase, and Support, Gallabox offers a set of features or a way in which teams can collaborate with each other, with the multi-agent team inbox, clients can run marketing campaigns with the WhatsApp broadcast feature, they can run automation capabilities with a chatbot and start a conversation with the prospect or with the existing customers and then hands off to an agent at some point of time. Gallabox can integrate nicely with that including CRM and payment systems and so on. Gallabox is working on building the E-Commerce engine and the business app templates.

    The entire journey is multiple touchpoints with the customer, from the time the prospective walks in – to the time the prospect is converted to a customer, customer conversation leads to the engagement and then some kind of support to the customer request. Gallabox really offers all of these features covering the touchpoints of the customers.

    It’s not easy to be able to imagine this kind of ambit. Gallabox wants to make it as easy as building a templated website. There are several tools available now on the internet you know if you have a couple of hours, people sit down and create a good looking website for yourself. They are developing the capabilities to be able to do that on WhatsApp. Gallabox builds plug-n-play tools supporting hundreds of workflows.

    Let’s take an example – A travel portal integrates with Facebook & Razorpay’s payments gateway or an Edtech company integrates with Stanley to generate leads. The integration will help them send message notifications through a bot on WhatsApp or they can send automated reminders to the users on Whatsapp. They are building a library of industry-specific templates and workflows. They have already built more than 250 such workflows. Working with more clients will help the company gain more experience and expertise.

    A client can come in, filter by industry and pick the workflow that they want and start deploying. So, Gallabox is really building a do-it-yourself toolkit for companies to build their business app on WhatsApp. However, the founders are also Cognizant of the fact that India and several other emerging economies are where the do it yourself phenomenon may not be as prevalent and therefore there is a dependence on developers to build software products.

    So, for instance, Shopify has a fairly robust do-it-yourself toolkit for people to be able to create a website but , businesses still depend on developers to be able to build the shopping website and so is the case with Magento, woo commerce, Wix, and several others. There is a huge ecosystem of developers offering such services to clients. What Gallabox is doing is it is building a product initially which is a do-it-yourself toolkit for companies and, it is also building a platform that necessarily is a developer tool for them to build a WhatsApp business app.

    Gallabox – Revenue & Business Model

    Gallabox is a product, therefore, it’s on the subscription business model. Customers can pay on a monthly/annual basis. They have very comfortable pricing starting from 2500 rupees or even lower depending on prepaid going up to 9000 Rupees.

    They have experimented with what clients really require and therefore based on that they have treetop rising over the last six months. The core philosophy behind the pricing is it ought to be a small ratio of a benefit that the client accrues by using Gallabox. As they focus on improving the quality of customer conversation with that two benefits accruing to their client – one is it can increase the sales and or it can reduce their support cost, which means there is an ROI by using Gallabox.

    Gallabox aims to get a small percentage of the lift or on the cost savings that they are able to enable for their clients. This way they have figured out a pricing model. Gallabox pricing includes the cost of the business, WhatsApp business API and all the other related costs.

    Their focus is not on profitability at a unit level but to ensure that they get the pricing right and should be fair on both parties and should ensure that it is easy for customers to adopt Gallabox and help scale the customer acquisition engine.

    Gallabox – Customer Acquisition

    Gallabox can be used by anyone without any coding knowledge. Most of the businesses in India does not prefer DIY and instead hire individuals like freelancers or outsource to small companies.

    However, very interestingly, Gallabox is enquired by these freelancers and companies who ask them how they can use Gallabox to make their work easier for integration. Gallabox has got a great connection with the developers’ community and this is how they acquired most of their initial customers.

    Gallabox – Funding

    The founders bootstrapped the startup since its inception while the MVP was being built. In April 2021, Gallabox raised a pre-seed capital of Rs. 3 Crore from angel investors by issuing CCPS. They began deploying this capital from June 2021 to augment the team and acquire customers using a variety of GTM tools.

    Gaurav Kumar (Founder, CredAvenue), Pramod Kumar(Cofounder, Wealth Advisors India), Kapil Ramamurthy (Cofounder, Spark Capital), Swaroop Reddy (Founder, SeedTime Ventures), and Kris Karaikudi (Global Data Strategy Lead Slalam, US) are Prominent angel investors of Gallabox. They are also the advisors for the company.

    Gallabox – Competitors

    ‌Top competitors of Gallabox are:

    • Wati.io
    • Yellow.ai
    • Interkat
    • Engati

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    Gallabox – Recognition and Achievements

    Gallabox receiving TANSEED Grant‌
    Gallabox receiving TANSEED Grant‌

    Gallabox has Received TANSEED GRANT from Govt. of Tamil Nadu and CM MK Stalin.

    Gallabox received the TANSEED grant funding of Rs 5 lakhs from Hon’ble Chief Minister MK Stalin on the 23rd of December, 2021. Gallabox was one of the 19 startups from across the state that was selected in the second edition of the Tamil Nadu startup Seed Grant Fund. The Grant is for a total of Rs 10 lakhs per winner, the first tranche of which is Rs 5 lakhs.

    Gallabox – Future Plans

    Customers make great efforts to discover and interact with a brand or business. In these countless interactions — lie opportunities for you to make the right impression. These touch-points where customers and your teams meet are sacred for a business. Gallabox powers these connections to make them more impactful.

    FAQs

    When was Gallabox founded?

    Gallabox was founded in June 2020.

    Who is the founder of Gallabox?

    Karthik Jagannathan, Yogesh Narayanan, and Yathindhar Panchanathan are the cofounders of Gallabox.

    What is Gallabox pricing?

    Gallabox pricing ranges from 2000 – 9000 depending upon the client requirements.

  • Ruchi Soya – Backed by Patanjali Ayurved Made It From Rags to Riches

    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 Ruchi Soya.

    In terms of edible oil imports, on the record India is now the world’s largest. Some of the primary causes boosting the edible oil market in India include improving household incomes, the rise of the food processing sector, rising urbanisation rates, and changing dietary patterns.

    Consumer health concerns about the increasing prevalence of cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal problems, diabetes, obesity, and other ailments are driving awareness of healthy edible oil in India. The industry is also being boosted by increasing knowledge of the numerous health benefits of low-cholesterol and organic edible oil. And that’s what drove several regional producers to introduce healthy product versions that are high in omega-3, natural antioxidants, and vitamins.

    Ruchi Soya Industries Limited (Ruchi Soya) has grown into a completely integrated company in the edible oil industry, with a reach from fields to plates with safe access to Indian palm oil plantations.

    Ruchi Soya – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Ruchi Soya
    ACquired By Patanjali Ayurved
    Headquarters Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
    Industry Food and Beverage Manufacturing
    Founders Dinesh Shahra
    Founded 1986
    Current CEO Sanjeev Asthana
    Website www.ruchisoya.com

    Ruchi Soya – About and How it Works?
    Ruchi Soya – Industry
    Ruchi Soya – Founder
    Ruchi Soya – Startup Story
    Ruchi Soya – Name, Logo, and Tagline
    Ruchi Soya – Vision, and Mission Statement
    Ruchi Soya – Employees
    Ruchi Soya – Funding, and Investors
    Ruchi Soya – Acquisitions
    Ruchi Soya – Competitors
    Ruchi Soya – Challenges Faced
    Ruchi Soya – Future Plans
    Ruchi Soya – FAQs

    Ruchi Soya – About and How it Works?

    Ruchi Soya Industries Limited is a company that processes oilseeds and refines crude oil for human consumption. It is divided into the following sections: Seed extracts, oils, vanaspati, wind power generation, food products, and other products are available. Various forms of seed extractions are included in the Extraction section. Vanaspati, baking fats, and a table spread, all are available in the Vanaspati sector. Crude oil and refined oil account for the vast majority of revenue in the oils industry. Textured soy protein and soy flour are included in the Food Products category. Wind turbines are used to generate power in the Wind Power Generation industry. Seeds, seedlings, soap, coffee, fresh fruit bunches, toiletry preparations, castor seed, honey and wheat flour are included in the other segments.

    The firm’s headquarters are in Indore, with plants and offices across the nation’s significant business hubs. Despite domestic and international rivalry, they have pursued an unwavering path of expansion since their inception.

    Patanjali Ayurved acquired Ruchi Soya in 2019. As per a survey issued by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Ruchi Soya is rated 175 among the list of top 250 consumer products companies in the “Global Powers of the Consumer Products Industry 2012.”

    Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd.

    Ruchi Soya – Industry

    The provision of good infrastructure and India’s diversified agro-climatic conditions, which promote the mass production of food components, are the two key factors that have helped the Indian food processing sector grow to become the fifth largest in the world. Currently, India’s food processing sector employs 11.60 per cent of the country’s population and accounts for 32 per cent of the country’s food market. In addition, the industry contributes 2.2 per cent of India’s overall FDI inflows. Even though the industry is dominated by the unorganised sector, the organised sector is predicted to grow throughout the projection period (FY 2020-FY 2024).

    The Indian food processing market was worth Rs 25,691.30 billion in FY 2018 and is predicted to reach INR 53,435.52 billion by FY 2024, growing at a CAGR of 12.09 per cent between FY 2020 and FY 2024.

    Ruchi Soya – Founder

    Dinesh Shahra founded Ruchi Soya in 1986.

    Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd.’s Founder and Managing Director, Dinesh Shahra, is renowned in the industry for his strategic business expertise and iconoclastic management.

    Ruchi Soya – Startup Story

    Ruchi has been one of the country’s leading edible oil manufacturers since it began operations in Indore in 1986. Its other products included soya food, Vanaspati, and lecithin. Ruchi’s product portfolio included these everyday delicacies. Despite their diverse product portfolio, palm oil and soya chunks accounted for a significant portion of their income.

    Ruchi Soya quickly grew to become one of the country’s top FMCG firms. It possessed a sizable market share and a well-developed distribution network. Ruchi Soya produced roughly 3 million tonnes of oil per year, with 7 lakh+ retail outlets and 6000+ wholesalers. It also has around 13 well-maintained refinery units. Customers and markets both appreciated it. It was one of the go-to investments for anyone searching for a high-yielding stock. Ruchi Soya’s life was, in a nutshell, hunky-dory until 2011. In fact, it continued to make considerable money until the end of 2015.

    However, the tides quickly turned against it, bringing with them a sequence of unfavourable circumstances that redefined its success story. Yes, the corporation saw a precipitous decline from its apex. So, where did things go wrong?
    The problem began when Indonesia’s government, which imports the bulk of its raw resources, enacted proposed laws. The government raised the tax on crude oil and some other raw resources exports under the new law. The higher expense has to be borne by it. This had an economic burden on the company’s margins as well.

    Ruchi Soya has become one of India’s finest FMCG companies, as a prominent maker and distributor of a nutritious variety of edible oils and a pioneer of soya foods. And it’s one of India’s biggest palm planting firms. Ruchi Soya now has 22 production plants, with a combined refining capacity of over 11000 tonnes per day, a seed crushing capacity of 11000 tonnes per day, and a packaging capacity of ten thousand tonnes per day.

    The industry’s pan-India inclusion, which includes strategically located manufacturing facilities that strike the proper blend between proximity to raw materials and markets, as well as an extensive distribution network and a large sales force in India, has allowed it to run smoothly, increase product to satisfy ever-increasing domestic consumption, and outsource by-products like soy meal, lecithin, and other condiments to other nations.

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    Ruchi Soya – Name, Logo, and Tagline

    Ruchi Soya’s tagline says, “Healthy options every day.”

    Company Logo of Ruchi Soya
    Company Logo of Ruchi Soya

    Ruchi Soya – Vision, and Mission Statement

    Ruchi Soya’s vision statement says, “To be India’s leading edible oil & food company by building profitable brands that delight consumers by meeting their everyday health & nutrition needs at the best value.”

    Ruchi Soya – Employees

    Below are mentioned key people of Ruchi Soya Industries.

    • Founder & Managing Director – Dinesh Shahra
    • Vice President – Hemant Bansal
    • Dy. Manager Supply Chain South – Ak Singh
    • National Activation Manager – Amitakshya Chowdhury
    • Asst. Manager Commercial/ Finance – Amol Desai
    • Junior Manager – Anudit Purohit
    • Product Manager – Ashish Jaiswal
    • Sr Manager HRD – Ashwini Kumar
    • Manager – Electrical – Avinash Agrawal
    • Asst. Manager Legal – Dilip Taraj
    • Assistant Manager – Diwedi Dwivedi

    Ruchi Soya – Funding, and Investors

    Date Round Amount Lead Investors
    Mar 24, 2022 Funding Round â‚č12.9B Alchemy Capital Management, Oman’s Pension Fund, Volrado Ventures

    Ruchi Soya – Acquisitions

    Acquiree Name About Acquiree Date Amount
    Patanjali Biscuit Business Patanjali Biscuit Business is a producer of biscuits and bakery products. May 11, 2021 â‚č600M
    Gemini Edibles and Fats India Pvt. Ltd Gemini Edibles & Fats India Private Limited is in the business of manufacturing and marketing edible oils and fats. Jan 6, 2010 â‚č45M

    As of March 24th 2022, as follow-on public offering opens for subscription, Ruchi Soya falls 5%. Before the follow-on public offering, the business, which is run by Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved, received Rs 1,290 crore from anchor investors. Ruchi Soya’s stock hit a low of Rs 851 on the BSE, down from Rs 897.45 at the previous closing. The Rs 4,300 crore FPO is available at a 40% discount to the company’s existing market price at the top end of the price band of Rs 650 per share.

    The firm was purchased by Patanjali Ayurved after it went bankrupt. It is a fully integrated operator in the edible oil industry, with operations spanning the whole production process. It sells Nutrela, Mahakosh, Sunrich, Ruchi Gold, and Ruchi No. 1 goods.

    The firm has recently expanded into other industries such as data and honey. Ruchi Soya’s entrance into additional FMHG and FMCG items such as biscuits, oleochemicals, rusks, honey, wheat flour, and nutraceuticals signals well for the company’s mid-to-long-term commercial growth.

    Patanjali, which controls 98.90% of the firm, was required to reduce its shareholding to 75% or less within three years after purchase. It has been two years, and it is thus necessary to sell its shares.

    Ruchi Soya – Competitors

    Some of the top competitors of Ruchi Soya are:

    • Agro Tech Foods
    • AVT Natural
    • BCL Industries
    • Gokul Agro
    • Gokul Refoils
    • Ruchinfra
    • Sanwaria Consum
    • M K Proteins
    • Raj Oil Mills
    • NK Industries
    • JVL Agro Ind
    • Rasoya Protein
    • Vimal Oils
    • KN Agri Res

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    Ruchi Soya – Challenges Faced

    The Indonesian govt. has decreased the taxes on refined oil exports. As a result, a rise in the price of its product might lose the company money. Ruchi Soya was faced with a significant dilemma and a limited number of solutions. The higher expense has to be borne by it. This had a toll on the company’s margins as well. The loss of the castor oil business impacted Ruchi Soya even harder since the firm was already struggling to keep up with rising production expenses. Even though castor seeds only accounted for a small fraction of the company’s profitability, the losses were substantial.

    The global market for castor seeds had a significant drop in 2017. Ruchi Soya had put a lot of money into it, only to lose a lot of money. Aside from that, India’s seed and seedlings industry hit a snag when a severe drought hit the country, resulting in crop failure in various sections of the country. All of this had a significant impact on their output. Things have only gotten worse for a corporation that is already having a crisis.

    Ruchi Soya, which had formerly been profitable, was now reporting massive losses on its accounting records. For example, the financial accounts for March 2016 forecast a shortfall of over 800 crores. Furthermore, the company’s debts continued to rise to unprecedented heights and were estimated to be in the range of 9000 to 10000 crores. As a consequence of its clients’ failure to pay, it began to see a rise in unsurvivable debts. A total of 5000 crores in loans were written off as bad debts.

    The SEBI was also looking into the business because of its deceptive trading operations on the commodities market. They were soon compelled to withdraw from the stock markets.

    Ruchi Soya – Future Plans

    Ruchi Soya’s Current COO stated that the firm is undergoing numerous rebranding operations. It is reducing expenses and diversifying its product range to include new areas. It has partnered with Adani and with Wilmar to completely reinvent its company.

    Distribution and imports networks are also being examined. For the same goal, a Rs 5000 crore investment has been made. Sales increased for the corporation as well.
    A number of businesses have risen from the ashes and gone on to construct colossal empires. Ruchi Soya will undoubtedly be added to the list.

    The business experienced a setback, but it is now back on course, and with a roar. With massive potential and a well-thought-out strategy, the firm is looking forward to a brighter tomorrow filled with exciting changes.

