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FOREWORD
Given the penetration of the internet, deep into the remotest pockets
of India, today brand discovery is more a common phenomenon on
YouTube or Instagram. The good news here is, this change has opened
up the arena and today from fashion and consumer electronics to
beauty and food, a bevy of innovative, new-age digital-first brands have seen
massive adoption Within the retail universe. Taking on legacy brands through a
direct-to-consumer (D2C) approach, this ecosystem is undoubtedly a $100 billion
opportunity today.

This yearbook is a step towards unearthing the buzz within this segment to deep
dive into the sector across length & breadth. In this Yearbook, we feature India’s
prominent 100 brands, highlighting their category dominance, funding and revenue
trends, customer acquisition strategy, and finally their overall growth numbers.
In keeping with the pandemic and the accelerated growth push it gave to the D2C
ecosystem, it is now time to look closely at this sector to witness its ‘emergence’
story. And we aim to script this narrative through each participating brand, by
decoding their journey within this universe.

While the digital-first approach of this segment is driving the sector ahead with
speed, but still there are some surprising trends that came out from our chat with
the key names of this sector. Fulfillment emerges as a big trend and brands are
taking it in their hand to make sure the delivery time for each order reduces at
every step. Sophisticated technology, upgradation of warehousing facility, and
investment in digital marketing is fueling this ecosystem’s growth. Moreover, to
maintain good EBDTA and revenue numbers, most of the prominent brands of this
sector still believes in staying capital intensive and bootstrapped.

Consumers, on the other hand are clearly enjoying the momentum of this segment
and contributing to its growth every step of the way. Take for instance BoAt
Lifestyle, a consumer electronics brand, which crossed Rs 100 crore in revenue
within two years of inception (2016) and closed last year at a turnover of Rs 800
crore. Why only this, when I stumbled upon the revenue growth numbers for
Wakefit, it made me realise the big potential of this sector. The brand reached a
whopping INR 410 Cr mark this year, starting from an INR 6.75 Cr in 2017. They are
looking to double their growth numbers to hit INR 800 Cr in FY 21-22. There are
countless growth stories and the narrative is only getting interesting at each turn.

To further support this growth and accelerate the pace of every brand’s ride ahead,
the service providers and enablers are also bringing in innovative solutions &
technologies. The overall sentiment is very positive and the D2C sector is a shining
movement towards the rising consciousness of ‘Make in India’. With consumer
demanding convenience and variety on an affordable price tag, a huge opportunity
awaits this sector. It is a proud moment for us, to be able to live through this
shifting gears of retail, as we witness the glory of the D2C evolution!

Amitabh Taneja
Managing Director
IMAGES Group

  
  
      
       
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FOREWORD
Over the past decade, we could foresee the potential rise
of the internet economy in India, which has just come out
of the dotcom bubble. However, this was the time when
online commerce was in the embryonic stage and yet to
establish itself as a robust industry, as we see it today.

For us, we knew only one thing and knew it well, and that was helping
businesses establish a retail presence online. And that is how
GreenHonchos was conceived as a D2C enabler who could help brands
scale with operational ease.

Over the next few years, mainstream marketplaces helped set up the pace
of eCommerce in the Indian subcontinent. Fast forward to March, 2020
when Covid-19 pandemic hit the world, it became a necessity for brands
to pivot to online commerce. It was a watershed movement for the Indian
retail industry that paced the adoption of digital commerce by brands by
manyfolds.

Today there are more than 700 million actively engaged on online platforms.
The early movers’ advantage of being in the eCommerce enabling
ecosystem for more than 10 years, gave us leverage to contribute to this
pivot in a big way. We had been preparing for the industry to wake up to the
reality of the future by relentlessly building a truly one-stop-shop offering
Technology & Digital solutions with service-oriented architecture for
scaling D2C brands online.

A decade later, we still believe that the D2C industry is just evolving and
needs to go a long way to explore its true potential. With that spirit, and
to further strengthen and establish our stand within the D2C ecosystem,
we have extended our collaboration with IMAGES Group and this book is
an imprint of our close association, as we shoulder the responsibility of
understanding the specifications and nodes of change within the D2C
landscape.

Navin Joshua
Founder / Director
GreenHonchos
 CONTENTS

12 Overview

CATEGORY ANALYSIS: CATEGORY ANALYSIS:

FOOD BEAUTY & PERSONAL
20 Biryani By Kilo CARE
22 Earthy Tales 66 Aanam Sutras
24 Four Thirty 68 ARATA
26 GO DESi 70 Bombay Shaving Company
28 Good Dot 72 Earth Rhythm
30 Good Fettle 74 Ilana
32 Good Mylk 76 LetsShave
34 Goosebumps 78 Love Earth
36 Heka Bites 80 Mellow
38 Kandee Factory 82 Mother Sparsh
40 Kivu 84 MyGlamm
42 Licious 86 Nourish Mantra
44 MasterChow 88 Pee Safe
46 Orco 90 Plum
48 Saucery 92 Rustic Art
50 Slurrp Farm 94 SkinKraft Laboratories
52 Snack Amor 96 Skin Pot
54 Spice Story 98 Skin Q
56 Tendercuts 100 SUGAR Cosmetic
58 The Baker’s Dozen 102 TAC
60 The Gourmet Jar 104 The Skin Pantry
62 True Elements 106 Traya
108 Vedix
110 WOW Skin Science
CATEGORY ANALYSIS CATEGORY ANALYSIS CATEGORY ANALYSIS
HOME & HOMEWARE FOOTWEAR CONSUMER DURABLES
114 Daisy Life 168 FAUSTO 194 Bluei
116 Ellementry 170 Monrow 196 boAt
118 FLO 172 PAIO 198 Candes
120 Home Canvas 174 Solethreads 200 Dizo India
122 India Circus 202 Leaf Studios
124 Kaunteya 204 Noise
126 Objectry
CATEGORY ANALYSIS 206 OneFitPlus
128 Saraf Furniture
ACCESSORIES 208 U&i
130 Serein Decor
178 Boldfit
132 Sleepyhead
180 DailyObjects
134 Wakefit
182 Estele
136 Wood So Good CATEGORY ANALYSIS
184 Funky Maharani
138 Wooden Street BEVERAGE
186 Miorah
212 andMe
188 Paul Adams
214 Auric
190 Zouk
216 Chaika
CATEGORY ANALYSIS 218 Coolberg
APPAREL 220 Kaffa Cerrado
142 Aks Clothings 222 Polka Pop
144 Bewakoof 224 Rage Coffee
146 Beyoung 226 Teabox
148 Clovia 228 TeaFit
150 DaMENSCHɁ 230 Tearaja
152 FabAlley 232 VAHDAM India
154 FableStreet
156 Freakins India
158 JaipurKurti.com
160 Libas
162 Snitch
164 Soch
OVERVIEW

Estimated size of the Indian D2C Market

$100 Bn+
Estimated Value Of The Indian Ecommerce Market By 2026

$200 Bn+
Growing number of Indian online shoppers

100 Million+
Rise in number of brands within the D2C ecosystem

800+ brands
The COVID19 pandemic has taught many things to retail, but the biggest learning for
retail, especially traditional retail has been that this sector understood the importance
of the D2C model. It is now a necessity to stay closer to the customer and realizing the
importance of this trend, brands have now started to shift towards a digital-first D2C
model. The pandemic accelerated the growth of many major D2C brands and those
with their dedicated websites recorded high consumer demand growth of 88% in 2020
compared to the previous year.
THE D2C ECOSYSTEM IS A BUZZING SPACE & HERE’S A STEP TOWARDS
DECODING BRAND STORIES OF KEY PLAYERS

K A N D E E F A C T O R Y

N e w - A g e H e a l t h & E a rt h M i n d f u l , Yu m m y Ve g a n C o n f e c t i o n s

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 13

D2C NDSCAPE
OVERVIEW
India is the 5th largest retail market globally, growing at 11% CAGR. The country is set to
become a US$ 1,757 billion market by 2025. D2C brands, with their digital-first approach,
have been pushing the growth momentum of the Indian economy.

D2C shines
D2C is the future of digital commerce and this last two years has been the hot bed for acquisitions, funding and the entry of global D2C
enablers and platforms. This further reinstated the whole aspect of D2C becoming prominent.
2021 has been a blessing for Indian D2C startups, and the ecosystem raised $783.7 Mn — 251% higher than all of 2020. This influx of
capital has not only resulted in thousands of new brands but also introduced disruptive models and made way for new opportunities
and innovations too. VC interest in brands have grown and more and more unique ventures are getting a leverage now, as compared to
earlier.

Over $1.3 Bn has been pumped in as funding in 2021.

Over 42 deals and more than 17 acquisitions have been completed this year.
Indian D2C environment has seen the birth of 33 unicorns in 2021.

Licious Becomes India’s First D2C Foodtech Unicorn by raising

$52 Mn from IIFL AMC.

BoAt entered the unicorn club within just 2 years of operation,

becoming the fastest growing D2C brand in India

Popular D2C enablers

Growing opportunity
As per reports, the online shopper base of India is projected to reach 350 Mn by FY2025, growing at a CAGR of
28.5% during FY2020-FY2025.
With access to more than 95% of India’s pin codes, e-retail has already democratised the shopping landscape.
Online Beauty Shoppers Poised To Reach KEY D2C CATEGORIES AND THEIR GROWTH PATTERNS
122 Mn By FY25 50
70% customers look for organic, safe products 45 43.2
80% customers look to shop from niche brands offering
40

Expected value in billion dollars by 2025

personalised products
35
30.8
30
Subscription models & bundled offers are helping win
25
customers. 80% of grocery & FMCG brands are winning big 20.8
on this model. 20

15

10
Data analysis to understand consumer behaviour has been 6
5
a key investment area across all D2C brands.
0
FMCG Fashion & Consumer Home & Home
Accessories Durables Décor
As their online presence gets stronger, D2C brands are
equally invested in expanding to international markets as
they are in expanding their domestic footprint.
MARKETING SPENDS ON A RISE
The accessories market is expected to grow by more than
200% in the next two years.

20% 50%
Other Avenues Influencer Marketing

30%
Brand Ambassadors

Note: 80% D2C brands have hiked up their marketing budgets with the on-set of the pandemic

TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENTS BY D2C BRANDS

25%
Consumer 20%
Engagegement Website & App

34% 21%
Product Development Tracking &
& Packaging Fulfilment

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 15

Trends Watch
D2C EMERGES AS A NEW BUSINESS MODEL: With shoppers shifting
online, mostly, large established brands are also beginning to shift gears
to start selling online. Even if this was not on their priority list earlier, they
are now delving deep into the marketplace domain to expand their selling
corpus. Post-COVID, they are compelled to sell online. Consumer durables,
in this regard has seen a significant increase in demand post lockdown as
consumers wanted to add more comfort to the way they handled household
chores on their own. Dishwashers, vacuum cleaners and washing machines
all began to sell much faster than they would before the lockdown. This
has made brands to relook their behind the scenes strategy and make
manufacturing, supply chain, marketing and branding all focused towards
building up their D2C channel. With sales driving up, the D2C landscape will
keep reviewing and tightening their grip over logistics and other functions,
so that they can efficiently cater to their customers.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION WILL SHAPE RETAIL: India’s digital retail

transformation is scripting a new and interesting story, courtesy affordable
internet connection and cheap smartphones. Ecommerce is also gaining
popularity in tier 2 and 3 towns. This is a paradigm shift and a big growing
horizon for D2C. The swifter and seamless the brand’s reach, the quicker
it will be able to serve its growing loyal customer base. Today, India has
approximately 90 million shoppers, of whom many are first-timers. And
many of them are within the 18-35 age bracket. So, brands has a big onus to
use the digital space and their own channels, alongside the marketplaces
to continue catering to this huge population. From WhatsApp-based selling
and taking orders via Google forms, brands are setting up their own online
storefronts to connect with customers – a trend all set to continue next year.

SHOPPING IS GOING TO GET ALTERED: With the pandemic and the

consequent lockdown, much has changed in people’s lifestyles. As working
from home and online meetings became the norm, consumers have started
to look for comfort in everything they buy. Be it clothes or furniture or food,
something that helps them stay relaxed is trending and this is here to stay.
So, brands reinventing their offering and portfolio will gain huge impetus
in the days to come. So, in addition to the demand for hand sanitisers and
immunity boosting supplements, fashionable leisurewear and F&B brands
offering exotic ingredients, condiments, spices and dips will continue
gaining a good number of customers this year also.

TECHNOLOGY WILL RULE THE ROOST: Digital-first D2C brands

will continue to emerge, and large brands will continue launching their
digital-first arms. D2C brands that aim to survive the competition will
need to leverage insights from customer data to ramp up their traffic,
engagement and conversions. Brand having a strong brand identity, greater
tech-savviness, better access to consumer data and stronger operational
efficiencies will continue to turn heads. Business enablers linked to
technology like website tech, marketing tools, logistics and supply chain
providers and fintech companies will continue to nurture and partner this
D2C ecosystem and push it towards growth. Technology and innovation will
be key to D2C growth, with trends like AI-enabled decision making, advanced
forecasting and recommendations, localized content and native regional
language interfaces, conversational commerce and social commerce set to
lead the way. In short, technology will make the brands more agile and ready
and thus, pull the market to grow across nodes.
THE GROWTH OF NICHE PRODUCTS: Customers today are no
longer keen on taking a brand’s claims at face value. Customers are
informed, do their own research and then based on what they exactly
want, they choose their pick. This is leading to the growth of niche
products to cater to different demand segments. This is particularly a
popular trend in the skincare, personal care and cosmetics segment,
where the ingredients and brand story play a big role. Customers
now demand more personalised skincare routines to target
different concerns, and are likelier to buy from brands certified by
dermatologists. There is also greater demand for vegan, organic, and
cruelty-free cosmetics, as for products derived from niche ingredients.

DATA IS BECOMING THE KEY MARKER FOR GROWTH: One of the

most remarkable change that digital-revolution is bringing across is
data-driven growth. Data is helping brands map customer behaviour,
which in turn is making them adapt AI-powered technology. This is now
offering brands a chance to capture their shoppers’ preferences based
on factors like location, demographics and browsing history. This in
turn allows them to propagate tailored recommendations, which has
helped conversion rates go up and also brought in repeat business.