    Ruchi Soya – FAQs

    What products does Ruchi Soya make?

    The product line of Ruchi Soya contains Vanaspati, Biscuit Division, Ruchi Sunlight Oil, Mahakosh Oil, Sunrich Oil, Ruchi Gold Oil, Nutrela Oil, Nutrela, and Soya Foods.

    When did Patanjali acquire Ruchi Soya?

    Patanjali bought Ruchi Soya for 4,000 crores in a corporate bankruptcy resolution procedure in 2019.

    Who founded Ruchi Soya?

    Dinesh Shahra founded Ruchi Soya in 1986.

    Which companies do Ruchi Soya compete with?

    Ruchi Soya’s top competitors are:

    • Agro Tech Foods
    • AVT Natural
    • BCL Industries
    • Gokul Agro
    • Gokul Refoils
    • Ruchinfra
    • Sanwaria Consum
    • M K Proteins
    • Raj Oil Mills
    • NK Industries
    • JVL Agro Ind
    • Rasoya Protein
    • Vimal Oils
    • KN Agri Res

  • The Girlfriend Box – Helping Brands and Personalities Create Great Digital Identity

    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 GirlFriend Box.

    In this age of new and exciting developments in the digital world, marketing trends keep changing every now and then. With the revolution in digital space Digital marketing has become the foundation of marketing. Personal branding and grooming have also become quite popular as Influencer marketing is trending in 2022. The GirlFriend Box helps you with collaborations with Influencers, digital strategy, celebrity management, content production, and more.

    Read the story of starting up, The GirlFriend Box founders, business model, marketing and more.

    The GirlFriend Box – Company Highlights

    Startup Name The GirlFriend Box
    Headquarters Mumbai
    Industry Talent Management
    Founder Shubham Singhal and Vaibhav Pathak
    Founded 2020
    Parent Organisation Dot Media Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
    Website thegirlfriendbox.com

    The GirlFriend Box – About
    The GirlFriend Box – Industry
    The GirlFriend Box – Founders and Team
    The GirlFriend Box – The Idea and Startup Story
    The GirlFriend Box – Name, Tagline, and Logo
    The GirlFriend Box – USP
    The GirlFriend Box – Business Model and Revenue Model
    The GirlFriend Box – Customer Acquisition
    The GirlFriend Box – Challenges Faced
    The GirlFriend Box – Marketing Campaign
    The GirlFriend Box – Growth
    The GirlFriend Box – Recognition and Achievements

    The GirlFriend Box – About

    The GirlFriend Box is a digital first content lead influencer marketing & creative solutions company. Our long term goal is to build value for each individual of the 120 artists on our roster and our short term goal is to just give everyday our literal best, as individuals and as a team. The core belief of the team behind running the company is ownership and leadership – the team that built the agency from ground up are all stakeholders in our opinion, they hope to give each one of these people the opportunities and growth they so richly deserve.

    The GirlFriend Box – Industry

    Post covid, they have seen a huge shift in media trends, earlier there was 42% share taken up by TV which is still the case but its becoming increasingly clear to brands that digital is a better way forth. Digital media is definitely experiencing a round up 20% YOY growth, especially influencer marketing.

    The GirlFriend Box – Founders and Team

    The GirlFriend Box founder- Shubham Singhal
    The GirlFriend Box founder- Shubham Singhal

    The GirlFriend Box and Dot Media Solutions is Co-Founded by Vaibhav Pathak along with Shubham Singhal.

    Shubham met Vaibhav Pathak, at a poker table – A party that neither of them were originally supposed to be at. They were rolling different tables but by the end of the night Shubham and Vaibhav pitted against each other and post that game they became fast friends.

    They figured out that they had similar goals in life and were highly skilled at things the other one lacked. So, It was just a fit.

    Their company is still bootstrapped and will be for as long as they can. Their company is divided into two parts, Problem creation and problem-solving. Shubham comes up with out of whack ideas to create chaos and Pathak puts everything in perspective. Vaibhav is in operations, execution, relationship management, and Shubham is into communication and finance.

    The GirlFriend Box – The Idea and Startup Story

    Shubham Singhal had been an entrepreneur even before TGB happened, while talent management and Influencer Marketing were not exactly part of the plan. He has been very fortunate to experience and help so many creators grow. There was definitely no way for him to research and validate an idea he didn’t even plan on, it was trial and error, what could’ve been a total failure just as well. They are grateful that it ended up succeeding. Initially, they were operating on an enterprise model, but in lockdown, they transitioned to a talent-based company. The Co-founder, Vaibhav Pathak & Shubham, the minute they broke ground on the idea, they just went all in.

    The Girlfriend Box Logo
    The Girlfriend Box Logo

    The Girlfriend Box was originally meant to be a subscription based beauty box with a very unique idea attached to it but when it transcended into a talent management firm they didn’t have the heart to let the box go so they started calling it TGB Troop. The tagline however still fit the brief ‘Reach. Engage. Succeed.’ Courtesy of our wonderful and talented team, our entire digital identity was built a little over two years ago by the same team they have today. They have been very lucky.

    The GirlFriend Box – USP

    The agency manages talents and positions them in the right brands, PR and casting roles in order to make good art. Their USP is their transparency, their clear margins, and the culture in which the talent is nurtured.

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    The GirlFriend Box – Business Model and Revenue Model

    The model is very simple, they work on a 20% commission model with all their creators and actors. All their campaigns are content-based and they don’t charge for these ideas. Content means everything to them. They want to focus on creating a niche in the market first and then write bills.

    The GirlFriend Box – Customer Acquisition

    Ronit Ashra - First Artist of The GirlFriend Box
    Ronit Ashra – First Artist of The GirlFriend Box

    Their first artist was Ronit Ashra. You’ve heard of the mimicry star now but when they onboarded him, he wasn’t a huge name. Getting to over 120+ artists has been a huge feat for us as a team but what is more rewarding is the relationship they share with each one of these people.

    There is no shortcut to success. They are built on transparency and honesty as a business model and putting creative liberty at the very top of it all. Its taken us this far, I’m sure it’ll take us all the way.

    The GirlFriend Box – Challenges Faced

    One major challenge was finding like-minded people to share this with, opening up a Kanpur office amid Lockdown and working our way through was an experiment they didn’t know would work. But it did and here they are.

    The GirlFriend Box – Marketing Campaign

    The DNA mein dance campaign for free fire, lead by Hrithik Roshan, was a roaring success. It was a Holi Campaign based around a dance routine which also won an award at the Agency Reporter Awards 2021.

    DNA mein dance campaign for free fire By TGB

    The GirlFriend Box – Growth

    The company is doing fairly well in most capacities, they are vendors to practically every music label in the country and their roster is expanding by the day, what keeps them humble is how far they intend to go as a team, their 2 year plan is in the making right now, soon it’ll be out in the open for the world to see.

    The GirlFriend Box – Recognition and Achievements

    Awards won by The GirlFriend Box are:

    • Agency Reporter (DNA Mein Dance / Influencer Campaign Award)
    • Shubham Singhal, 40 under 40, Adgully

    FAQs

    What is The Girlfriend Box?

    The Girlfriend Box is a Digital Marketing Agency of Dot Media Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

    Who is the founder of The Girlfriend Box?

    Shubham Singhal and Vaibhav Pathak are the founders of The GirlFriend Box.

    When was The Girlfriend Box founded?

    The GirlFriend Box was founded in 2020.

    Some popular artists of The Girlfriend Box are:

    • Ronit Ashra
    • Karan Kundrra
    • Shubhankar Mishra
    • RJ RAGHAV
    • Akancha Sharma

  • The Man Company – How It is Fast Becoming a Popular Men’s Grooming Brand

    Though grooming and self-care are often perceived as something that only women indulge in, the truth is totally different. The history of Men’s Grooming dates back to as early as 10,000 BC.  From bathing milk to oils and fragrances, ancient Egyptian and Roman men loved pampering themselves. Even in India, there is evidence of men using various skincare and cosmetics products like face masks, oils, and even lip balms during ancient times.

    Fast forward to modern times, while there was a period where shaving cream and perfumes were the only products mostly used by men, today the scenario has changed. All thanks to the influence of the entertainment industry, men are now more concerned about looking good. To meet this growing demand for quality men’s grooming products, ‘The Man Company’ was incepted in 2015. The Man Company deals especially with men’s grooming necessities and offers natural and chemical-free grooming products, that make every man look stylish. In this article let’s explore more about this interesting men-centric startup. Here is the story of the Man Company.

    The Man Company – Company Highlights

    Startup Name The Man Company
    Headquarters Gurgaon, Haryana, India
    Sector Consumer Goods, E-Commerce and Beauty
    Founders Bhisham Bhateja, Hitesh Dhingra, Parvesh Bareja
    Founded September 1, 2015
    Website themancompany.com

    About The Man Company
    The Man Company – Startup Story
    The Man Company – Name & Logo
    The Man Company – Founders
    The Man Company – Business & Revenue Model
    The Man Company – Funding and Investors
    The Man Company – Competitors
    The Man Company – Growth & Future Plans

    About The Man Company

    The Man Company offers the best and premium quality grooming requirements for men. The company has got almost all sorts of products for men starting with hair to the body essentials. All the products are enriched with natural oils, which is preferred by a number of men in today’s date. The Man Company also offers great gifting options for men. One can choose his favorite products, get them packed in a gift pack with a customized message and photo, and gift it to a loved one.

    The founders also noticed a specific behavior in most men. They noticed that while modern men want to look and feel good, not all men are passionate enough to go shopping for grooming products. Thus to make things simpler for me, the Man Company introduced a subscription model. Under the subscription model, users can subscribe to their favorite products and get their products delivered to them at their preferred frequency.  

    For the men who want tips and tricks related to Grooming, the Man Company also has a blog called ‘The Man Mag’. Besides Grooming tips, the blog contains content related to travel, relationships, and more.

    The Man Company – Startup Story

    The Man Company is a one-stop shopping space for all men to purchase their grooming necessities like face wash, body wash, shampoo, shaving gel, hair gel, perfumes, etc. The founders spotted that there were few brands that are solely focused on Men’s Grooming. Also when it comes to grooming and self-care, men had a fewer choices than women. This gap in the market inspired Bhisham Bhateja, Hitesh Dhingra, Rohit Chawla, and Parvesh Bareja to start ‘The Man Company’ in 2015.

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    The company is dedicated to creating awesome grooming products for men, hence the name ‘The Man Company’ truly suits the purpose.

    The Man Company Logo
    The Man Company Logo

    The Man Company – Founders

    Hitesh Dhingra, Bhisham Bhateja, Parvesh Bareja, and Rohit Chawla founded the Man Company in 2015.

    Hitesh Dhingra

    The Man Company Founder, Hitesh Dhingra
    The Man Company Founder, Hitesh Dhingra

    Hitesh is a serial entrepreneur who co-founded many successful startups. In 2005 Hitesh co-founded a contextual advertising network, ‘Tyroo’, which grew to become one of the largest of its type in India. In 2009, Hitesh founded letsbuy.com, an online retailer of consumer electronics. In 2012 letsbuy.com got acquired by Flipkart. Hitesh is also one of the co-founders of India’s leading dating and match-making site TrulyMadly.

    Bhisham Bhateja

    The Man Company Founder, Bhisham Bhateja
    The Man Company Founder, Bhisham Bhateja

    The Man Company co-founder Bhisham Bhateja has years of experience in project planning, execution, and client management verticals. The Man Company is Bhisham’s first entrepreneurial venture. Prior to co-founding The Man Company, Bhisham worked with companies like Tecnova India Pvt. Ltd, Letsbuy.com, and Fabfurnish.com.

    Parvesh Bareja

    Parvesh has extensive experience in the field of design, manufacturing, and packaging of various cosmetics products. Parvesh is also an Angel investor.

    Rohit Chawla

    The Man Company Founder, Rohit Chawla
    The Man Company Founder, Rohit Chawla

    Having worked with companies like TCS, Accenture, and Deloitte, in various responsible positions, Rohit started his entrepreneurial journey with iLabs Ventures, an execution-focused incubator that helped startups make it big. From 2015 to 2018, Rohit worked as the CEO of The Man Company. In 2018 Rohit exited The Man Company to start personalized hair and skincare brand ‘Bare Anatomy’. In 2021, Rohit founded India’s first Ceramides-based skincare brand, ‘ Chemist at Play’.

    The Man Company – Business & Revenue Model

    The Man Company deals in men’s grooming and personal care products.  The company has over 11 third-party manufacturing partners across the country, where its products are made.

    The company has an omnichannel presence across over 22 Indian cities. All the products of the company are available on their own website as well other leading e-commerce sites like Amazon, Nykaa, Flipkart, and Myntra.

    As for offline presence, The Man Company has over 30 Exclusive Brand Outlets all over India. To expand its offline presence, it has tied up with brands like Shopper’s Stop, Spar, Relaince Smart, More, and Central. The company has also partnered with Lifestyles pharmacies like Apollo, Med Plus, and Guardian, and with 500+ Salons across India. Some of its partner Salons are Toni & Guy, Headmasters, LOOKS, and Enrich. Presently a huge chunk of revenue for the company comes from offline channels.

    The Man Company also has an affiliate network to promote its products. Website owners, blog owners, and people having e-mail databases can promote the products of the company to their followers and subscribers, and earn a commission.

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    The Man Company – Funding and Investors

    The Man Company has raised a total amount of around  $ 17 Million in funding as per reports. Major Investor in The Man Company is Emami, who holds a 45.96% stake in the company. Other investors are Redcliffe Capital and Bollywood actor Ayushmann Khurrana. Below are the funding details of The Man Company-

    Date Transaction Name Money Raised Lead Investor
    June 28, 2021 Corporate Round Rs. 500 million Emami
    October 21, 2019 Corporate Round – Ayushmann Khurrana
    February 25, 2019 Corporate Round – Emami
    December 7, 2017 Series A $3 million –
    August 8, 2016 Seed Round $500 K Redcliffe Capital
    October 15, 2015 Seed Round – –

    The Man Company – Competitors

    The top competitors of the company are Beardo, Ustraa, and Bombay Shaving Company.

    Beardo

    Marico-backed Beardo is one of the top competitors of The Man Company. The company is headquartered in Ahmedabad and was founded in 2015. Beardo offers a wide range of products for taking care of beard and moustache, as well various skin and hair care products for men.

    Ustraa

    A wing of the company Happily Unmarried, Ustraa is a brand dealing in men’s grooming products since 2015.  Its products include skin, hair, and beard care products, as well as personal care tools and accessories like shavers, trimmers, brushes, and combs. Ustraa is backed by big investors like Wipro and Info Edge.

    Bombay Shaving Company

    Headquartered in Delhi, Bombay Shaving Company is one of the top competitors of The Man Company. The company’s products are free from harmful chemicals. The company has a lot to offer including shaving tools, skin, hair, and beard care products. The Shaving company also offers shaving essentials and skin and hair care products for women. The company has raised over $45 Million in Funding from investors like Gulg Islamic Investments LLC, Reckitt Benckiser Group, and Fireside Ventures.

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    The Man Company – Growth and Future Plans

    The Man Company is experiencing steady growth since its inception. As said by founder Hitesh Dhingra, The Man Company sold 70,000 units, in its first year of origin itself, and the numbers are ever-increasing. In an interview given to PTI, Dhingra told that the company was aiming to increase sales to 50 Lakhs units by March 2022.

    As per Dhingra with 20-25 percent month-on-month growth, the Man Company is aiming to Break even by September 2022. By 2023, The Man Company is expecting to touch Rs 225 Crore revenue. In FY 2021, the Man Company reported net revenue worth Rs 45 Crore. The company has tied up with credit provider platforms like Cred to increase sales. The company is investing a generous chunk (around 35% of revenue as per February 2022 reports) of revenue for marketing and advertising.

    The Man Company till date has around 100 SKUs and is working towards introducing new products. It has ventured into personal care appliances like shavers and trimmers also, taking a step further to establish itself as a one-stop platform for all personal care needs of men.

    The Man Company -FAQs

    The Man Company is from which country?

    The Man Company is an Indian Company, headquartered in Gurugram, Haryana.

    Who is the owner of The Man Company?

    Hitesh Dhingra, Bhisham Bhateja, and Parvesh Bareja are the founders of the Man Company. Besides other investors, Emami holds a 45.96% stake in The Man Company.

  • Miemaw: Making The Swachh Bharat Dream Come True

    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 Miemaw.