MARKETING SPENDS WILL KEEP INCREASING: As offline

sales began to become negligible with the pandemic, online sales
skyrocketed, brands understood the importance of online marketing
and the need to stand out from the competition. This helped them
allocate separate budget towards digital ads. Paid marketing got a huge
push and witnessed a 6x increase from 2019, with improved return on
expenditure and higher sales as well. The marketing budgets will keep
getting a big push and digital ad spends will keep hiking up, as more
brands eye ways to beat the competition.
DELIVERIES TO BECOME EVEN MORE SEAMLESS: Gone are the
days when only large brands depended on the necessary distribution
and retail networks to get their products to customers across India.
Post-lockdown, logistics sector has grown exponentially and multiple
tech-driven, competitively priced logistics partners have made it
easy for smaller brands to deliver products beyond just their local
geographies. This is propagating D2C brand growth and pushing them
to rule in both urban and rural areas, as well as take a leap to make
international shipping possible. Customer reach is becoming more
democratic for even small brand, and is no more a thing restricted to
large brands and big budgets.
BUY NOW, PAY LATER WILL RULE THE BUYING
TRENDS: Digital payments have been ruling the aisle
for most retailers since demonitisation in 2016. Now,
keeping post-COVID safety concerns in mind, contactless
payments have become the norm everywhere. Almost
80% of online transactions happen through digital
wallets, bank transfers and cards now. Moreover, flexible
payments options such as no-cost EMI or zero-interest
EMI is now becoming prominent and have enabled
people with lower or more uncertain income to also make
ecommerce purchases. Banks and NBFCs and fintech
partners are now making this more a handy opportunity
D2C brands and is enabling them to cater to a wider
audience, without any restrictions.

Indian D2C brands that have attracted significant investment

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 17

CATEGORY ANALYSIS
FOOD
The India food and beverage packaging market was valued at USD 33.22 billion in 2020, and
it is expected to reach USD 156.25 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 29.88% during the
forecast period (2021-2026).

Top thoughts
With a gross margin of 45-55%, the F&B category is expected to have a $15 Billion digital market size by 2025.
The Confectionery market in India is dominated by low priced mass market products, which have run its course and there
is a lot of pronounced product fatigue. The consumer is hungry for new innovative products at the right price. This poses a
big opportunity for the D2C ecosystem.
The overall size of meat and sea-food market in India is 220,000 crores, out of which the poultry market comes up to
66,000 crores.

Brands pivoting a change:

K A N D E E F A C T O R Y

N e w - A g e H e a l t h & E a rt h M i n d f u l , Yu m m y Ve g a n C o n f e c t i o n s

Significant markers
Breakfast and specialized snacks is a $2 billion category, growing at 27% CAGR. This growth is correlated with the
rising demand for healthy food offerings, heightened by the pandemic. Top D2C brands in the category has seen a 3x
rise in the demand for their products with the onset of the pandemic.
TenderCuts is the first omnichannel meat and seafood brand in India, it pioneers in bringing the concept of servicing
customers over various platforms and meet their needs.
Remarkable trend: REVENUE GROWTH
Their cookies are vegan, gluten-free, baked in solar ovens and prepared
by a pair of rural women in Jalna district of Marathwada. Pune-based
startup Kivu, which set out to tick ethical boxes with their product, finds
itself riding the wave of conscious eating in the post-COVID society.
Taking food innovation to a different level, this brand was started with a
self-investment of Rs. 6 lakh, and the company recorded a turnover of Rs.
33 lakh in 2020-21.

Cart of change
Over 30% of discretionary spend in every Indian household today is on
Food & Beverage. This segment has fast emerged as the most promising
sector in the D2C universe, piggybacking on the pandemic. Moreover, the
pandemic-induced lockdown has opened up newer avenues of ‘digital 30%
Brands have
retail’. This has pushed the envelope further and brought in the concept had Exceptional
70%
Brands have had 100%
of ‘Dark store’ model. What’s more, with the changing dietary preferences Revenue Growth
Revenue Growth crossing Pre-
Touching Pre-
towards organic and vegan meals driving emergence of health & nutrition COVID Numbers
COVID Numbers
focused brands across categories including health supplements, protein
bars, breakfast cereals and snacks, consumers are looking for faster
deliveries of ‘good food’. This brings to the front a new line of fleet and
CUSTOMER GROWTH
market model in the form of Swiggy Instacart, Ola Foods, Dunzo, Amazon
Fresh, BigBasket, and the likes.

Trends on watch
CONVENIENCE CHARTED: People’s lifestyles revolve more around
convenience, comfort and familiarity now - they are stepping out less and
ordering less so brand discovery via targeted digital channels and brand
adoption becomes easier in the category. But given it’s a competitive
space, it is also important for brands to stand out and differentiate
themselves. As hybrid working models continue in 2021, these altered
eating habits will continue to stay. There has been a definite shift to 10%
convenience brands which offer familiar yet evolved flavours. A sharp Brands have
served their
spike in the ready to eat, packaged food category during the lockdown Existing
90%
Brands have witnessed almost
validates this. Customer Base
30% Customer Growth M-O-M

FLAVOURS ON DEMAND: Specific to the F&B space, Korean flavours

have emerged massively in the space following the popularity of the
DRIVERS OF GROWTH
K-dramas on Netflix - spicy, warming and mouth numbing ingredients like
kimchi, gochujang are quickly gaining ground in Indian households. Indian
consumers also have evolved taste palettes now and want something
more than the Indo-Chinese flavors which have dominated the market for
so long - they prefer bolder flavors and aren’t afraid to experiment.

INNOVATION IS KEY: D2C brands focus on millennials who are focused

on health as well as taste and hence introduce wide variety of products
such as flavored milk, milkshakes and premium milk products. Alongside
this, the packaged food brands are focused on preserving taste as well
as nutrient content in ingredients through processes such as vacuum
drying, advanced cold storage etc. Unlike the incumbents, D2C brands
can add variety of flavors in small production quantities to gauge
consumer behavior and then focus on the best perceived products. This 100%
Sales have been generated through
opens up a new platform for growth for the brands. Digital Channels

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 19


Vishal Jindal
Co-Founder, Biryani By Kilo
MILESTONE
Overall, the chain has 60+ outlets
across Delhi NCR, Lucknow, Punjab,
Bhopal, Kolkata, Jaipur, Pune,
Nagpur, Bhubaneswar, Patna,
Ranchi, Guwahati and Goa, making
it a loved and premium biryani and
kebab delivery chain.
During the pandemic, BBK has
taken extra hygiene measures like
sanitising its kitchen every hour,
taking employees’ temperatures
every day, sanitising delivery bags
after every order and delivering
fresh dum-cooked biryani handis
in tamper-proof sealed bags with
contactless delivery.
Biryani by Kilo also did its bit during
these difficult times by giving
out daily complimentary meals to
Covid-19 warriors and others in
need.
Until date they have served more
than 2 million satisfied guests.
BBK plans to grow to 150+ outlets
pan India in next 3-4 years and
expand to some international
destinations. BBK plans to achieve
Rs 500crs+ annual revenues &
healthy bottom line in next 4 years.
SPECIAL TOUCH
Biryani By Kilo (BBK) believes that Biryani will be the biggest Food Services & Delivery category from India.
BBK uses the best ingredients including one of the most expensive branded rice specially-aged for 2
years, spices handpicked from Kerala, and most stringently selected meats & vegetables for its Biryanis &
Kebabs. Apart from this, BBK uses world class technologies, processes & systems to give the best quality,
standardization, hygiene & convenience to customers and the ability to order online or through call centres.

Cooking with perfection

BBK is committed to making the brand a pan
India premium Biryani Chain and making the
Biryani category popular worldwide. Biryani
by Kilo was started in May 2015 with an idea
to preserve the khansama style of cooking
wherein every meal is cooked fresh every
time. Today the brand has outlets in Delhi
NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Ludhiana, Jalandhar,
Chandigarh, Mohali, Jaipur, Patna,
Bhubaneswar and Kolkata.
“Biryani by Kilo being a primarily India
leading Biryani & kebab delivery chain was
in a better position as food delivery seems
to be less affected & bounced back fastest
from the crisis. Customers are preferring
food delivery currently with big brands that
they can trust for safety & hygiene, Biryani
by Kilo is taking all necessary steps to
ensure hygiene & safety. BBK is positioned
to give the best product in Biryani & kebabs
delivery under the authentic nizami cuisine
category & will continue to focus on the
strengths. We will keep on adding the
regional flavors in our menus as new & fresh
offerings to our customers. Also, BBK will
always retain its USP to make fresh handi
Biryani for every individual order and deliver
the same handi to customers in which the
Biryani is dum cooked,” Vishal Jindal, Co-
Founder, Biryani By Kilo notes.
Consumer sentiment
“The Indian consumer evolved much over the
last couple of years. Earlier people preferred
to go out & dine but now people prefer to
get the food delivered at home, especially
during this pandemic when people are not
going out much, but are trusting big brands
to get their food delivered. Customers would
demand absolute safety & hygiene and even
better value & service from restaurants
& food delivery even post-COVID times.
Companies who are able to innovate & align
faster to new realities should do better.
Restaurant companies will need to emerge
with strong USP going forward. BBK’s USP
is to make fresh Handi Biryani for every
individual order, and deliver the same Handi
to customers in which the Biryani is Dum
cooked. We aim to give the best product
in the Biryani & kebabs delivery category
to customers. Create strong middle
management, standardization and strong
focus on technology, safety and hygiene &
customer service. Also, by keeping costs
low & organization lean & agile. BBK will
continue to expand aggressively keeping
these values & ethos intact,” Vishal adds.
Biryani by kilo primarily sells biryani that
is acceptable all across, as per online data
biryani is the most ordered product before &
during COVID, which is accepted by people
of all ages, Biryani by kilo has taken Biryani &
kebabs to the next level by cooking fresh on
every order.
Tech support
“Technology actually plays a vital role in
building a brand value in the market & for
BBK, we have our own app that helps our
consumer order food in a simplest way,
similarly with our website making consumer
friendly process to order food, we are
running our loyalty program online, which
help our consumers track their loyalty points
& redeeming it as per their convenience.
We at Biryani by Kilo have been using digital
marketing at a very large scale starting from
choosing the menu till the mode of payment,
each & everything can be chosen by the
guest digitally. We have installed QR codes
for the consumer to place an order & pay on
their phone only. BBK is positioned to give
the best product in Biryani & kebabs delivery
under authentic Nizami cuisine category &
will continue to focus on the strengths. We
will Keep on adding more regional flavours
to our menus as new & fresh offerings to
our customers. Also, BBK will always retain
its USP to make fresh Handi Biryani for
every individual order, and deliver the same
Handi to customers in which Biryani is Dum
cooked,” Vishal highlights.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 21

 MILESTONE
Bootstrapped until recently, Earthy
Tales closed its first external
funding round from angel investors
in 2021. The funds will be used to
grow its top line and undertake
strategic moves to enhance its
penetration.

Deepak Sabharwal In the few years of its existence,

revenue has been growing 45-50%
Co-founder, Earthy Tales year-on-year with the customer
base at an 80% growth rate.
In terms of geographical expansion
of its D2C model, it will move to
two new locations in 2022. New
products under the nutraceutical
category will also be launched in H1
2022.
Soon, it will start working on the
next round of fundraise, from Q1
2022, that will facilitate the brand’s
entry into new markets.
MAKING WELLNESS
HOLISTIC
Earthy Tales was established with the objective of promoting the adoption and use of health foods and
sustainable farming practices by educating consumers about the importance of clean, organic ingredients
for their overall well-being. Its founders are firm believers that healthy food and responsible farming drives
the 3 Ps – People and Planet well-being first and Profits later.
Riding the wave
The idea of Earthy Tales goes back several
years; it all started in the small town of
Pushkar in Rajasthan. Back then, still
working with General Electric, Earthy Tales
Co-founder Deepak Sabharwal would visit
his family’s farm lands over weekends. A
chance meeting with a pesticide seller and
the blatant spraying of the same in the fields
made him realise that this slow poisoning
of the food was causing lot of damage to
people’s health and also the environment.
With two other Co-founders, HC Yadav
and Narinder, who were themselves
third-generation farmers, Sabharwal
began understanding the organic farming
ecosystem in more detail. “We did hands-on
organic farming for a couple of years and
started a small pilot in Delhi with few families
to check demand for organic food free of
chemical-based pesticides and fertilizers.
The pilot was a huge success and in 2017,
we started retailing directly to consumers.
Our mission was to create a brand focused
on building a health- conscious community,
driving responsible farming practices for the
planet and a business model that promotes
a sustainable and eco-friendly supply chain,”
shares Sabharwal.
Earthy Tales’ aim is to be the leader in re-
imagining health & wellness foods and make
it affordable and available to the masses. Its
founders believe that wellness is 80% about
food; while people have continued to focus
on physical, emotional & mental health and
are counting only calories, they also need to
be aware about the chemicals in their food
that are causing the underlying damage.
“So, firstly, the whole idea was to re-position
this category in the customer’s mind from
‘grocery’ to ‘wellness’. The second disruption
was around the whole business model
itself – getting away from aggregator-based
sourcing to direct sourcing from farmers
and also building a D2C delivery model
instead of a channel partner-based sales
approach, from new customer acquisition
to ordering and fulfilment,” says Sabharwal.
In fact, the game changer for Earthy Tales
has been the creation and nurturing of a
content-led loyal customer community. The
brand’s workings are based on the ethos, ‘If
you serve the customer’s holistic wellness
needs, commerce becomes easier with
them’.
Adding value at every step
At Earthy Tales, while the customer is
crucial, another key aspect of business
is the farmer. The brand works with and
nurtures both as part of its core operating
model. “Our strategy is majorly focused on
offering relevant content relating to food,
healthy cooking and holistic wellness. Being
a trust-based and sustainable food brand,
our customers have a key say in how we
operate, our sourcing, our packaging – we
are completely transparent and together
with our customer community, we take
a lot of initiatives to build a waste-free,
clean food system. Together, our customer
community has helped avoid more than
100,000 kg of pesticides getting into our
soil and food annually. Our customers are
emotionally invested in us; it will be fair to
say that we are a community-led brand,”
adds Sabharwal.
Its frugal setup is focused on bringing
efficiencies to the operations and cost
metrics. It has in-house delivery teams
for local fulfilments and for outstation and
pan-India deliveries, relies on its trusted
network of third-party players. Earthy Tales
also continuously innovates on its products;
the founders believe that a company or
brand’s USP is only a temporary advantage
and needs to be refreshed every few years.
Its backward-integrated clean food chain,
with a hybrid front-end model comprising
services and products along with a loyal
customer community give it an edge. This
keeps customers engaged both with farm
and health-related content, and the value-
added product additions keep on improving
margins as the customer base grows. Its
propriety system, built from scratch to take
care of specific business model needs, is
a robust apparatus that has supply chain,
inventory, customer ordering, and fulfilment
& delivery operations automated.
Talking about the future, Sabharwal says,
“Our vision is to build India’s most trusted
and loved wellness brand, driven by clean-
food products and services. Currently, we
are focused on Delhi-NCR, but we start our
pan-India e-commerce venture in Q1 2022.”
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 23
 MILESTONE
Savita Nagpal Being in existence for about a
year now, Four:Thirty retails
Founder, Four-Thirty through its own website,