    India, with its population of 1.38 billion, generates humongous quantities of waste every day; this waste if left untreated, would create chaos in nature as depicted in the award-winning movie—Wall-E. However, there’s no need to be apprehensive of the future if one acts appropriately in the present. Helping us take the right step ahead is a Surat-based startup, Miemaw. Miemaw is a tech-based startup that helps municipal corporations in waste segregation through cost-effective strategies.

    Startup Name Miemaw
    Headquarters Surat
    Sector Waste Management (WM)
    Co-Founders Sweta Kesur, Kokila Kesur
    Founded 2016
    Parent Organization Miemaw Technologies Private Limited
    Website www.miemaw.com

    Miemaw – Introduction
    Miemaw – Industry Details
    Miemaw – Founders
    How Miemaw Was Started?
    Miemaw – Name, Tagline, and Logo
    Miemaw – Business Model and Revenue Model
    Miemaw – Startup Challenges
    Miemaw – Funding and Investors
    Miemaw – Advisers and Mentors
    Miemaw – Awards
    Miemaw – Future Plans

    Miemaw – Introduction

    Every year a huge amount of money is spent by municipal authorities for segregating waste. Solid waste segregation machines cost millions but are still unable to achieve 100% efficiency. Uncouth businesses intend to burn this waste for electricity production using government subsidies. Environmentalists opine this isn’t viable, given the Indian atmospheric conditions—they fear toxic emissions from the mass incineration. All in all, the waste segregation and management segment is in disarray and Miemaw wants to set it right.

    The vision behind launching Miemaw was to protect the environment by helping municipal corporations collect segregated waste at negligible costs. The Miemaw mobile app can monitor the waste segregation process through a single QR code scan, thus saving municipal corporations vital cash.

    Miemaw app is available for the general public as well as the municipal authorities.‌‌ In the Miemaw App for Residents (User Application), users can register themselves and generate a unique QR code that assists the Municipal Corporations to keep track of the user. The app keeps the user updated with the latest activities and initiatives from the authorities through SMS.‌‌

    Miemaw App for municipalities (Admin Application) lets them keep a record of the users (who enroll through the ‘User Application’). A server setup that is linked to the Admin Application allows authorities to monitor waste management at an area level. Using the Miemaw app, municipal corporations can impose hefty fines using the QR code.

    In addition to the app, Miemaw also develops waste management software for municipalities to assist them in collecting segregated waste straight from the source with an impressive 90% success rate.

    Some of the USPs of Miemaw’s are:

    • Tracking of waste segregation: Municipal corporations can track each area on a daily basis to identify whether residents of that area segregated their wastes. Residents in turn can monitor their penalty records.
    • Training: Miemaw delivers several awareness campaigns, door-to-door visits, and training courses to individuals on how to segregate waste and understand terminologies such as dry and wet waste.
    • Friendly support: One or two members from the Miemaw service department constantly assist the individuals from municipal corporations in collecting waste.

    Miemaw is currently operational in Eklera village near Surat, Gujrat(India); the startup has also begun its operations in the main city of Surat recently.

    Miemaw – Industry Details

    Waste segregation has gained prominence only a few years ago. It received a push through the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan initiative launched by the government of India. By 2025, India’s waste management sector is expected to be worth the US $13.62 billion with an annual growth rate of 7.17 %. ‌‌The team at Miemaw wants to be a part of this growth story with the help of Miemaw app. With the app, municipal authorities are guaranteed to work efficiently, securely and effortlessly.

    By the end of 2024, we see our Miemaw industry providing services to all the cities and villages of west of India.

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    Miemaw – Founders

    The mother-daughter duo of Sweta Kesur and Kokila Kesur founded Miemaw tech startup in 2016. They have been working coherently to generate results in the domain of waste segregation.

    Sweta Kesur, Founder & CEO

    Sweta Kesur is the founder and CEO of Miemaw. She is an IT graduate from the Institute of Technology, Nirma University in June 2016. She is recognized for creating a brain tumour detection software which is used by Dr Tanvi from the Civil Hospital of Surat; she presented a research paper at an international conference held in Las Vegas from Dec 17-18, 2014, and won a certificate of honor. Sweta has also been felicitated with the Social Entrepreneur of the year 2019 award.‌‌

    Kokila Kesur is the co-founder and COO of Miemaw. She is a retired school principal and has an extraordinary 35 years of experience in social entrepreneurship. She is the main inspiration behind this venture. Kokila has played an important role in the promotion of women empowerment and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in the rural areas.

    The core belief of our team is the commitment to make the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan successful. We want to deliver the message to India that, how by taking small steps like segregating waste into dry and wet from our house we can create a huge impact in contribution towards the Clean India mission and development of our country

    How Miemaw Was Started?

    Miemaw was a response in 2016 to the failed attempts at collection of segregated waste (dry and wet waste) from the source of waste generation—households and commercial places. Sweta conceived the idea of Miemaw during her two months stay in the USA for a summer internship. Motivated by the highly organized waste management system in the USA, she wanted to start a similar system back home in India.

    The seed to all this began in June 2015 when I and my Mom went to the USA for completing my undergraduate summer internship in New York. We stayed in Queens, New York as any other US resident, which made us learn the lifestyle of US residents. Since childhood, my Mom trained me to keep the surroundings very clean. So when we were living in the US, they had certain rules for Waste Management, like the garbage collector would collect segregated waste every 2 days. Meaning we have to throw wet waste into one large size black garbage polythene and dry waste into others. We were inspired by this and decided to follow this practice in India also. This made me think that, if we can follow this practice of segregating waste in the US then why can’t we do this in India – Sweta narrates

    After returning to India, Sweta got busy with her college schedule but did not discard the idea. After graduation, Sweta and Kokila Kesur started working on the ideation, designing and prototyping phases. They knew that executing their idea was not possible without external support. So, Sweta started writing applications detailing her plans to the PMO. It took 23 online applications and 56-speed post applications until she received her first response on the 19th of July 2017.

    I have started my application in May 2017 and I regularly sent one application online through “Interact with PM” portal and continued till July 2017. Apart from the online application, I sent application (consisting of a letter, project portfolio and short bio of myself in a cover made by me) through India speed post regularly on alternate days of the week. I carried out this speed post-task from May 2017 till Aug 2017

    Though she received assurances of her concerns identified and prompt actions being taken, there were no results in reality. This compelled Sweta to take action on her own.

    Sweta and Kokila Kesur started their work from Eklera, a village near Surat. The endgame was to make this village clean by educating the residents on how to segregate waste into dry and wet categories. For this target, they carried out several door-to-door visits, wall painting on Eklera gram panchayat office to their idea, movie-screenings, and several awareness campaigns for the same. The incorporation of their waste management software brought tremendous changes; the duo got a great response from the village council, and neighbouring villages were inspired by the work done by Eklera. Since then, Sweta and Kokila have received several awards from the Government of Gujarat,‌‌ Surat Municipal corporation, and the village council. Seeing the results, they have received the go-ahead to implement their venture in the city of Surat. By end of 2019, they aim to provide their services in Surat and its surrounding areas.‌‌

    I am really happy to announce that my project got successfully implemented on Eklera Village near Surat and all villagers are more than happy after the implementation of my project.

    Their project was recognized and appreciated by the Prime Minister’s Office of India recently.

    Miemaw derives its name from the phrase ‘me and mommy’. Sweta adds, “Meemaw is another way of addressing a grandmother”.

    Miemaw’s product revolves around QR code scan and the company has a matching tagline: ‘Mie (me) & Mawmie’s (Mommy) Quick Response Code for Waste Segregation.

    Miemaw Logo

    One of the core values of our company is women empowerment. We all know that the manager of any house is either Grandma, Mother or Daughter. Women are the majority one, when comes to handling waste management of the house. The success behind proper waste segregation from the household is in the quick response of mom’s from every house.

    Miemaw – Business Model and Revenue Model

    Miemaw charges a one-year subscription plan from the authorities such as the village council for using its products and services. It also derives margins through commission from municipalities with respect to the penalty amount charged on individuals for not segregating waste.

    Our strategy is to compel people for waste segregation and the percentage of success that we receive in completing our task is the growth of our business.

    Miemaw – Startup Challenges

    Asking people to do something for the environment through waste segregation is easier said than done. There’s no dearth of volatile personalities falling on a broad behaviour spectrum. Not everyone is eager to spare some time for such initiatives. Naturally, it was a tough task for Miemaw to have people on board it’s initiative.

    Though everyone was actively participating in our campaigns, at the implementation level there barely any change. It took us around 2.5 years to make people adapt this technique. We overcame this challenge by consistent effort in spreading awareness related to health and hygiene issues arising out of not segregated waste. ‌‌

    Initially, the startup relied on an incentive-based approach to bring a shift in the behaviour of the public. The incentive emphasized providing points to people conforming to waste segregation guidelines which could be redeemed at the local grocery stores. However, the strategy wasn’t that successful. Thereon, Miemaw adopted a penalty-based approach which finally worked.

    The venture also struggled in securing its initial funding as the process involved getting permission from different authorities. But when the village council saw the outcome of Miemaw’s work it immediately approved Miemaw’s project and provided the necessary funds in 2018. After this, Miemaw received approval from other municipal corporations and gained the required funds.

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    Miemaw – Funding and Investors

    Miemaw collected an undisclosed amount of seed funding in September 2018.

    Date Stage Amount Investor
    September 2018 Seed Undisclosed Head of the Village Council

    Miemaw – Advisers and Mentors

    Miemaw has been recently selected for the prestigious Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Growth Fellowship that will take place in New York City in Fall 2019. Prior to receiving this prestigious fellowship opportunity, the Miemaw team went through ten‌‌ weeks of training meant for the business growth plans of small scale setups. This Goldman Sachs sponsored program comprises customized training, coaching, and advice. The program invitees will be a part of several sessions with industry leaders and experts.‌‌‌‌

    Some of the instructors of this fellowship are:

    1. Edward David: He is a doctoral candidate at the University of Oxford, where he works on the curriculum development for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses fellowship. Since joining Oxford SaĂŻd in 2013, Edward has helped design and manage a range of corporate-sponsored programmes for entrepreneurs and MBA students. These include the Power Shift Forum, Inspiring Women in Leadership and Learning, and the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Fellowship. Edward has also worked for state education reform in Washington DC and continues to serve students as a tutor at Trinity College, Oxford. Edward holds qualifications from New York University and the University of Oxford.
    2. Anne Donnellon is Professor Emerita of Management at the Babson College in Wellesley (Massachusetts) where she has served as the Faculty Director for Babson’s Fast Track MBA for executives. Currently, Dr. Donnellon is a member of the National Curriculum Design and Site Launch Team for Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses, serving as Launch Faculty for the Houston, Cleveland, Miami, and Baltimore sites. She teaches leadership, negotiation, and organizational change in the MBA and executive education programs there. She is the author of ‘Team Talk: The Power of Language in Team Dynamics’, published by Harvard Business School Press, and has also developed two books in the Harvard Manage Mentor series: ‘Keeping Teams on Target’ and ‘Leading Teams’. She has published numerous journal articles, book chapters, and teaching cases. Dr. Donnellon has taught in numerous executive education programs in and out of the United States and has been a consultant to reputed organizations. Lately, she has been working with several small entrepreneurial firms and led management development seminars for entrepreneurs through the Small Business Association of New England, the Center for Women and Enterprise, ICIC, the International Fund for Ireland, and Invest Northern Ireland.

    Miemaw – Awards

    1. Young Entrepreneur of the year award 2019
    2. Sweta and Kokila, the founders of Miemaw company, have been selected to attend the prestigious 10,000 Women Growth Fellowship program sponsored by Goldman Sachs. Fellowship will take place in New York City in Fall 2019.
    3. Miemaw received the City Award from Nirav Shah, the Deputy Mayor of Surat, for coming up with an innovative idea for the Swachh Bharat Mission on 8th July 2019.
    4. On 1st June 2019, Miemaw was awarded by Rasmika Ben Patel the Chairperson of Surat Municipal Corporation. She has decided to support the venture as well.
    5. In April 2019, Sweta received the Social Entrepreneur Award from the Head of the village council (Local Govt. of India) for providing Miemaw’s services in 2018 to Eklera village.
    6. In July 2017, the concept of Miemaw was appreciated and accepted by the Prime Minister Office(PMO) of India.
    7. Sweta has visited Goldman Sachs NY for business growth planning on a sponsored trip by Goldman Sachs

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    Miemaw – Funding and Investors

    Miemaw’s notable clients include several village councils and municipal corporations. It is currently working to make its services available to every place in and around Surat and help corporations achieve the goal of Clean City and Smart City by the end of 2019. By the end of 2020, Miemaw plans to have two more cities of Gujarat (Ahmedabad and Vadodara) covered.‌‌ In the coming years, Miemaw team wants to establish a presence in all the cities of western India. Miemaw is also aiming to introduce the facility of points redemption system that would allow people use points gained from waste segregation efforts in stores like D-Mart and Big Bazaar.

    We at Miemaw are on a mission is to protect our environment from landfills or burning the garbage and help municipal corporations collect segregated waste from source at no cost compared to segregating waste through machine. We envision to become the most effective technology solution for collecting dry and wet waste from households and commercial units in the west of India.

    FAQs

    Who Founded Miemaw?

    Miemaw was founded by Sweta Kesur and Kokila Kesur.

    When was Miemaw founded?

    Miemaw was founded in 2016.

    Is Miemaw an Indian company?

    Yes, Miemaw is an Indian company.

  • Upnourish – Providing Nutritious Meal Replacement to Stay Effortlessly Healthy

    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 Upnourish.

    Due to the increasing pressure of modern life and despite the adverse effects it has on our health, people tend to get less sleep and work more. Poor work-life balance leads to chronic stress and impacts mental health and physical health equally. The industry of Health and Wellness is growing as per the demands of health needs in the current busy lifestyle. The global wellness market is valued at $1.5 trillion. It is growing with annual growth of 5 to 10%. Health and wellness market value is estimated to grow by USD 1300 billion by 2024 and Nutritional supplements market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 6.2%.

    People aim to enjoy the busy lifestyle and aspires to stay equally healthy. Upnourish has brought the solution to this need. Founded by Nutritionist, the startup provides a range of nutrition products as meal replacement.

    Know about Upnourish company, founders, business model, and its startup story.

    Upnourish  – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Upnourish
    Headquarters Mumbai
    Sector Health and wellness
    Founder Kuonal Lakhapati and Aayushi Lakhapati
    Founded 2022
    Revenue INR 15 Lacs
    Website upnourish.co

    Upnourish – About
    Upnourish – Founders
    Upnourish – Startup Idea
    Upnourish – Mission and Vision
    Upnourish – Name, Tagline, and Logo
    Upnourish – Business Model
    Upnourish – Products & Services
    Upnourish – Marketing
    Upnourish – Growth
    Upnourish – Challenges Faced
    Upnourish – Advisors
    Upnourish – Competitors
    Upnourish – Tools Used

    Upnourish – About

    Upnourish Meal Replacement
    Upnourish Meal Replacement

    Upnourish is India’s digital first D2C focused meal replacement product venture enabling people to eat healthy with all the nutrition yet low on calories while they lead their busy lives. Upnourish aims to be a part of every individual’s life who leads on-the-go lifestyle yet aspires to be healthy. Upnourish aims to be market disruptor and category leader when it comes to healthy on-the-go snacking/meals category.

    Upnourish – Founders

    Upnourish Founders
    Upnourish Founders

    Kuonal Lakhapati and Aayushi Lakhapati are co-founder at Upnourish. Kuonal Lakhapati is the CEO at UpNourish. Ayushi is a certified Nutritionist.

    It was their mutual decision to embark on this journey to build Upnourish and 23BMI. Kuonal handles all the operations and business functions whereas Aayushi heads product R&D and client management.

    Upnourish – Startup Idea

    Kuonal Lakhapati was leading a very hectic life while being the founding member India’s leading company in Logistics tech space. Building a startup was demanding. His days were extended and hardly had a fixed schedule since he was traveling extensively. Moreover, he had no knowledge or awareness about healthy food, importance of timing etc. Had many misconceptions too. Unfortunately, he gained quite a bit of weight making me very uncomfortable. However, he had known Aayushi (Co Founder, 23BMI) and knew she came from the world of nutrition and wellness. He told her that he wanted to lose weight but could not hit the gym due to lack of time. He asked her to guide as he had no nutrition knowledge.

    Aayushi was experimenting with her idea of Meal Replacement Products and she decided to make some samples and try them on me. He tried them and lost  10 Kgs in 28 days! That is when he realised this is revolutionary and if he was facing this issue of not able to hit gym, prepare healthy food that can be carried easily, there are millions out there like me. And, they could solve this problem offering convenience. That’s when they decided to start manufacturing Meal Replacement Products.