Yatika Nagpal social media and a number

Co-founder, Four-Thirty and
Jhalak Nagpal
COO, Four-Thirty
of other niche-lifestyle
e-commerce marketplaces.
The brand brings to the
consumer more than 35
varieties of home made,
vegan, and gluten-free
snacks.
Inventing flavours is a big
factor for the brand and they
are currently innovating to
come out with a special range
for mothers, kids, and their
likings.
SNACKS ON DEMAND
Four:Thirty is a home-run start-up based in Mumbai that offers healthy evening snacks, ranging from exotic
flavored makhanas to delicious crackers baked in gluten-free flour. Brought to life by a mother-daughters duo,
Four-Thirty is a homegrown venture and was started with an intention to make healthy snacking an everyday
affair. What started mostly as a ‘for my daughters’ snack, soon became a favourite among friends and family, and
eventually the brand in no time gained a huge popularity. Today it is being munched all across India!

The Story
Yatika Nagpal, Co-founder, Four-Thirty
mentions “It is our ode to the time of the
day when hunger strikes (usually at around
4:30). Our mission is to provide snacks that
are nutritious, filling, and tasty! Our home-
grown snacking initiative started when
our dearest Mom - Savita Nagpal decided
that her kids (us!) would here onwards eat
healthy and well! For her, eating healthy
meant the addition of nutritious and
wholesome ingredients to our daily meals.
Fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and
dry fruits became a staple at our home.
When it came to snacking, Mom banned the
usual items like potatoes, wheat crackers,
salted items, fried stuff, and other sweet-
treats, as she knew that these are terrible
for health and there are more nutritious
alternatives available. Putting all her skills
and creativity to work, she came up with
unique recipes and combinations for
healthier and happier snacks”.
“From bite-sized treats to savoury
munchies, nutritious crackers to home-
made dips, and handy trail mixes, her
special home-made snacks were loved not
only by us but all our family and friends too!
Looking at the great response these home-
made snacks had always received; we,
Yatika and Jhalak, her food enthusiastic
daughters, were spurred to take this legacy
of clean snacking forward! Inspired by our
mom, we are now on a mission of caring!
We care about eating healthily and we want
to ensure that whatever we put out is not
only healthy but also delicious. We hope
you love these goodies as much as we have
enjoyed bringing them to you!” she further
adds. Savita Nagpal, Founder, and her
daughters Yatika Nagpal, Co-founder, and
Jhalak Nagpal, COO founded Four-Thirty
for the love of clean and healthy snacking.
Crossing Over The Challenges
Yatika informs that the healthy snacks
segment is growing and with a growing
consciousness among consumers
related to healthy eating, it was more like
catching the trend for them. However, it
was not easy to step into this domain and
mostly because it was all home-grown.
So, initially it was Savita trying to juggle
a lot on hand to make the snacks reach
the people placing an order with them.
Slowly, as the business started picking up,
both daughters joined her to organize the
business and bring their individual skills to
help.
Yatika looks after the business in
general, while her sister Jhalak takes care
of the packaging and other design related
functions for the business. Four:Thirty was
brought up to face the unhealthy snacking
domain and counter it with new-age
flavours.
Making It Segmented
“Eating clean food should be easy and a
fluid experience. The more we complicate
things the worse it will get. Keeping
abreast with this idea, we want to keep our
offerings simple and easy to pick. We do
not want our consumers to keep checking
the label for authenticity or the ingredients.
We want them to just handpick any they
want to taste and that’s all it takes to
‘munch on health’. With this thought at the
core we have grown our flavours and range
basket from 5-6 to almost 40 now,” Yatika
informs.
Social media ads and promotions have
played a big role in making the brand reach
out to a wider audience. Initially it was
only Tier I and II cities placing an order for
Four:Thirty, but now the brand has been
getting orders from farthest corners of
India. “We are a newcomer in the block and
for us to gain this amount of recognition
is a big thing. But in order to scale up or
venture out into offline retail, we need
more strength and that can be possible
slowly but steadily. We do not want to rush
through and compromise on quality, but
want to take one step at a time to make it
big,” Yatika adds.
She also adds that the brand is open
to funding in the future, but they want
investors or partners to come on board
to support the brand with their own
expertise. Just funding for the sake of it is
not something that the brand is eyeing at
the moment. They want to grow and need
that push too. Four:Thirty also looks to
change the logistics aspect going forward
and will love to reduce the lead delivery
time, by partnering with the right logistics
companies, so that food reaches fast and
fresh all across the country.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 25

Raksha Kothari Vinay Kothari
Co-Founder, GO DESi Founder, GO DESi

MILESTONE
GO DESi started retailing in 2018. First they put a stall in a flea
market, where they were to be present for 3 days but got sold
in half a day. Then in April that year, Vinay personally began to
deliver orders to local retail stores using his sister’s bike.
In 2018 December with an 800 sq. ft. area and 2 women workers
the SIRA MICRO UNIT for production was set-up for the brand.
In June 2019, GO DESi became the fastest selling confectionery
brand on Amazon.
Today the brand has witnessed almost 3X revenue growth and
4X customer growth YoY.
In August 2019, the brand saw 10,000+ orders on GO DESi’s own
website. In 2021, the brand does 10000+ orders every month on
its website with a customer base of more than 2.5 lakhs.
GO DESi also reached a big milestone of being available across
8,000 retail stores across India in Aug 2021.
FLAVOURED RIGHT
GO DESi has a vision to create India’s most loved FMCG brand manufactured, sourced and branded at the
farm gate. We do this by making regional treats from the nooks and corners of our country accessible to
urban millennials. They do this by setting up or standardising micro units in rural India. One such unit is at
village ManangiGrama, near Sira, Karnataka. Today they employ more than 150 women at the unit from the
most disadvantaged sections of the society.

Feeding the need gap

GO DESi currently operates in the larger
impulse category with specific focus on
candies, sweets & after-meal sub category.
These sub categories have been relatively
untouched by new age brands. This category
has a high share or unorganized & local
players and the organized category is
dominated by MNC brands like Mondelez,
Perfetti, Parle, ITC etc. “GO DESi products
are an attempt to make regional hidden
treats accessible to urban millennial
consumers. As most of the regional
formats were catered to by the unorganized
segment, it lacked accessibility from the
POV of convenience and trust. “This is the
biggest difference we bring to the category,
we are trying to do what Haldirams did to the
Snacks category. Our products are regional,
authentic and hence are used making age
old recipe eliminating the need of sugar,
colour, preservatives etc,” Vinay Kothari,
FounderGO DESi mentions.
Raksha Kothari, Co-Founder, GO DESi
adds,“GO DESi happened more by chance
than design and over the last 3 years we
have iterated and built a robust sustainable
business model. It started as a way to
provide market access to entrepreneurs in
nooks and corners of the country to sell their
regional products. Since then it has evolved
to a brand which enables discovery of DESi
products by making them accessible to the
urban millennial consumers.Our inspiration
over the years has been sustainable
business models like Amul, Arvind Eye
care and Patagonia which believes that
capitalism does not necessarily have”.
Customer ready
Vinay says, “Customer first is one of the key
values that drives our business. What this
means in action points is as follows:
Having a dedicated customer service
team in-house
Putting key metrics in place to measure
customer service like – query resolution
time, first response time, number of
queries/ issues highlighted
Looking at preventive solutions than
reactive, using technology to answer
where is my order queries, informing
customers of delay in delivery before a
complaint is raised
All these were put in place even prior to
the pandemic, pandemic or no pandemic
customer service principle remains
constant”.
Along with focussing on the customer, Go
DESi is also working towards supporting the
environment and uplifting the community.
Today it has created 239 jobs and generated
3.43 crores for the rural enterprises. In
order to give its customers a flavour of
nostalgia, the brand deep dives into the rural
economy and bases its products on the local
flavours and supports handmade produce.
The edibles are made up of what grows in
planes, forests, valleys, pristine farms, and
backyards, and reaches your hands after
all-natural processing, with nil intervention
of machinery and chemicals. When they
are derived from nature, they not only taste
good but are also loaded with endless
benefits.
Fulfilling orders
“With the advent of many players in logistics,
fulfillment is now becoming a commodity
where pricing is driving choice decision
between courier partners. Online returns
for us have gone down from upwards of 15%
to now less than 5%. 3PL fulfillments have
bought down delivery to distant cities to 3-4
days giving own websites a level playing field
vs Amazon and other marketplaces,” Raksha
points out.
Vinay adds “One key technology that we
have recently implemented is blockchain in
sourcing, this enables consumer in our case
to know for DESiPOPz, where the tamarind
& jaggery came from, which tree, when was
it harvested, what were the pesticide levels
of the ground, what all touch points did the
POP travel between the consumer and the
us. As a startup, we have no other option but
to innovate, it is just centered on different
areas of business for example innovation
may happen on the product, channel (online/
offline), packaging etc. Being a me-too is too
resource heavy that we as a startup do not
have the luxury to afford”.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 27

 MILESTONE
GoodDot’s QSR chain - GoodDo - has
12 locations and is the first and
largest vegan QSR chain in India.
The brand plans to expand the QSR

Abhishek Sinha chain to over 50 locations over the

next year.
CEO, GoodDot This quarter onwards, it is
expanding the export of its
products to the US, EU and
Australia.
Over the next 3-6 months, GoodDot
will enter the frozen food space as
well.
In the last four years, GoodDot’s
revenue has grown 100% year-on-
year and its customer base has also
expanded at 80% a year.
TAKING A CHANCE
When GoodDot entered the market, it aimed to solve the moral dilemma of meat-eating animal lovers.
Over the years, the brand’s founders had kept a keen eye on plant-based alternatives to meat that were as
tasty, yet healthier and more affordable. The lack of such alternates in the Indian market allowed them to
introduce these vegan products. Today, GoodDot offers plant-based substitutes to chicken and mutton,
with others under development.
Solving a conundrum
In his final year of Chemical Engineering,
year 2003, GoodDot CEO Abhishek
Sinha came across a Dutch Government-
sponsored study on tissue culture meat. An
animal lover himself, this was a revelation
to him - the perfect solution to the moral
dilemma of any meat-eating animal lover.
The concept of a meat that did not involve
killing an animal was fascinating to him.
Sinha began keeping a tab on the space
of meat alternatives from a consumer’s
perspective for close to a decade. When he
realised that India had far to go in the arena,
he, along with his friend and GoodDot
Co-founder Deepak Parihar, established
the brand in 2016. “Our offerings include
tasty, healthy and affordable plant-based
alternatives to meat. The strategy was to
develop products which were also shelf-
stable at ambient temperature with a long
shelf life to take care of challenges of cold
chain logistics. The R&D of the products is
continuous, and new forms of plant-based
meats to take care of meat-based products
similar to beef, pork, tuna and fish are being
developed apart from the current mutton
and chicken alternatives,” shares Sinha.
The founders believe that while taste
and texture are the predominant drivers for
meat consumption, in India, affordability is
the additional key factor for mass adoption.
Furthermore, the country has a limited
and fragmented cold chain infrastructure.
“So, we had to look at developing and
manufacturing ambient-stable products to
get around this limitation. Also, Indians eat
meat in chunks, which is different from the
burgers, sausages and meatballs format in
the US and the West. In such a case, getting
the texture correct is more challenging. So,
we worked extensively and aggressively to
develop the best tasting, locally relevant
products at an affordable price, with easy
storage, transportation and accessibility,”
adds Sinha.
Alternates matter
In the early days, GoodDot founders
struggled with distribution. To overcome
the hurdle, they partnered with RCM, a
direct selling company with 7,500 stores.
This got the brand access to the villages
and towns of India, and gave them the
opportunity of large-scale operations
from the get-go. Today, GoodDot has
an extensive presence online as well
through its own website and Amazon.
Sinha says, “One of our biggest strengths
is that most of our products are shelf-
stable at room temperature, which makes
logistics and fulfilment easier and more
efficient. The same convenience helps us
with easy international logistics through
dedicated country partners across several
geographies.”
GoodDot also supplies its plant-based
meat to the HORECA segment in India and
overseas. Its Social Media presence is also
rather extensive with an active and engaged
follower base. Sinha says, “A focused,
organic and honest interaction with our
customers has led to a strong word-of-
mouth messaging for the brand, bringing
newer customers to us.”
The founders also lay emphasis on
technology, and believe that innovation plays
a prominent role in the core of any company.
They continuously conduct R&D guided by
focused business vision for the short and
medium term. “Our technology of producing
the right textures and then being able to
deliver them in ambient-stable packaging,
without the need for preservatives, makes
us uniquely positioned to serve the Indian
market as well as international markets we
are already present in. Also, we are strongly
driven by the ethical aspect of plant-based
meat. We think that every human being is an
animal lover; it is just that there are very few
tasty and affordable substitutes to replace
animal meat. If given a chance to try good-
tasting, healthy and affordable alternatives,
we are certain a lot of people will make the
shift,” he says.
In keeping with Indian consumers moving
towards more convenient foods that are
healthy and affordable at the same time,
GoodDot has lined up several launches
in the ready-to-cook and heat-and-eat
categories, which will focus not only on
taste and texture, but on user convenience
as well.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 29
Akhil Gupta Ayush Gupta
Co-Founder, Good Fettle Co-Founder, Good Fettle

MILESTONE
Good Fettle came into existence in 2018 when
they found a huge gap in the market for guilt-
free post meal sweet cravings. There existed
absolutely zero snacking products in India that
were holistically healthy and easily accessible.
After extensive research of 9 months that
included regular factory visits, sleepless
nights and few kitchen blasts, they
successfully launched India’s first healthy
ice cream brand in April 2019 with 4 amazing
flavours.
Today Good Fettle sells 24 SKUs across
Mumbai and is easily accessible within 30
mins on various online aggregators and retails
stores.
HEALTHY INDULGENCE
Considered as one of Asia’s first low-calorie ice creams due to the presence of 70 calories per scoop,
it is 100% gluten-free and rich in prebiotic fibre. Here’s presenting Good Fettle ice creams. Launched in
Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru, one can access Good Fettle from Nature’s Basket outlets, and on Scootsy and
Swiggy. No doubt, celebrities like Karisma Kapoor, and Soha Ali Khan Khemu enjoy it regularly.

High on taste Customer first

The carbohydrates (9 gms), fat, stevia and
erythritol (5 gms) present in Good Fettle
ice cream are comparatively less than
store-bought ice creams. “While watching
movies, we always wanted something
healthy to binge on. It was in October 2018
that Good Fettle popped up in our heads
and it took us six months to finalize the
ingredients,” explained Ayush Gupta, Co-
Founder, Good Fettle. “By 2018, Healthy
ice creams had gained immense traction
and became a huge category in the west in
merely 5 years. However, we were surprised
to see no innovation being done in India and
therefore took it upon ourselves to innovate
and give the people a product that is truly
good for them, Ayush adds.
Akhil Gupta, Co-Founder, Good Fettle
further adds, “Our ice creams contain only
65 calories! That is 75% lesser than any
other premium or traditional ice cream
brand in the county. To add to this, our tubs
contain 2x protein, 2x fibre, 60% lesser
carbs, 90% lesser fat and 100% lesser
sugar, all while maintaining a decadent
mouth feel at a very affordable pricing”.
“When work from home hit us all last
year, we saw a shift in consumer behaviour
as appetites started reducing. We quickly
decided to capitalise on this and developed
a unique concept in May ‘21 called the Minis.
Minis are no added sugar bite sized ice
creams that come in 6 delicious with only 14
calories,” he further explained.
Scoops of health
Good Fettle is truly India’s first healthy
ice cream that actually tastes good. Akhil
adds, “When our low calorie, healthy ice
cream tubs found their way into grocery
stores, it became a new, first of its kind
ice cream category. We started with four
decadent flavours and quickly grew to a
family of 10 deliciously fresh flavours for
our customers to choose from. Our ice
creams have a uniquely smooth texture
with a clean label (we don’t use identical or
synthetic flavourings and added colour).
Our tubs can be binged on every day of the
week guilt-free”.
Akhil mentions that being one of the
first brands to bring health ice creams to
the consumer, it was not easy for them to
start with their journey. Initially they had
to move through many ups and downs to
get the right team of experts on board. The
absence of any reference point or example
which they could refer to, actually made
all the hurdles come to life. However, they
have rested maximum of their product
innovation to stringent R&D and customer
inputs.
Social listening is important for the brand
and they are always keen on knowing
first-hand from the customer about their
likes and dislikes. This has helped them
propagate well and has allowed them to
bring newer variants to the market. “We
give a lot of importance to our customers
and their feedback. So, we take this on us
to personally reach out to them and make
them comfortable about our products.
In doing that, we extensively use our own
team to connect with the customer and
keep a note of their thoughts. Traditional
channels can only do so much,” Akhil
highlights.
Keeping up to the customer-centric
approach, the brand has increased their
marketing budget with COVID and it is now
2X times their original budget. A completely
bootstrapped brand, Good Fettle looks to
grow strength to strength with the right
efforts and sophisticated technology. The
Founders admit that technology plays a
big role for the brand and from adding the
right technology to make every backend
operation seamless and agile, the team
also uses top-notch technology to support
the production. Technology makes all the
difference and supports their approach to
scoop out the perfect dose of health ice
creams for Good Fettle.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 31

Abhay Rangan Radhika Datt
CEO & Founder, Goodmylk Co-founder & CFO, Goodmylk

MILESTONE
Goodmylk raised its first round of capital in 2018
and has recently raised another $1 million.
The brand launched 6 new products this year
– butter, Thunder, Paneer, Cheddar cheese,
Parmesan cheese and a Ranch dressing. The
butter was improved upon to make the end product
cleaner and healthier, being an everyday ingredient
for dishes. Last month, it dropped the prices
of most of these products to make them more
accessible to a wider base of consumers.
Goodmylk also launched one-litre ‘mylk’ packs this
year so customers didn’t have to repeatedly buy
the 200ml cartons.
In another first, the brand has partnered with The
Switch Fix to create a new skincare range.
THE GOODNESS
WITHIN
Founded in 2016, Goodmylk makes plant-based milk from cashew and oats, and also manufactures peanut curd,
vegan mayo, butter and cottage cheese. The brand has now launched a chocolate variant of its plant-based
milk and nutrition drink. Goodmylk has set its sights on creating the next big dairy company in India, minus the
animals. They’re just getting started and are excited to bring compassion back to our plates.
Alternative thinking
Founded in a home kitchen by Abhay
Rangan, CEO & Founder, Goodmylk and
his mother, Veena S, the brand wanted
to make plant-based dairy accessible,
experimenting with almond, coconut, soy,
quinoa, etc. It began with the production
of peanut curd which, until January 2018,
would be prepared by Veena in her kitchen
and personally delivered by Rangan all over
Bengaluru. With growing demand, Goodmylk
raised its first round of capital in 2018, and
engaged with commercial manufacturing
facilities for the production of the curd. But,
it now needed to become a company, which
meant acquiring the right talent. Radhika
Datt, Co-founder & CFO, Goodmylk, was
thus brought on board to solidify the brand’s
structure.
“What drove us into this segment and to
nurture Goodmylk was that mostly, people
looking to buy vegan milk on an affordable
price tag did not have the choices they
needed to have. There were brands selling
vegan at a very high price tag, which was
something we needed to counter. It is
coming from the logic that you do not really
get normal milk at such a high price tag. So,
we wanted to give them a choice to convert.
Unless we give them a reason to try our
vegan range, they will not understand the
quality we are selling on a decent price tag.
Basically, we give them a premium product
on an ordinary milk price. Our intention has
always been to make it reasonable and easy
on the pocket,” Datt says.
The co-founder also highlights that the
concept of starting on a vegan lifestyle
normally happens from a young age, when
we have a very small pocket size. That is
why, keeping the price of the products
affordable is key to winning trust. In fact,
with them offering premium-quality
plant-based milk on a decent price tag has
actually made people question the ones
getting sold on a hefty tag. Datt mentions
that the secret to Goodmylk’s popularity
is their range and the way they handle it.
The brand has a separate staples range
that includes milk, curd, butter, paneer and
the likes, which we need on an everyday
basis. On the other hand are flavoured milks
and other innovative products. This range
comes on a slightly higher price tag, given
the innovation it brings to the table.
Serving it right
Goodmylk offers free shipping to cities like
Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Chennai
and Hyderabad, and is presently shipping
to almost all Indian cities. With a focus to
go deep with D2C and keeping an online-
first approach, Goodmylk is building an
ecosystem of ‘integrity’. The team cultivates
this character and when reaching out to
customers or staying afoot during a negative
remark, is always ready to address the
problem. From easy resolution to providing
that human touch, the brand’s biggest
strength is its ‘happy’ approach.
“Having humans at every juncture of
the function requires a lot of funds; then,
to sustain the setup or rope in newer
technology, we need a steady cash flow.
But we are able to absorb a lot of that
internally keeping the price tag at a sweet
spot, because most of our operations are
in-house. From cold chain to logistics to
production, we are tying the loose ends and
delivering only quality through our range.
Our endeavour is to further reduce the price
tag and bring it to a double-digit pricing in
the coming days,” Rangan says.
A remote-first company, technology is
the brand’s backbone and simplicity is held
closer to the brand’s soul. Tightening the
brand’s distribution and manufacturing to
make the process more seamless and to
support more pin codes are also high on
the agenda. Moreover, bringing the milk
closer to the customer on a daily basis,
just like conventional milk, is the next big
step for the brand. Presently, apart from
its own website, Goodmylk is also retailing
locally through community-driven stores in
selected cities, offline, and on BigBasket,
Amazon and the likes.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 33
 MILESTONE
With innovation being the key
Goosebumps brings to the table a
range of Assorted Masala Fruits like
masala cranberries, strawberries,
cherry tomatoes, amla, kiwi etc.
along with their exclusive pickles.
Priced Rs.180 and upwards, the
entire range is a celebration of
nostalgia and is bound to remind
you of ‘Ma ke haath ka swad’.
The brand is majorly retailing
through their own website
Pinank Shah goosebumps.store and online
through Amazon, Swiggy, etc. They
Founder, Goosebumps are also present on digital shelves
of gourmet stores like LBB. Offline
too, they are present in selected
stores. They will soon have a
presence on Jio Mart.
The company has witnessed a 10X
revenue growth in the last 3 years
and Goosebumps aims to double its
revenue going forward from here.
Goosebumps is available in 11+
Indian cities.
HEALTHY MIX
Goosebumps brings to us jars of masalas (and pickles) that are packed with love by a team of mothers. Thus,
taste and quality is their top priority. To ensure every package is delivered with mommy’s goodness, there’s
a big ‘no-no’ to preservatives and machines. From the staple South Indian flavours like rasam masala to
Gujarati pickles like chunda - everything in Goosebumps Pickles is 100% hand-made and vegetarian.
The journey of taste
Goosebumps begin life as a natural
ingredient, handpicked straight from
Mother Earth’s lap.
The team then mixes these ingredients
with the purest of oils, most exotic spices
and condiments. Next, they masterfully
blend them with modern gourmet
flourishes refined by top chefs and let the
magic of the recipe take its course in the
nourishing warmth of the Sun. Soon, these
recipes emerge from the centuries old
processes, tried and tested by mothers and
grandmothers, as pure gastronomic works
of art.
“My mother-in-law used to make 500+
Kg pickles every year for friends, relatives,
and the like. I own a small setup of a Digital
UI / UX Agency in Mumbai under the name
of Digi-Cult. We thought to merge the
capabilities and make it a commercial
business. Hence we laid down a plan,
defined TGs, started branding exercises,
sorted out packaging and logistics,
created a website & launched virtually.
Goosebumps Pickles was founded in
December 2011 and we made the website
live for people on April 27th, 2012,” Pinank
Shah, Founder Goosebumps Pickle
mentioned.
What initiated with pickles has now
expanded to a full grown business of
healthy mixes, dried fruits, and chocolates.
Fruit and spices form the fundamentals of
the brand, but innovation galore the name
still holds the pickle factor, while the brand
has come a long way and become healthy
snack partners for people over the years.
Non-salted, seasonal fruits used in an
innovative and traditional way completes
the product journey of Goosebumps pickle.
Pinank mentions that his line of products
are bound to give people goosebumps
each time they taste the snacks or after
food-fruit or even the pickle. In the coming
years, he wants to increase the product line
to diversify but promises never to get out
of that idea of giving goosebumps. That’s
where the practicality and flavour of the
name stands.
Health trail
With health on their cards, people are
vouching for Goosebumps and now they
are even available on Swiggy and Zomato
marketplace. Vouching more on a growing
organic customer base, Pinank mentions
just like the others Goosebumps is also
getting immense response from the tier 2
and 3 cities. This certainly hints towards
the growing consciousness of eating
healthy in every strata of India. Keeping
the brand DNA intact, they are trying
to innovate further. Pinank says, “When
tradition meets innovation, goosebumps
are guaranteed!” This is the focus of the
brand that it tries to maintain all along.
A 100% data driven company, Pinank
mentions that technology plays a very
big role in shaping up their product line
and every experimentation or innovation
is backed by data and real insights.
Catering to the customer on a good price
tag, Goosebumps does not look to offer
unnecessary discounts and wishes to
continue selling on a comfortable price
range even in the long run. Goosebumps
has exclusively invested in Business
Intelligence & Automation to further make
their processes seamless.
Eyeing growth
Storytelling is held at the heart of the
brand and they use this medium to spread
a word about the brand and connect to
the customer. They want to elevate their
brand value by narrating the ‘goosebumps’
experience story through content. The
brand is actively using multiple touch
points to narrate their story and make it
as relatable as possible. Pinank mentions
that they are very serious about digital ads
and marketing through the right content
and the same has helped push up their
sales. So, to generate the right ROI he says
adapting the right marketing techniques is
necessary. Especially, because the brand
is 100% bootstrapped. The right marketing
approaches have certainly helped the brand
and today they have a customer base of
70,000+ happy customers online. Pinank,
further hints that when reaching out to the
customers and marketing for them, the
best idea is to try new things. The moment
some process or template starts to give
results, chances are it will soon fail and
you will have to try something new. So, the
mantra is to keep an eye on the trend and
keep innovating!
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 35