    They made some samples and tried them with friends and family. They tested it thoroughly, did pre-post medical check ups and once they were absolutely through, they finally launched them. They did speak to some medical and health experts, marketing experts, branding experts, before they thought of jumping into the world of meal replacements. Most of them were in agreement of the problem statement, market need and the proposed solution. However, they had to get the product formulation right and had to conduct trials before finalising the formulation.

    Upnourish – Mission and Vision

    As people get aspirational, busier, competitive, their health will take a backseat. Hence, Upnourish is working to make health and nutritional food convenient to all such people so they do not have to compromise on their health goals. Upnourish also targets weight watchers who would want to maintain to keep their underlying conditions like diabetes, cholesterol, thyroid, PCOD/PCOS, etc concerns under control.

    Upnourish Logo
    Upnourish Logo

    The core idea behind choosing Upnourish as our brand name was simple as they wanted people to up their nutrition game.

    Upnourish – Business Model

    Upnourish’s business model is very simple and just like any other e-commerce company. Upnourish’s major revenues come from it’s own website which is about 70%. The rest of the revenue streams are online market places like Amazon, Healthkart, Wellversed, etc.

    Upnourish – Products & Services

    Upnourish Products
    Upnourish Products

    Meal Replacement products are packed with all the essential nutrition in terms of protein, fiber, carbs, multivitamins, etc in 60% lesser the calories that a body requires from one meal which is usually very difficult to achieve via natural meal by any individual with basic nutritional knowledge. Hence, on regular consumption of the meal replacement products, one experiences increased energy levels, fat loss, better health, etc.

    They are making it very convenient to carry your own on-the-go nutritious meal which provides all the vital nutrition for fitness/health focused individuals.

    They did go through couple of iterations before they could find the perfect formulation of the product. Basis on the extensive feedback, they realized they could make the product even better and hence, had to work through a couple of iterations.

    Upnourish is the D2C focused, ecommerce arm where as 23BMI is our consultancy arm for people who need dedicated health coach services.

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    StartupTalkyAvantika Bhardwaj

    Upnourish – Marketing

    Upnourish team majorly focused on performance marketing to acquire customers via social media platforms. They acquired first 100 customers in less than 10 days.

    Branding, communication, product innovation and most importantly listening to our customers has been the key to understand the growth path for the company. They are currently focusing on increasing our product visibility via online marketplaces and some selected offline modern stores. A couple of ad campaigns of our products did really well specially in the Tier – 2/3 markets which essentially focused on explaining how one could replace one/two unhealthy eating options with meal replacement products. They are currently spending 50% of revenues on marketing.

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    StartupTalkyPratyusha Srivastava

    Upnourish – Growth

    Upnourish is just few months old. It is headquartered in Mumbai. Upnourish has clocked about  INR 15lacs revenue with 55% gross profit. Upnourish has more than 1200+ subscriber. Upnourish’s clients are some notable HNI’s, politicians, sportsmen, celebrities, etc along with fitness focused individuals across India.

    Upnourish – Challenges Faced

    Amongst many, one of the major challenges they faced were getting the MOQs for products, packaging since to get high MOQ was not feasible. They had to really get into the sourcing to be able to achieve feasible MOQs. They did some experiments with low MOQ packaging, printing until they could get the desired MOQs.

    Upnourish – Advisors

    Huddle.work are their advisors.

    Upnourish – Competitors

    Some top competitors of Upnourish are:

    • Soylent
    • Huel
    • Oziva
    • Kapiva
    • Herbalife

    Upnourish – Tools Used

    Few tools which they use to run the startup are:

    • Wati.io
    • Shiprocket
    • Shopify
    • Quickbooks
    • Realreview

    FAQs

    When was Upnourish founded?

    Upnourish is a Health & Wellness startup founded in 2022 at Mumbai.

    Who are the founders of Upnourish?

    Kuonal Lakhapati and Aayushi Lakhapati are Co-founders of Upnourish.

    What is the revenue of Upnourish?

    Upnourish has clocked about INR 15lacs revenue with 55% gross profit.

    Who are the competitors of Upnourish?

    Some top competitors of Upnourish are:

    • Soylent
    • Huel
    • Oziva
    • Kapiva
    • Herbalife

  • WhiteCub – D2C Vegan Brand for Dairy Free Food Products

    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 WhiteCub.

    Veganism is the way of living with a practice of declining the use of animal products in diet. It focusses on loving and saving animals and species. Veganism also has the potential to save natural resources like water, forests, grains, and more.

    Practicing veganism, one can show love to nature and stay equally healthy as plant-based food items can provide all the required nutrients. Whitecub is a startup in FMCG industry to provide dairy free products. Their intention is to create a harmonious environment where people, animals and nature co-exists.

    Read to know about Whitecub, founder, business model, products, and its startup story.

    WhiteCub – Company Highlights

    Startup Name WhiteCub
    Headquarters Gurugram
    Industry FMCG
    Founder Ms Sonal
    Founded 2013
    Website whitecub.in

    WhiteCub – About
    WhiteCub – Industry
    WhiteCub – Founder
    WhiteCub – Startup Story
    WhiteCub – Name, Tagline, and Logo
    WhiteCub – Products
    WhiteCub – USP
    WhiteCub – Business and Revenue Model
    WhiteCub – Customer Acquisition
    WhiteCub – Challenges Faced
    WhiteCub – Competitors
    WhiteCub – Recognition and Achievements
    WhiteCub – Future Plans

    About Whitecub

    WhiteCub – About

    Whitecub is a D2C vegan brand with an Omni channel presence. It is a vegan, dairy free brand and our product offerings includes vegan ice cream, butter, curd, fruit yogurt, cookies, and Hazelnut-Cashew Spread.

    Our mission is to make dairy free products accessible across India and take it to the masses. Whitecub want to be the brand of choice for people looking for a dairy free products. Our mission is to make dairy free, plant based products affordable and accessible in India so that everybody can enjoy it. We started with vegan ice-cream back in 2013 and we operate in a niche category currently and want to expand our offering and products to serve all consumers in India. We want to be the vegan brand people trust and opt for. We are also looking at expanding our footprint globally in different markets apart from India. We hope very soon we will be present in other countries via export of our products.

    Our long term vision is to create a planet where people, animals and nature co-exists harmoniously. We want to contribute our bit to create a world devoid of exploitation of animals for food. Animal derived food are not only high on carbon footprint but are also often the cause of health complications as well. We are in the middle of a climate crisis and environmentalist are making us aware that we need to act now.  White Cub by promoting and making plant based foods accessible to the masses is doing its bit to reduce carbon footprint and contribute towards a better environment. Our vision is to create a future where eating healthy, plant based foods becomes a norm in India and a future where we give animals the respect they deserve and their own space of freedom.

    WhiteCub – Industry

    We are a D2C brand in the vegan, dairy alternatives industry. We cater to all people who are looking for dairy free or dairy alternative, plant based, healthy products.

    Since our inception back in 2013, we have come a long way. In next 5 years we want to be the leader in the vegan, dairy alternatives market by expanding our product portfolio and coming up with more dairy free products like milk, cheese etc. We also plan to expand our offline presence and increase our parlours in cities like Mumbai, Bangalore and other metropolitan cities. We want to take our products to every corner of India through retail chains and parlours. We are also planning to expand our footprints in other markets globally via exports.

    WhiteCub – Founder

    Sonal - WhiteCub Founder
    Sonal – WhiteCub Founder

    A health enthusiast, a dedicated vegan, a fierce activist, and an entrepreneur at heart, Sonal is the founder and CEO of WhiteCub – an up-and-coming brand in the F&B industry dedicated to serving vegan alternatives for dairy products.

    She holds an MSc in Anthropology and has been working in the vegan industry for more than 10 years. She enjoys cooking, practicing yoga, and reading classics in her free time. She also enjoys gardening and interacting with people. She is an expert cook and possesses wizard-like marketing skills, that have contributed to the growth of her brainchild – WhiteCub.

    Sonal and her twins became vegans while they were living in London. She had observed the presence of several dairy and meat alternatives in London’s supermarkets and correspondingly a higher number of vegans there. She could infer that the presence of vegan products encouraged the Londoners to go vegan.

    They often used to indulge in the Swedish Glace brand of vegan ice creams while they lived there. On her return to India, though, she found the complete absence of vegan products quite glaring. After all, it was India – a land bathed in dairy milk. As destiny would have it, she took it upon herself to take up the cause of veganism in India by starting a vegan ice cream parlor.