Sachin Musaddi & Divya Arora
Musaddi
Founders, Heka Bites
MILESTONE
Heka Bites in a short span of two
months has been able to innovate
and offer 13 unique products to its
customers.
All their products are roasted or
in its raw form. They are never
fried keeping in mind the health
conscious ethos of the brand.
Heka Bites strives to provide more
bang for every buck – with snacks
that have less than 100 Kcal per
serving but are high in protein,
dietary fibre and low in fat.
They have curated flavours that
are suited to Indian Palate so
that smart snackers can shift to
healthier alternatives without
compromising on the taste.
The Heka Bites Rakhi Gift Box
consisting of 4 roasted puffs and
a roasted crisp was a bestseller on
Amazon India during the festival.
This suggests a shift in consumer
behaviour where healthy snacking
and gifting options are being
actively sought after.
MUNCH ON!
Heka Bites was conceived to offer snacks to customers taking care of their cravings. Offering “good nutrition” and
dispelling the age-old notion of “fried chips” and “cheese balls” being the only go-to options to curb mid meal hunger
pangs. Being from diverse backgrounds and deeply rooted in Indian culture, the team identified that healthy eating
can be inculcated as a routine to build immunity and stay fit.
Growing big
Within the snacks and savories category
– healthy snacks is the fastest growing
segment. Growing consumer awareness,
shift in dietary preference towards healthy,
nutritious and tasty food allows D2C brands
to price their offerings at a premium.
Before Sachin & Divya (Founders, Heka
Bites) decided to take a plunge into
the healthy snacking industry, they had
researched this niche market. “There
were already a few incumbents. But there
was still a wide gap that needed to be
addressed and there was ample space
for product and supply innovation in the
category that attracted us to it,” Divya
notes.
Heka Bites was founded by Divya Arora
Musaddi and Sachin Musaddi, two young
and budding entrepreneurs who wish to
explore the world beyond the corporate.
“Being complete foodies ourselves and
a sucker for the great Indian flavors, we
invariably ended up eating out – especially
meals that brought back nostalgia of the
good old days! What followed was a guilt
trip to the gym or the swimming pool,”
Sachin points out.
Divya further adds, “The inspiration
behind creating Heka Bites was to avoid
this guilt. We want our patrons to binge on
our healthy snacks and leave behind the
worries of extra calories or bad fats.We
strive to curate snacks that are roasted
with minimal oil, made with superfoods
and all natural ingredients and suit our desi
palates – our flavors include Indian Chaat,
Majestic Masala, Indian Herbs. In a nutshell,
bring the magic in snacking back to the
new age consumers. The love that we have
got from our smart snackers has kept us
on the growth path. Being a D2C brand, we
are fortunate to get first hand feedback
from our customers which has been very
encouraging. Because of the acceptance
we have received, we are able to proudly
say that Heka Bites is offering 13 unique
products in a short span of two months
with 4 more products under development”.
Launching challenges
Divya says that the second wave of COVID-19
threw a spanner to the brand’s launch
plans. Multiple streams of work came to a
standstill. “Unknowing when the markets
would re-open, we made the best use of the
resources available to us and launched in
July 2021. During the initial days, finding the
right channel partners and automating the
upstream and downstream logistics proved
to be quite a handful. Building a strong team
from the start by recruiting the right people
was always our focus and a challenge that is
faced by most start ups,” she adds.
“At Heka Bites’, we made a conscious
effort to make our products available
through as many channels as possible to
provide universal accessibility. We launched
simultaneously on our Website, Flipkart,
Amazon and LBB. And we are constantly
working with new channel partners to
increase our reach. We are now available on
Pharmeasy, Grofers, Well Versed and offline
stores thereby adopting an omnichannel
strategy. Customers can reach out to us
very easily through our social handles,
WhatsApp or website. Our internal policy is
to maintain a TAT of less than 12 hours for
orders or complaints,” Sachin adds.
Future plans
Divya highlights, “We are currently focused
on social media marketing and trying to
build a community around healthy snacking
through subject matter experts. Further,
we understand that fulfilment is a make or
break for an e-tailer. To make our fulfilment
seamless, we leveraged technology and set
up a smart warehouse. We also integrated a
fully automated order management system
and logistics system to our website. Also,
we leverage fulfilment channels of all the
marketplaces we are available at”.
“We are currently a bootstrapped
enterprise. Our short term goal is to
maximize product availability across
channels and increase distribution. We are
well funded for this. But if seed funding were
to come our way, we would gladly use it for
R&D, product development and customer
acquisition. From here, we plan to focus
on product development, distribution and
quality for customer retention and widen
the customer base. We want to implement
a subscription model for our healthy snacks
box. Currently our products are available
primarily online and in offline stores in the
Eastern Region, so we wish to expand our
channel partners,” Sachin sums up.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 37
Anusha Mahesh Dharam Mahesh Dharam
Co-Founder, Kandee Factory Founder, Kandee Factory

MILESTONE
100% of the brand’s production is managed and
powered by women.
Kandee Factory has seen a 100% y-o-y revenue
growth. The brand touched `1.52 Crores in FY 20-21.
The brand is retailing across prominent
marketplaces like Amazon India, Amazon Germany,
amazon UK, Flipkart, Bigbasket, Swiggy Instacart,
Ola foods.
Moving quickly into the international markets
has also helped the brand create buzz around
its products in India and that also gave them
an opportunity to try new markets and assess
K A N D E E F A C T O R Y
potential large outcomes in the brand’s business
N e w - A g e H e a l t h & E a rt h M i n d f u l , Yu m m y Ve g a n C o n f e c t i o n s
models at a global scale.
CANDIES ON DEMAND
Kandee Factory is at the forefront of sustainable manufacturing practices and is proud to be one of the only
manufacturers world-wide that harnesses the power of atmospheric air water extraction technology in order
to make environmentally friendly candies and confections. Further, they work together with local farmers to
repurpose biomass by extracting pigments that Kandee Factory uses to make their all-natural colours. Kandee
Factory appeals to the conscious consumer who takes responsible consumption seriously.

Rolling it out
Mahesh Dharam, had been to Europe
during 2010 where he saw a wonderful
assortment of candies, which were not
available in the domestic market. “During
2011, I had been on a father - son vacation
to Goa with my 5 year old son Jishnu.
During that trip on a particular day while
shopping, Jishnu set his eyes on a Large
Swirl Lollipop (Similar to what I had seen
in Europe) and wanted it badly. I was
concerned about the artificial colours and
preservatives used in the product and was
hesitant to buy it. but jishnu was insistent
on having it and I finally gave in to his
craving. Jishnu while unwrapping dropped
the swirl pop and it broke to pieces. He
was extremely disappointed and his eyes
welled up and started crying. I was in a
very awkward situation trying to pacify the
young boy at the shop and wanted to find
a solution to this at once. So I asked the
shopkeeper to hand me one more swirl pop
for which he declined saying that these are
imported ones and he has no stock of it
any more and would take at least a month
or 2 to get fresh stocks. In the midst of all
this commotion, I had a light bulb moment
and the opportunity dawned on me for a
market which is craving for safe natural
innovative confectionery was born. It took
another 18 months of moonlighting to
develop on this initial thought and get a
product out during the Christmas of 2012.
My wife and I made some candy canes for
Christmas and kept them at a cupcake
counter at a famous mall in chennai and
within a few hours the stocks sold out!
Indeed a very sweet moment for us and it
paved the way to start Kandee Factory the
following year,” Mahesh Dharam, Founder,
Kandee Factory narrates the story of
inception for the brand.
Making the assortment right
Kandee Factory is a continuous innovator
of products, some products such as
Marshmelts Vegan Marshmallow & Ville Nour
Chocomallow are disruptive innovations
in the confectionery space. The brand
constantly innovate, brand, commercialise
and launch /market using D2C marketplace
channels, physical store, and modern
trade channels. “Phygital strategy works
well for us as it is a mix of D2C and Modern
Trade. Our products being in the Impulse
Food Snacking Product category, did well
during the pandemic. In Particular, our
D2C business grew rapidly. We increased
our assortment of products, introduced
combo assortments and Fun DIY Dessert
Kits, which further engaged the consumer
towards our brand,” Anusha Mahesh
Dharam, Co-Founder, Kandee Factory
mentions.
She further continues, “We have achieved
a certain product/market fitment in the
Indian context and would like to penetrate
deeper using technology for distribution.
Global expansion using capital efficient
e-market places is also a focus area for us
and we are associated with the Amazon
Launchpad Program for EU and our
products have scored well in the initial
pilot phase of launch and we look forward
to expanding our presence first in the EU
region and then to US and Canada”.
Being agile
Mahesh informs that innovation at a product
level and also for Branding, Packaging,
Product experience is key to the brand’s
success. He says that the team works
with a certain global outlook and that he
says is working in favour of the brand. He
further adds, “Kandee Factory being in the
impulse food snacking category, the time
to customer’s mouth is very critical. 1 day
delivery or a few hours or a few minutes
delivery is becoming increasingly critical
to satisfy today’s consumer. We have now
replicated our stock holding points across
the country through Amazon FBA model and
also through Swiggy Instacart, Ola Foods
dark store model”.
He continues, “Digital presence gave our
brand the reach we needed into the market
with very low capital and we soon were able
to attract capital from the angel investing
community to grow further”.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 39

Dr Minal Kabra Vaibhav Dugar
Co-Founder, Kivu Co-Founder, Kivu

MILESTONE
The founders, Vaibhav Dugar and Dr. Minal Kabra,
had started with a self-investment of Rs 6 lakh, and
the company recorded a turnover of Rs 33 lakh in
2020-21.
The brand is retailing through Amazon, Flipkart,
Well Versed, Vegan Dukan, Lbb, and 1mg
The brand has sold 1,83,000 cookies until date, by
spreading its footprint across 18 cities in India.
The brand also ships to 161 cities across the globe
at the moment.
The cluster in Jalna, which the brand began
working with at the start was the pilot, and the
intent is to create 10 such clusters in Rajasthan and
Andhra Pradesh, among others, by 2025.
BAKED TO PERFECTION
Kivu believes that a Happy Planet thrives on Happy Food & it is the brand’s vision to serve the healthiest food that
is delicious, accessible, exciting & socio-environmentally responsible. Kivu was launched in and offers sugar-
free cookies made from ragi, jowar, oats, flaxseed, rajgira, moringa and more. Moreover, the brand brings to the
table world’s first sun-baked cookies. Revolutionising the food segment, this brand has many takers today and is
growing at a promising pace.
Inspiring start
Having practised dentistry for 14 years
in Jalna (a small city in Maharashtra), Dr
Minal realised that most dental and health
problems occur because of incorrect
food choices. It was in search of a healthy
alternative that she thought of launching a
healthy snacking brand. “In early 2017, we
began exploring products that could be
made in a solar oven, that are vegan, gluten
free, will be loved by urban consumers and
also have a social impact. Cookies are what
we decided upon. After nearly 36 months
of trials, we finally launched the brand in
December 2019, which are the world’s only
sunbaked gluten-free, vegan cookies that
have no refined sugar, refined flour or any
artificial preservatives or flavours. These
are hand baked by rural women, packed and
shipped to different parts of the country.
From being supported by 1 baker, we are
now at 3 and hope to complete our first
cluster of 10 women before we replicate the
same model in other sun rich areas of the
country,” Vaibhav Dugar, Co-Founder, Kivu
notes.
Kivu is all about bringing to the world a
vegan, gluten free cookie brand. The brand
just like the category, the Founders admit,
is in its nascent stage. But the sector and
the brand both are growing at a steady
pace. The opportunity for both is as big as it
was for the organic food and wellness food
sector, about 10 years back. “We are growing
rapidly and 10 years from now, the industry
will be added to the numbers for health &
wellness food,” Vaibhav adds. After almost
four years of R&D, Dr Kabra and Dugar
churned out their first commercial batch
of cookies. Their range includes cinnamon
cookies, ginger lemon cookies and rajgira
coconut cookies. The solar ovens have
baked 1,830 kg of cookies so far.
Making a big difference
Dr Minal, Co-Founder, Kivu says that hailing
from Jalna, one thing was abundant for her
that is sunlight. So, her business runs on
solar energy and is entirely eco-friendly,
which helps to mitigate 5 grams of CO2 per
cookie. “Being easily accessible and loved
for what we make. Having an amazing story
works the first time, but if the product
doesn’t taste well, we will not have repeat
customers. We have been fortunate to have
customers who buy from us again and again
and who are open to sharing their opinions
and feedback with us. We take pride that
we have kept that communication open
and accessible to homes and families that
choose our products,” she adds when talking
about the brand’s growing customer base.
Dr. Minal adds, “We are still relatively
new in the market and have preferred to
stick to the 5 Cookie variants that we have
in the market. In Q4 of FY2021 we plan to
diversify into savouries too. We focused our
marketing and sales on online commerce
and used influencers and customers to
speak about our product. Word of mouth
has definitely helped apart from increasing
ad spends on Google, Amazon, Facebook &
Instagram”.
Creating a mark
Vaibhav in a humble way mentions, “We
believe that we are just a drop in the ocean
and there is a whole ocean out there. We
are being relevant to the consumers and our
target audience. At present we are focusing
on targeting our audience online and hoping
to create a dialogue with them in that space.
We are working with the best people and
organizations in the industry who have taken
us to different parts of the country”.
“Innovation is key growth for us and
that has been an integral part of our story.
Making the world’s only sunbaked food
product has been our stepping stone into
innovation and we intend to add to the
ground that we have already covered so
far. The plan is to open more clusters,
approximately 10, empowering 100 families
by 2025. These clusters will be in areas
that are Sun rich and that need income
generation opportunities,” Dr. Minal sums
up.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 41
 MILESTONE
Abhay Hanjura & The company started with raw & fresh meat & seafood which

Vivek Gupta moved onto ready-to-eat & ready-to-cook categories later on.
All products sold at Licious since inception, are fresh, free of
Co-Founders, Licious artificial preservatives, colour & flavoring and are never frozen.
In 2019, Licious introduced India’s first meat-based spreads,
which were followed by the introduction of a seafood based
version of the same.
Licious curates products for each market- be it in terms of
cuts for raw meats & fish or reinventing regional delicacies like
chicken ghee roast for Bengaluru & Prawn Sukka for Maharashtra.
The company has also made dedicated efforts to create ready-to-
cook versions of Indian classics like kebabs & tandoors.
Licious has a dedicated team of over 3,500 employees. From the
delivery staff to meat technicians, everyone is on the company’s
payroll.
Licious started new delivery centers across all markets.
Currently, they have 100+ delivery centers. Their delivery fleet is
1.5X stronger than that of pre-COVID time, despite the attrition
during the initial lockdown period.
Licious has raised $286 million, so far. In 2021, the company
raised $192 million as part of the Series F round, led by the
Singapore government’s investment company Temasek, and
Multiples Private Equity.
QUALITY ON POINT
Licious is a brand for meat lovers. The company was established in 2015 & went on to revolutionize the Indian meat
& seafood sector altogether. The brand has a presence today in 14 Indian cities and is catering to 2 million unique
customers per month. Licious celebrates the love of meat. They make cooking as well as eating meat and seafood
at home a joyous experience. Over the last six years, they have been working towards a deeper understanding of
meat-lovers’ nakhras and combining them with their own, in a continuous process of product development.

Meaty story
Abhay Hanjura approached Vivek Gupta (then
working with Helion ventures) to explore the
space of fresh meat & seafood delivery in
India. An average Indian household consumes
2000-3000 different branded products, meat
being the only exception. More than 95% of
the fresh meat & seafood industry in India is
unbranded. The duo wanted to change the
way Indians experience meat. Hence, Licious
was created with the thought that India
deserves better meat. Licious chose a simple
mission statement- “we won’t sell what we
won’t eat ourselves”!
“As a D2C brand, our mission is to spark
customer delight, not just with our products,
but also with our service. We take pride in
listening intently to our customers and swiftly
solving issues, if any. At Licious, we have our
ears to the ground – constantly learning and
evolving to meet the needs of our customers.
For instance, our call centers (Customer
Happyness Centre) are owned by Licious
and each member is trained extensively on
our products, services and the industry so
that they are 100% equipped to answer all
consumer queries. It’s a policy decision not
to outsource any of our business services,”
Abhay Hanjura, Co-Founder, Licious
mentions.
Closer to the roots
“Our initiatives such as health insurance
for partner ecosystems, for delivery
executives and ensuring uninterrupted
service during the lockdown, lead to a
positive perception in customer minds.
Apart from catering to our customers, we
have also been able to provide continued
and uninterrupted support to our livestock
farmers and fishermen community as well
as our supplier partners and workforce.
For our staff, there were no disruptions in
the appraisals process, which helped keep
the employee morale high, a crucial factor
in meeting growing customer demands,”
Vivek Gupta, Co-Founder, Licious, adds.
Licious, considers marketing to be
one of the most powerful tools to reach
(potential and existing) consumers,
resonate with them, and form lasting
connections. Each one of their campaigns
and initiatives has reflected the brand’s
core values. “Putting together an entire
supply chain from scratch is very integral
to delivering on our promise of high
quality, safe, hygienic meat & seafood
while creating an unprecedented purchase
experience for our consumers. Back in
2015, when we started operations there
were no quality standards or processes in
place. We had to work towards upgrading
the entire ecosystem to ensure we
can actually deliver everything that we
envisioned,” Abhay highlights.
Innovation for growth
“As India’s largest tech-first full stacked
D2C fresh meat and seafood brand, it’s
safe to say that innovation is at the core
of everything we do at Licious. Today,
we are counted among the country’s
leading D2C brands because we have
been able to solve prevailing customer
pain points of quality, hygiene, freshness
and convenience in a sustainable manner
through pioneering solutions. Given that
90% of our business comes from repeat
clienteles, we know that we have got this
right,” Vivek informs.
Today, the brand also has 5 world-
class cold-powered processing plants,
run by qualified food technologists and
microbiologists, 2 in Bengaluru, 1 in
Mumbai and 1 in Delhi-NCR. Apart from
that, they have set up testing labs, where
‘meat scientists’ check the quality of
the meat procured, ensuring quality and
freshness. Licious is the first meat and
seafood brand from India to be certified
with FSSC22000, one of the highest food
safety certifications in the world. The
Licious Experience Centre is another USP
based on innovation. Their offline stores
in Bengaluru and Gurugram that the brand
calls as ‘experience centers’, are designed
in such a way that meat buying becomes
an enjoyable and enlightening experience.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 43


Sidhanth Madan & Vidur Kataria
Co-Founders, MasterChow
MILESTONE
The brand acquired it’s first 5,000
customers organically via word of
mouth and with zero paid marketing
spends and have now scaled to
7-8X of that customer base (35-40k
customers) and continue to rapidly
expand via marketplaces.
The brand started with their own
Shopify store to stay true to being
a D2C brand. Eventually, they
launched on Amazon earlier in
the year to boost sales and brand
discovery. They are currently
expanding their state-of-the-art
production facility that will allow
them to scale up production.
MasterChow has experienced a
revenue growth of 20-30% month
on month.
They retail two main categories
right now - stir-fry sauces and
noodles. Both ranges are designed
to offer you convenience and real,
authentic flavours at an affordable
price point.
ADDING FLAVOUR
MasterChow is the brainchild of Sidhanth Madan and Vidur Kataria. With 5+ yrs of F&B experience via their
cloud kitchen outlet Wok Me, they’d experienced first hand the demand for pan-Asian food in India. After
extensive market research, they were able to identify the market gap for a premium, homegrown brand that
catered to an evolved palette. With MasterChow, they aim to build a flavorful Asian experience with a range
of all natural products.

Art of cooking
“We’ve been entrepreneurs in the F&B
space for 5+ years now - Vidur and I started
an Asian QSR chain ‘Wok Me’, which served
the meal bowl concept with a wide range of
our stir-fry sauces. We identified a sizable
market gap early on - Asian food is the
second most popular cuisine in India and
there existed no mass premium brand in
the space to cater to an evolved yet Indian
palette. You either had roadside stalls
selling Indo Chinese food prepared with
low quality oils, spices or had very high end
Asian restaurants which were out of budget
for the majority of the population. While we
began attending to this gap through Wok
Me, the pandemic made us see the other
route. We conceptualised and launched
MasterChow in June 2020 and the initial
customer love and positive feedback we
saw was what made the transition easier for
us and kept us going,” Sidhanth Madan, Co-
Founder, MasterChow mentions.
“Our biggest challenge initially was to help
customers adapt to our signature product
- our all-in-one stir-fry sauce. Asian food is
the second most consumed cuisine in India
but a lot of households find Asian cooking
confusing and expensive and we wanted
to solve that. Our signature sauces are
designed to be the only ingredient you need
to make a great tasting, restaurant style
stir fry at home - no exotic ingredients, no
hard-to-source Asian sauces. Most of what
you find available in the market right now are
base cooking sauces like vinegar, soy sauce
etc. and we had to drive a lot of product
education to help people understand how to
use an all-in-one sauce - via recipe videos,
IG content, recipe cards etc. Customer
acquisition was challenging initially but
once people understood the offering, the
stickiness we witnessed in terms of repeat
sales was very high. The next challenge
came with our mission to be a high quality,
sustainable brand - all our range is all natural
and freshly crafted in small batches so it has
a shorter shelf life. We also use glass bottles
for packaging that run the risk of breakage
with logistics. We’re exploring warehousing
solutions to solve for this and improve on
our customer experience,” Sidhanth adds.
Closer to the customer
“We’ve been customer centric since day 1.
We’ve undergone extensive product trials
and tweaks with our customers pre-launch
and Sidhanth & I have directly spoken to
loyals, churned customers to take feedback
and see how we can engage with them
better. We have a growing IG presence
where we churn out content which people
want to see, instead of being a salesy, pushy
brand. Our audience loves new recipe ideas,
quick cooking hacks, meme humor and this
is what we mainly curate content around
instead of just advertising for promotions or
discounts. We’ve a strong flow of UGC also
coming in where people send us photos of
what they cook with MasterChow. We’ve also
recently revamped our email and WhatsApp
channels to provide easy online ordering,
recipe ideas, and feedback from our
customer base,” Vidur Kataria, Co-Founder,
MasterChow highlights.
“Initially, we had our own in-house
fulfilment and logistics. But as we scaled
and our order numbers increased, we
shifted to working with 3PL aggregators
post which our volumes doubled every
quarter. We also outsourced warehousing
operations as we expanded onto
marketplaces to ensure a seamless
delivery experience for our customers.
Both these shifts have helped us unlock
the next level of growth - our lead time for
orders has significantly reduced and we
now service almost all pincodes in India.
For the next stage, we plan to expand to
marketplaces with their own warehousing
and logistics ecosystems where we can still
leverage quicker delivery formats (10,30
mins) to reach our customers faster,” Vidur
sums up.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 45

 MILESTONE
Pragya Agarwal ORCO has a pan-India
presence and supplies its
and Adhvika Agarwal products across the country.
Besides selling through
Co-founders, ORCO its own website, ORCO
spices are also available for
purchase on marketplaces
like Amazon, Flipkart,
Alibaba, etc.
The brand has more than
50 products available on its
website that customers can
choose from.
With an aim to establish itself
as an international brand
over the next few years, ORCO
has already begun exporting
its spices to Germany.
Since inception, the brand’s
customer base has been
growing at 30% year-on-year.
AS GOOD AS IT GETS
Presently bootstrapped, ORCO, a brand that offers spices and mixed blends, is aiming for 10x growth in the years
to come. The spices are hand-ground and no machinery is used in the process, allowing them to retain their
natural flavour and properties. The four-year-old brand also wishes to empower women in the process, allowing
them to be more independent in life.
Grounded in integrity
A good cook knows the importance of fine
ingredients! It was the unavailability of
well-ground spices in the local market and
the lack of time to hand-ground them each
time that led ORCO Co-founder Pragya
Agarwal to establish a brand that would
meet the needs of a growing audience
for honest Indian spices that added that
extra flair to a dish. But, Agarwal didn’t
want to stop there; she wanted her brand
to instil a sense of empowerment and
independence among women from the
weaker sections of society. Armed with the
will and diligence to be just that, Agarwal
soon found women in her neighbourhood
who wanted to be part of the setup.
Initially called ‘Chakki Masala’, after a few
years of success, Agarwal, joined by her
daughter Adhvika Agarwal, Co-founder,
ORCO, founded the brand in 2017. It served
organic spices hand-ground by women.
“We saw a time-tested business idea with
a potential market and a social cause that
I deeply support. It was an opportunity to
grow further and make the product 100%
natural. The inspiration to empower women
kept us going and allowed us to be part
of something bigger. We began with two
ladies working for us and today, have more
than 20 working with us,” says Adhvika.
Initially, like any other new business in
the D2C space, ORCO faced the challenge
of growing its customer base. There was
enormous competition in the market and
the consumer was already spoilt for choice.
But, what made the brand stand out and
carve a niche for itself was its unique
approach to manufacturing. “Our brand,
our story, everything we do sets us apart
from any other existing spices brand out
there. We are unique in our approach, in
our product offering, and also in the way we
manufacture the spices. We do not use any
machinery in manufacturing or grounding
the spices; rather, everything is done
manually, allowing the spices to breathe
and retain all their natural properties.
We make them fresh and organic,” adds
Adhvika. And, while it is still sometimes
a challenge to retain the customer base,
the Co-founder believes that with new
strategies and new launches, a good
product cannot fail. It is always able to
sustain itself in the long run.
Honestly organic
ORCO offers more than 50 products of
which 14-15 spices are mixed blends.
This unique offering includes golden
milk masala, chia masala, chicken curry
masala, mutton masala, etc. Its focus on
good health has also led it to diversify into
selling organic seeds – easy-to-consume
superfoods filled with vitamins and
nutrients. Driven by the need to adapt to
changing consumer preferences to shop
online during the pandemic, ORCO, too,
made the vital shift. It first updated its
website to make it more interactive and
user friendly, and also began selling via
third party grocery e-stores. “We hit the
Amazon and Flipkart market which allowed
us to reach out to a new level of customer
base. Further, we started focusing on our
Social Media strategy and performance
marketing that allowed us to reach
many new customers. Now we focus on
holding on to those loyal customers and
getting repeat orders,” adds Adhvika. The
bootstrapped brand is also transparent
with its customers and considers that key
to building more mileage.
Fulfilment continues to be a focus area
for the brand and it is constantly looking
to develop its supply chain and delivery
network to serve customers better and
expand its reach. “We use third-party
logistics to help us deliver the orders,
however, we are looking to partner with
companies that provide warehouses in
different states and help us reach our
customers efficiently. These collaborations
are a bit expensive, but worth it. Spices
being a commodity used as an essential
product, needs to reach as quickly as
possible,” says Adhvika.
ORCO aims to be an accessible brand
across India and to empower more than
one lakh women through small-scale ORCO
plants in different states. It is also looking
to launch other products that are good for
health and grown organically.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 47
 MILESTONE
Launched retail in 2016 with a
Mumbai focus, Saucery’s fresh
products are now available in
7 cities across India – Pune,
Bangalore, Delhi, Ahmedabad,
Kolkata and Hyderabad.
After having started with just
5 products, the brand has now
introduced over 15 fresh flavours
and currently has 10+ more soon to
be rolled out.
From a simple home based
operation out of a 60 sqft space,
Saucery now works with India’s
largest contract manufacturers
and presently has the capacity of
manufacturing lakhs of units per
month.
Gayatri Bhatia The brand has seen revenue grow
CEO & Founder, Saucery 300% from March 2020 to March
2021
Online sales channels have frown by
800% from pre-covid times
Saucery is available with all the
leading supermarkets – from
Nature’s Basket, Foodhall, Big
Bazaar, Reliance Fresh & others
offline, to e-grocers including Big
Basket, Milk Basket, SuprDaily and
Saucery’s own ecommerce website.
SORCERY OF FLAVOURS
Saucery is dedicated to natural, authentic ingredients, cooked to perfection. With their range of sauces, dips, and
spreads; they’re on a mission to give every household in India the luxury of delicious gourmet food at their fingertips,
in the comfort of their own home. The process is simple to ensure that every product is made with fresh and natural
ingredients; they combine them in perfect ratios; use a secret formula to ensure they are long-lasting without adding
any preservatives or chemicals; and bottle them for you to enjoy.