    Two factors contributed to it. Firstly, she started indulging in vegan activism in the form of lectures at colleges, presentation of the concept of ‘veganism ‘ at different forums and even volunteering as a vegan coach to assist the few doctors back then who had already started incorporating plant-based diets in the prescription that they gave to their patients.

    During this phase, she observed a certain degree of willingness on the part of the masses to adopt a plant-based diet. She noticed that they were willing to give up dairy and meat but only under the conditions of being offered dairy and meat alternatives. The addiction to the taste is biochemical in nature after all and so can’t go away easily.

    At this juncture, she started brainstorming with some fellow vegans to start some type of vegan food business. They were willing to donate money to vegetarianism or veganism spreading Not for profit or to an animal shelter but did not consider it wise to invest in a business based on these principles.

    Indians were too obsessed with dairy to consider switching to compassionate mylk choices. While Sonal accepted their stance, she remained uncomfortable in this acceptance. She knew she would have to address this issue of a total absence of vegan yummies in the market herself. But ‘how‘ remained a question mark until she got that moment of inspiration.

    The family was in Goa on a vacation. They were able to have some vegan ice creams there locally made at a cafĂ©. They did not have the typical dairy replacements. They were great at a local level but couldn’t have got taken up as a brand. However, this certainly didn’t stop the family from fully enjoying the experience. While they stepped out of the cafĂ©, Sonal’s eight-year-old son asked whether they can get it in Delhi. This proved to be the spark of sorts for Sonal. What had already been brewing in the background couldn’t be contained any longer. Already, she had encountered hundreds of Indians by then willing to make a switch in the presence of suitable alternatives and now her own little son was questioning her on similar lines.

    Before long, she started a vegan ice cream parlor in her city. Ingredient procurements, recipe trials, smaller machines, and then bigger plant purchase – everything followed over a period of a year or so. Then the first parlor opened in 2013.

    WhiteCub – Startup Story

    Sonal - Founder of WhiteCub
    Sonal – Founder of WhiteCub

    The inspiration for this company has always been the compassion for animals and the care for the environment. Sonal was already a vegan at that point and did some vegan advocacy in terms of lectures, seminars and my association with various organisation.

    Her first exposure to vegan products in the form of ice-creams came in my visit to London. Back in India, when she was travelling to Goa with her kids, her son tried vegan ice-cream for the first time and loved it. Her son loved it so much that he asked why can’t they get it in Delhi? It was then that it hit me that India doesn’t’ have a vegan ice-cream brand and she decided to do something about it and decided to start a vegan ice-cream brand.

    Sonal did some research on market trends, the ingredients required to make the products and different methods and recipes to make the products. Sonal got her idea validated from her friends and fellow vegans and people who are into healthy eating who became my first customers too. She came up with her own recipe, started experimenting with ingredients at home until she came up with a product that people were delighted with.

    Initially, she opened her own parlour with minimal packaging and started delivering to customers directly. Her friends and fellow vegans and neighbours became the first customers and they loved the product. Ingredient procurements, recipe trials, smaller machines, and then bigger plant purchase – everything followed over a period of a year.

    Whitecub Logo
    Whitecub Logo

    Whitcub is named for the love and protection of White Lions and their Cubs, as an extension of support for the initiative of Linda Tucker. She has been involved in the protection of white cubs and their families, from the cruel practices of ‘canned hunting’, in East Africa. Thus, all the products carry an emblem of White Cub on Whitecub’s logo.

    Whitecub’s Tagline is: ‘Proud to be Dairy Free’ which communicates our USP effectively and how we are proudly marking our footsteps in the industry.

    WhiteCub – Products

    Whitecub Products
    Whitecub Products

    Whitecub products are a vegan, dairy alternatives brand. Its products are completely dairy free. Their products are healthier option for people who are looking for a vegan, dairy alternative products in the market.

    WhiteCub – USP

    Whitecub Products
    Whitecub Products

    All the Whitecub products are dairy Free, Vegan, Trans Fats Free, Palm Oil Free and a healthier choice for people. They started when veganism and plant based products were still relatively a new concept in India. Thus over a period of almost a decade they grew, and today we understand the vegan market in India like no other.

    WhiteCub – Business and Revenue Model

    We are a D2C brand with an Omni channel presence. We operate through both E-Commerce and Retail chains. We receive the bulk of our order through our official website and have our own delivery network for delivery across Delhi NCR. We are present across major e-commerce channels like Big Basket, Godrej Nature Basket and our retail products are available in major metropolitan cities like Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata and other metropolitan cities. We also have Zomato and Swiggy as our delivery partner.  We also cater for institutional needs like in hotels, marriages, birthday celebration and events.

    WhiteCub – Customer Acquisition

    We faced a lot of hurdles and challenges in the beginning and it taught us a lot. Initially, I reached out to my friends, community and fellow vegans during potlucks and other activism events. We used to talk about our shared passion for plant based foods, recipes and I used to share samples of our products with them. Once they loved the product, they talked about it to their friend and before long through word of mouth, the demand of our products grew.

    Since I was already active in the community, advocating for veganism, White Cub became an extension of that association and helped me to spread the message of the brand through my various association in the initial phase.

    WhiteCub – Challenges Faced

    Their initial challenge when they were starting the brand was to make people aware and shift to dairy free ice-creams and products. India being a milk loving nation, the idea of dairy free ice-cream or products was relatively new in the Indian market.

    With time, the Whitecub team overcame that road block. The biggest challenge was to differentiate themselves in the market:, to find their footing and differentiate their brand from others emerging players and keep the products unique, healthy and delightful that would be loved by the customers.

    Another challenge that they faced while developing their Ice Cream was to give it a similar texture and feel in the mouth just as the dairy based products. Instead of dairy we use coconut, soy, and almond milk and so it was initially difficult to give it the same feel as dairy.

    Whitecub’s motto is to delight the customer with delicious and healthy vegan offering. So they didn’t use any unhealthy ingredients in their products to give the same feel as dairy which was a challenge. It raised the cost of manufacturing but they didn’t want to compromise on their ethics.

    The team conducted local survey in Delhi NCR and Gurgaon and with their customers to rate the products which worked for them. It helped the startup to gather feedback and a lot of data points which eventually helped them to improve the product offerings.

    WhiteCub – Competitors

    Some of our competitors includes:

    • Nomou
    • Vegan Heart
    • The Vegan Bowl
    • Papacream

    WhiteCub – Recognition and Achievements

    Some of the Whitecub achievements are:

    • White Cub has been awarded with the PETA Vegan Food Awards in 2013 and 2014, two years in a row.
    • They have been by awarded by the Government of India’s Department of Science & Tech’s Award of excellence.
    • As a business, they are a proud alumni of Nexus, an Innovation Hub and Business Incubator powered by the US Embassy, ACIR.
    • They have also appeared in news channels like ‘India Ahead News’ and in various webinars on the topic of entrepreneurship in the vegan foods industry.
    • Whitecub was featured in ‘Conde Nast’, a French Magazine.

    WhiteCub – Future Plans

    We plan to keep our present momentum of growth, keep increasing our reach and sales every month and expand our footprints to new markets. Our future plan is to expand our product portfolio to fill the void in the market of dairy-free products. We are working to come up with a dairy free cheese. We are working to come up with dairy free milk that we are confident will revolutionize the market. We are already experimenting with new flavours and will launch soon. The launch of sprinkler parmesan cheese, mozzarella cheese, cheddar cheese and milk are on the anvil.

    We also working to open our delivery operations in major metro cities like Bangalore, Mumbai and Kolkata soon. In the future, we want to expand our presence globally and export our products to international markets as well.  Our vision is to spread awareness about veganism so that increasingly more number of people opt for vegan dairy alternatives.

    FAQs

    When was Whitecub founded?

    Whitecub was founded in 2013 at Gurugram.

    Who is the founder of Whitecub?

    Sonal is the founder and CEO of Whitecub.

    Are WhiteCub Ice Cream dairy free?

    Yes, Whitecub is a dairy free brand. Whitecub ice cream are dairy free.

    What are the products offered by Whitecub?

    Whitecub product offerings includes:

    • Vegan ice cream
    • Vegan butter
    • Vegan curd
    • Fruit yogurt
    • Cookies
    • Hazelnut-Cashew Spread