The magical journey On the marketing front

Saucery runs on the sole ambition of
empowering Indian consumers to eat
gourmet food without burning a hole in
their pockets. Designed to make the most
average home cook an instant master chef,
Saucery has a range of over 13 delectable,
fresh and authentic sauces, spreads and
dips across Italian, Mediterranean and
Chinese cuisines. The firm has grown
extremely rapidly. What started off as a
home based brand is now one of the market
leaders in the fresh sauces category in
Mumbai, having a presence across all
leading supermarkets. The products are
also sold online through channel partners
and its own website: www.saucery.in
Launched in 2016, Saucery was
established by Gayatri Bhatia, who has
earlier worked in the food and FMCG space
with top brands like Hindustan Unilever.
The 25-year-old entrepreneur, who holds a
BBA degree has studied and worked across
cities like Singapore, Toronto, and Sydney.
Clean eating
The difference between natural and
artificial or synthetic food is the chemicals
added. Packaged or processed foods
are usually loaded with more than 600
chemicals. These chemicals are used as
preservatives, artificial flavour enhancers,
colouring, and sugars. Gayatri Bhatia, CEO
& Founder, Saucery was always fond of
good food and had been deeply fascinated
by it, but she realized what a struggle it
was to continue to cook and eat clean
and healthy food when she returned back
to India after having lived abroad for a
long time. When she came back to India,
she decided to explore the artisanal food
space as she was constantly bothered to
witness the struggles of people who were
looking for quick healthy food options.
Saucery is an answer to those midnight
cravings wherein you end up ordering junk,
instead you can cook restaurant style food
within minutes using the gourmet sauces
and dips Saucery brings to the table. So,
you can break away from uninspiring and
unappetizing food simply by bringing
Saucery home.
“I was struggling to cook food with the
right ingredients in my own kitchen and
that’s when I understood the pain that the
others may be feeling. Our supermarkets are
not equipped with that one bottle of healthy
cooking base, as compared to the other
parts of the world. I realized that to cook
something here, before Saucery, one had to
depend on multiple ingredients. We stand
for ease of cooking and want to make every
person using our products a MasterChef in
their own kitchen. They do not need a galore
of things, just our sauces and dips and
your food’s healthy base is ready,” Gayatri
mentions.
Saucery saw a lot of organic growth in
its early days. When Gayatri, the founder,
realised the quick market acceptance of
Saucery, she immediately steered to a very
aggressive sampling driven sales strategy.
The mantra was simple – make people try,
before they buy. The brand had a team of
over 100+ promoters stationed at premium
supermarkets across the country to drive
trials.
“The pandemic wasn’t kind to offline-
heavy brands like us, and made us press
the accelerator on our digital presence”,
says Gayatri. Organic demand during
the pandemic grew exponentially for the
ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook products
Saucery manufactures, but reaching the
consumer was a challenge with its limited
online availability. Saucery quickly opened
e-grocers as a channel during the pandemic
and after having initially entirely pivoted its
marketing energies to its digital presence,
the brand now operates a more balanced
omni-channel approach across the digital
and physical worlds.
Saucery has a grand scale up plan and
hopes to be in 20+ cities in the next two
years, and is also beginning to evaluate the
international markets. Despite this, the
founder is extremely conscious of ‘the made
with care, by hand experience’ that makes
Saucery’s offerings unique, and is adamant
never to compromise on that.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 49

 MILESTONE
Meghana Narayan & Slurrp Farm caters specifically to children’s

Shauravi Malik foods under 3 broad product ranges (with

market sizes): a. Cereals – `4,500 Cr, b. Malted
Co-Founders, Slurrp Farm drinks (to be launched soon) – `9,800 Cr, c.
Snacks, which include on the go extruded
snacks (puffs), pancakes, cake mixes, noodles
etc – `12,000 Cr
The brand raised their Series A investment
from Fireside Ventures in Dec’20.
The brand has seen 3x growth during the
pandemic.
In the last two years up till March 2021 (FY19-
21) they have grown their sales by 4x, and they
closed FY21 with revenue of `6.8 Cr. They have
seen very strong growth in business in the
last 6 months; their current annual run rate is
`24crore and growing.
Currently Slurrp Farm reaches more than 70K
customers on a monthly basis across various
marketplace platforms, with strong repeat
rates of 40%+ across various marketplace
channels. Their website has seen a 100%
increase in monthly active customers in the
last 12 months.
PACKED WITH
GOODNESS
Slurrp Farm is a millet-based packaged food brand that offers healthy eating options for children. They were
born from the concern that the current food system is broken, and requires innovation and creativity to re-
introduce sustainable, nutrient dense and diverse ingredients back into children’s diet. The idea is to bring
back super grains such as ragi, sorghum and other millets into their diet.
Building the core
Slurrp Farm is primarily trying to address
the following two problems:
i) The world is facing a nutrition crisis- 1
out of 4 kids in India is either obese or
malnourished, this number is alarming
and is spread across the income
spectrum. Millets offer a healthy balance
of these essential micro nutrients. They
have a strong commitment to make only
products that sell positive nutrition. Low
sugar and salt offerings across products.
ii) Wheat and Rice dominate our plate but
these are crops, which need sufficient
amounts of water and resources to grow,
as the demand for food increases it
will be difficult to maintain the balance
between scarcity of natural resources
and cultivation of such crops. Millets as
an alternative are sustainable i.e. need
much less resources – they are good for
the farmer and our planet
“As any brand in the initial years, we faced
a challenge in trying to build our existence
amongst the consumers- communicating
with them on the problem we were solving
and why there was a dire need to do so.
While from the very beginning we have
had a strong offline to online thinking and
believed these platforms in the long run
will complement each other. We started
spreading the word about our brand from
an offline view i.e. word of mouth through
various events across cities. While we could
have hired a 3rd party event’s company
to help us with the same, we took a more
long-term route of building our own team
across these cities. We always believed the
communication of our brand ethos and what
we are building was more effective via a SF
team member, a mother who herself uses
the product and believes in it too. Digital is
a great channel to build your point of scale
and reach but there is this need to meet the
customers and build a connection with them
too,” Meghana Narayan, Co-Founder, Slurrp
Farm mentions.
Being ready
“As a brand we try to keep a pulse on
our customer’s right from conversion,
customer acquisition to retention: 1.
Being an internet first brand, we are agile
with social media and have built a digital
first way of thinking about our new age
consumers. We are in direct contact
with them through various platforms
- Instagram, Facebook, Events and
WhatsApp. 2. This process of interaction
with customers is daily and it is live. One of
the ways we are building this connection
is through customer feedback calls which
happen across the team right from the
founders to the company’s driver have
to participate and listen in; it makes
us continuously strive to deepen our
understanding of what builds customer
love and stickiness. 3. We have built an
offline presence across several touch
points that our consumers visit every day.
Unfortunately, COVID derailed these plans,
however we look forward to kick starting it
once the situation is better in our country,”
Shauravi Malik, Co-Founder, Slurrp Farm
highlights.
Focus on fulfilment
Meghana adds, “We have come a long way
in improving our logistics and fulfilment
systems, while we started with a traditional
warehouse partner with increasing focus
on D2C and marketplace channels we have
continuously looked out for better suited
partners. We made a recent shift to an
ecommerce enabled third party logistics
provider, which not only helps us in servicing
hundreds of orders within set SLAs daily but
also offers integration with marketplaces
and shopping cart enablers. While one part
of improving the logistics is warehousing,
the other end is last mile logistics where we
work with partners helping us in delivering
orders within 48 hours in Delhi, Mumbai
and Bangalore. However, we have set an
ambitious goal for us where we are targeting
to improve this even further; with delivery
timelines of 24 hours in major metro cities”.
“We have just begun our journey with
Slurrp Farm- the future holds taking the
brand global and introducing the world
to millets, an ancient grain from India,”
Shauravi adds.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 51
 MILESTONE
Snack Amor has witnessed a 10X
customer growth YoY and a 5X
revenue growth YoY.
Snack Amor is retailing through
Deepak Grover its own website and platforms like
Amazon, Flipkart, Jiomart, Firstcry,
Founder, Snack Amor Cred.
Snack Amor has 30+ varieties of
snacks ranging from Millet Mixture
to Quinoa/Jowar Puffs, Health Bars
and Muesli, Multigrain snacking
for kids and plans to double its
product range in coming 6 months.
Products costs between Rs 69 to Rs
199
To date, the company has sold over
1,50,000 packs of their products.
TASTY BUT HEALTHY
Snack Amor was born with a belief of cultivating love for yourself, your family & friends and our environment
with ‘better for you’ natural ingredients. Their products are made with plant based ingredients for adding
‘nutrient rich’ self love to your 4PM snacking habit! their munchies are wholesome, power packed with
nutrition, bursting with exciting flavors and offer a guilt-free snacking experience for all your in-between
meal pangs and on the go cravings!

Mission health
Snack Amor was founded in 2017 by Deepak
Grover with a mission to change the 4pm
Snacking culture of India by focusing on
foods that can help people build immunity,
replace meals, and manage their weight.
Snack Amor has tie-ups with Reliance
Retail, Natures Basket, Amazon, Supr Daily,
Swiggy, Pharmeasy, etc.
It Believes that Health, Taste and
Affordability are the three main ingredients
for Healthy Snacking. Therefore, Snack
Amor’s target audience is diverse and
ranges from a health-conscious millennial to
a grown adult who believes in preventative
healthcare.
Deepak has over 15 years of global
experience in the food industry, It was
during his stint at a food ingredient
company that Deepak stumbled upon a
realization about the snacking industry in
India – a market which, at that time, was
dominated by the companies who managed
to hold on to their customer base because
of their affordability, but at the cost of
health and nutrition. So Deepak decided to
change the 4pm snacking culture of India
and introduced Snack Amor to the Indian
market.
“Three years ago, when we launched, a lot
of people said this was a bit premature for
the Indian market. But the timing couldn’t
have been better. People are more selective
about what they eat, and how they are
prepared; they are willing to pay higher
prices for quality products,” says Deepak.
High on nutrition
“We strongly believe that healthy eating
leads to increased wellness and productivity
and are looking to promote our offerings to
people who believe in staying fit through
healthy eating!
Uncompromising integrity, ethics, and
compliance form the core of our actions.
Customer and supplier needs are a driving
force behind our business decisions and
activities. We are serious about ensuring
compliance towards safety, quality, health,
environmental and responsible care
procedures,” Deepak mentions.
Listening and adapting to our customer
needs have always been at the core of
the brand’s product strategy. Following
the trends, which shows that over 25% of
snacking would be health and nutrition
based snacking in the next 3-4 years,
Snack Amor looks to diversify its portfolio
keeping health paramount. “All our
ingredients are 100 percent natural. We
mix these ingredients and either bake or
roast them. None of our products are fried.
A 100-gram pack of our snacks contains
between 10-20 grams Protein,” Deepak
highlights.
By bringing health and nutrition at
the centre-stage and offering a unique
combination of taste, health, affordability
and immunity building the brand wants to
change habits for consumers. Harvested in
technology integration and upgrades, Snack
Amor is ready to diversify and add more
innovation to its entire range.
Funding for growth
Recently Snack Amor has raised an
undisclosed amount of funding in a pre-
Series A round from investors like Sanchit
Agarwal (MD, Accenture), Sujan Sinha
(ex-MD and CEO, Shriram Housing and
Finance), Michael Cooke (VP Sustainability,
Jabil Group Switzerland), family offices
like Vans Investments, Sheel Oil and Fats
and Simmarpal Singh – CEO India Cofco,
and few other international investors and
HNIs. This investment would be utilised
to expand the direct to consumer (D2C)
and ecommerce business, expanding
the team, international business
expansion, and new category and product
development.
“We are delighted to welcome on board
our new investors and thank our existing
investors who have participated in this
investment round. We are going through
a very exciting phase in our journey as we
aim to build a global business of ‘Made in
India’ products,” said Founder and CEO
Deepak Grover.
In India, the brand today has a growing
presence in over 500+ stores across
Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Ahmedabad, Baroda,
Surat, Chandigarh, Haridwar, Kolkata,
Punjab, and Bengaluru, and is now looking
to expand to Hyderabad, Chennai, Cochin,
Pune, Indore, Jaipur, and Haryana, and
other Tier-I and II cities. Digital and
ecommerce is a strong focus area for
Snack Amor. It’s already present on leading
platforms like Amazon, Big Basket, Jio
Mart, Qtrove etc and is looking to ramp up
its presence. Snack Amor plans to raise
an additional $1 million during this year for
establishing itself as a strong D2C brand
and also expand internationally.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 53


Gayatri Gogate
Co-Founder and CMO, Spice Story &
Soumyadeep Mukherjee
Founder & CEO, Spice Story
MILESTONE
Spice Story is a food FMCG brand.
Currently they are offering Indian
Ethnic Chutneys and Sauces to
consumers.
While there are many players that
offer international sauces like
Italian Sauces, Asian Sauces, the
Indian Ethnic Sauces category is
a complete white space with no
national players, giving Spice Story
the first mover advantage and an
opportunity to carve out a category
niche.
Completely bootstrapped startup,
Spice Story dreams of making it to
100cr in the next 3 years. The brand
is looking to raise the Pre Series A
funding at the moment.
Spice Story currently offers a range
of 12 Indian Ethnic Chutneys from
across the country.
Spice Story retails through spice-
story.in and all reputed offline
and online channels like Amazon,
Flipkart, Bigbasket, Milkbasket,
Reliance, and Spencers.
TASTE ON OFFER
Spice Story brings to the table a range of spicy, zesty, fun-filled sauces and ketchups that bring every meal and snack
time alive with fresh, exciting taste and flavour. Chutneys made from recipes culled from traditional kitchens across
the country, all with brand new twists that always keep you guessing how they do it – and leave you wanting more
every time. And sauces that bring to your kitchen the exotic flavours of all your international favourites the brand’s
focus is to leverage the channel mediums to drive discovery and awareness for their product.

Making it happen
“A lot has changed in what I call the PCE
(post covid era). Increasingly consumers
are more willing to experiment with new
brands. Post covid it’s not surprising that
more and more consumers are veering
towards branded products and have shifted
to online shopping for food and groceries
as well. We are a bunch who are passionate
about food. We started out 2 years ago,
wanting to create India’s very own Hot
sauce brand, but during our market
research we realized that not only were
many local Kirana stores selling these local
homemade pani puri & samosa chutneys,
but also that these were a huge sellout! We
saw this as a huge opportunity and Spice
Story was born. People, wherever they go
find comfort in the known flavors. Bringing
these flavors to them in a consistent quality
and flavor is what Spice Story endeavors
to deliver. We offer authentic flavors with
the convenience of having them on the go.
We bring the Indian Ethnic Chutneys in a
modern sauce form in easy to use, squeezy
bottles,” Gayatri Gogate - Co-Founder and
CMO Spice Story mentions, when talking
about the brand’s inception story.
She further adds, “It’s heartening to
see when your products get picked up off
the shelf, even more so when a customer
comes back, or calls us to ask when the
product is out of stock or when a customer
writes to us about how they liked the
product. It’s humbling. However, we had
faced our own share of challenges too.
Typical challenges that a new brand faces,
getting good distributors, getting brand
managers to see that while chutneys may
get categorized as sauces and spreads
it is not the same nor is it the same as
mayonnaise. To add to that we also had
just about kicked off in Modern trade when
the pandemic hit.. we had to aggressively
change gears towards ecomm”.
Spice Story wants to make food tasty
& fun, allowing consumers to create food
memories with authentic flavors. The
brand’s values embody their culture, spirit,
and dedication to do something different.
They are focussed to make a difference to
every palate with their exclusive offerings.
Keeping the tastebuds in mind
“We found that people find comfort in
foods that they grew up with and are aware
of. That little packet of flavor, even as a
chutney side is a great way to add that
instant satiety to a palate. We started with
three popular chutneys – Mint, Bombay
sandwich and Dates and Tamarind. These
continue to be our best sellers. As time
progressed we also added other chutneys
– Mango Mustard Sauce from the east,
Saunth and Lemon from Central India. We
are in the process of adding to our South
offerings as well. In fact our latest addition
– The Kolhapuri Jhatka is definitely India’s
hottest Chutney with a Scoville Scale score
of 5000-5500SHU. In addition, in order to
create a stronger repertoire we also added
some critical and popular international
sauces – like Italian sauces, peri peri and
thai sweet chilli. The most important thing
was getting the product right. We believe
that if the product is good, the customer
will come back,” Soumyadeep Mukherjee -
Founder & CEO - Spice Story adds.
The brand saw a 3X revenue growth and
a 40% customer growth since last year.
Presently building their digital presence,
the brand also has a strong logistics
and backend support in Bangalore and
in Indore. “We are a food brand. And we
believe in curating, creating and offering
authentic flavors to our customers. What
is needed is the right recipes to deliver the
flavours and use of fresh ingredients. What
makes us different from our peers is the
wide Indian spread that we offer. And we
will continue to do that. Having said that,
we understand that tech and innovation are
the need of the day and we are working on
these largely from a point of being able to
deliver a better consumer experience being
accessible to the consumers at all touch
points,” Soumyadeep adds.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 55

 MILESTONE
Nishanth Chandran TenderCuts in the last 5 years, has witnessed a rapid growth
and expansion in 3 major South Indian capital cities – Chennai,
Founder & CEO, TenderCuts Hyderabad and Bengaluru. During the lockdown, many people
have moved from buying meat at the unorganized, local butcher
shops to buying at stores like TenderCuts, following high
standards of hygiene, which would have originally taken several
years but is now happening at a much faster rate.
TenderCuts as a brand has been spending very little on marketing
from the inception, post pandemic the brand’s spend at a regional
level has reduced further as pandemic has driven the shift of
moving to hygienic meat from wet market.
TenderCuts has been growing at 3x speed in the last 2 years, they
are currently at a run-rate of 300 cr compared to last year’s run
rate of 100.
Technology has been at the core of growth, and the brand
has invested in technology right from supply chain sourcing,
forecasting (very important being a perishable goods industry),
last mile delivery as well as on apps and websites where
customers regularly place orders.
Recently, TenderCuts has raised INR 110 crore (USD 15 million) in
a round led by Paragon Partners and NABVENTURES. With the
current funding, TenderCuts will be looking to invest in scaling
up its supply chain and technology infrastructure to support
innovation and accessibility of its products and services
PIONEERING A CHANGE
TenderCuts was started in 2016 with a mission to provide fresh meat and seafood that is antibiotic and hormone
free by establishing direct partnerships with local farming and fishing communities and strong backward links to
guarantee absolute freshness. With the increasing concern for hygiene among consumers there was a demand for
such a space. Once the void is filled up the entire organised meat supply chain is anticipated to grow in leaps and
bounds soon.
Market for growth
“Initially we had hiccups in establishing
the supply chain model from farm-to-fork.
We wanted to make numerous checks
and quality controls right from breeding
of livestock, selection, cleaning and till
delivery. The path TenderCuts chose is to
grow deeper in a geography, reach more
people in one city and then expand in more
cities,” Nishanth Chandran - Founder &
CEO - TenderCuts mentions.
TenderCuts provides the widest range
of products across Poultry (Chicken,
Quail, Country Chicken), Mutton (Goat /
Lamb) and Seafood, Fishes (50+ Varieties),
Marinades (Ready to Cook dishes), Cold
cuts, Eggs (6+ Varieties), Masalas & Dry
fishes. TenderCuts provides specialised
cuts across the meat and seafood which
are typically not available in regular butcher
shops. This year, TenderCuts has expanded
its ready to cook range and marinades and
is looking forward to adding more regional
cuisines in Starters, Gravies, Kebabs and
Meal Kits.
Retail savvy
TenderCuts introduced Contactless Retail
service during the pandemic to make it
easy for customers to reach out, book
their orders and have the satisfaction of
procuring fresh meat as they pick it up
from the store. Along with the success of
contactless retail, the idea of omnichannel
services was most preferred and useful
for customers during the tough times of
lockdown. Current situation only reinforces
the brand’s stand on safety and hygiene,
and TenderCuts actively communicates to
their customers about the same. The brand
constantly assures them regarding the
quality of their products.
“During tough times of lockdown, wherein
people had to stay indoors with lack of
home help, TenderCuts saw a significant
increase in the ready-to-cook segment.
Hence the brand introduced more varieties
of marinated products. ‘TenderCuts Elite
Subscription’ programme offered the
patrons & its regular customers a daily free
scheduled delivery along with many more
exclusive benefits and offers, 5x rewards,
free samples for our new launches etc.
TenderCuts also has a lot of onground and
online tactical marketing activities being
done on a regular basis. The secret behind
the company’s strategies is using unique
content and promotion strategy to drive
demand,” Nishanth adds.
Over the hurdles
“Though the entire meat and seafood
industry faced severe supply chain issues
that were strategically solved, COVID-19
lockdown has created a positive movement
for us. The pandemic has made people
focus on the hygiene and quality standards.
This led to a massive change where people
moved from buying meat at the local wet
markets to buying at stores like TenderCuts
that follow high standards of hygiene.
Immediately after the lockdown, the
demand grew exponentially (300%) towards
preference for online orders, Nishanth
highlights.
In the last 5 years, there has been
a constant and steady growth for the
company. From 5 crores of revenue in
its initial operations, TenderCuts has
now grown to 100 crores and is aiming to
reach 200 crores by end of this year. The
growth has been increasing by 100% year
on year in the past and given the current
rate of expansion, TenderCuts is looking
at a similar growth chart in the upcoming
years. By the end of this financial year,
TenderCuts looks to open 20 to 25 stores
in each of these three cities. TenderCuts
has also developed its own proprietary
technology, which allows it to process over
500 orders within two hours out of a small
300 sq ft space. Customized as per the
requirements for an omnichannel business
model, the software enables smooth flow of
processing from the stage of procurement
up till the stage of delivery through use of
geo-hashing and customized algorithms.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 57
 MILESTONE
Aditi Handa The Baker’s Dozen was one of the first few artisan
bakeries who introduced Sourdough in India. Almost
Head Baker and Co-Founder and all artisan bakeries are limited by a local reach but

Sneh Jain they have made Artisanal products accessible to

Co-Founder and Managing Director,
The Baker’s Dozen
pan India with the help of their unique FreshLock
packaging technology that enhanced the shelf life of
bakery products without the need of preservatives.
Mostly, cakes in the market were made of maida. The
Baker’s Dozen were the first ones to introduce 100%
whole wheat sponge cakes.
In India they used to sell 1000 units of sourdough
annually and in 2020, this number has reached to
3,00,000 units.
During Pandemic, The Baker’s Dozen launched the
“Dose we knead” campaign where they motivated
people to get Covid-19 vaccine and get a cookie as a
gift from them. This campaign was a huge success,
which received 10000+ registrations within a short
span of 15 days.
The Baker’s Dozen is India’s largest D2C bakery
brand today and it is aiming to be present in 25 cities
(metros, tier 1 and tier 2 cities) with 100+ own stores,
and more than 1000 retail touch points by 2022.
THE RIGHT DOUGH
The Baker’s Dozen is a hand-crafted artisan bakery brand that uses only the most authentic ingredients,
processes, and love! The essence of The Baker’s Dozen is that it is led by bakers who are passionate about
the craft of baking. They bake for the joy of baking and share that joy with you. Each bread, each cake is
special, baked with love and attention almost as if it were baked in your own oven! That’s also the reason why
they are different from everybody else.

Rolling out
The story of The Baker’s Dozen starts from
a shared love for entrepreneurship for
Sneh Jain, Co-Founder and Aditi Handa,
Head Baker and Co-Founder of ‘The
Baker’s Dozen’. After they came together,
they wanted to start something of their
own and they were interested in the food
space, looking for an idea. “At that time,
someone casually mentioned on a dinner
table that, “We don’t find good breads in
India” and that was the Eureka moment
for us. Now, we had got the idea but we
wanted to have a deeper understanding of
the product. So, I went to New York to do a
diploma in International Bread Baking from
International Culinary Institute. There, I fell
in love with Sourdough and that’s how the
journey of The Baker’s Dozen started. My
inspiration comes from the discipline that
no matter what, giving up is not an option.
Life is full of uncertainty and hurdles but
I keep reminding myself that in the end
either I or the hurdle would win and it would
be better if I win. So, the simple mantra is
Never Stop,” Aditi mentions.
Keeping an eye on the market
When talking about consumer response,
Sneh mentions, “We are very receptive
to our consumers’ feedback. Through all
the social media channels, we are trying
to increase the consumer engagement.
We ensure uniform CRM across all the
touchpoints which makes us super
responsive. Currently, we are also working
on a WhatsApp bot to make the consumer
experience better.
Before the pandemic, The Baker’s Dozen
had been operating majorly through retail
stores but during the pandemic they
pivoted to the micro fulfillment model.
These are the delivery only stores that
serve the consumer within 10 km radius.
During the Pandemic, when people were
not able to come out of their homes and
wanted products to be delivered. They
started working on their deliveries through
these micro fulfillment stores and in a span
of one year they have grown from 3 to 40
stores all over India. They have an array
of 100% wholewheat and preservative
free Sourdough breads, Cakes, Cookies,
Crackers and much more. Through their
unique First in India ‘FreshLock technology’
they have also managed to retain the oven-
baked freshness thereby increasing their
shelf life without adding preservatives.
Moving forward
In 2020, The Baker’s Dozen embarked upon
a journey to be India’s largest D2C bakery
brand, for which they had to level up in
every possible way to be more accessible
to their community ensuring absolute
ease of ordering their favourite products,
amplifying the love they have showered
upon the brand since the beginning. So,
they decided to focus upon digitization of
the business. This included building a new
website and App (Android as well as iOS)
and an intuitive UI with specialized features
for maximum conversions.
They have been also consistently
working on developing machine learning
data science modules to reduce wastage,
strengthen the end-to-end supply chain,
create highly customized marketing
campaigns, reduce frequency and
intensity of the consumer dissatisfaction
cases, etc. based on true analytical data
and predictive analysis inspired by the
variations in the market trends. Recently,
The brand has also launched their
Flagship Brand Store called ‘The House
of Sourdough’ in Bangalore with India’s
First Sourdough Summit that aimed at
spreading awareness about sourdough.
They plan to turn this first virtual summit
on India’s bread (and related) businesses
into an annual Sourdough September
festival to recognize the ever-growing
milestones of India’s sourdough industry.
Further, the brand is also implementing
company-wide ERP to ensure a single view
of inventory right from the factory to the
store.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 59


Apeksha Jain
Chief Confiturier & Founder, The Gourmet Jar
MILESTONE
The Gourmet Jar has always
been making innovative products
starting from Banana Rum Jam.
They’re making international
condiments but with Indian
ingredients and also tweaking them
to suit the Indian palate. For e.g
They use chironji in their pesto’s
instead of pinenuts, and they use
Guntur chillies in their Arrabbiata
pasta sauce.
Plans to strengthen the D2C
channel are high on cards. The
brand also will be expanding their
presence in supermarket chains
and across Tier A cities as well.
They are also in the process of
raising a round of funding to invest
in marketing, building a larger sales
team (retail and horeca).
The Gourmet Jar is also exploring
potential export opportunities
to the Middle East, Russia and
Germany.
The brand has registered 20% YoY
revenue growth at a CAGR of 50%
over 5 yrs.
THE RIGHT MIX
The Founder’s endeavor was to create not just a product but a lifestyle. The Gourmet Jar was born from her
passion for cooking and that passion is what she wants to share with the world through her creations. The
team of dedicated women and Apeksha Jain - Chief Confiturier & Founder, The Gourmet Jar work together
to ensure that every Jar has the perfect balance of flavors.
Inception story
The condiments category has blown up in
the last 2 years with the increasing trend
of home cooking, as people have realized
how condiments help make delicious food
easily at home. This is definitely a space
with a lot of potential for growth. “Since
we entered this space, the category has
definitely expanded, as consumer lifestyles
and eating habits have evolved over the
years. We’re playing the wet condiments
space, which is over a 15k crore market but
our products are targeting a niche audience
of about 80-100 million families across the
country. Moreover, since our product is
Gourmet, we prefer to look at our audience
from their psychographic rather than only
demographic. Based on recent study from
Bain, the elite, aspirer and affluent earning
families will be witnessing highest growth
in the coming decade that bodes well with
our positioning,” Apeksha Jain - Chief
Confiturier & Founder, The Gourmet Jar
mentions.
Apeksha adds, “Having lived abroad,
we always felt India was lacking quality
condiment options. As my brand was
created more as a passion project, I hadn’t
really pondered about the category I was
entering as such. It was just things that I
enjoyed making and thought that we could
bring some zing to this category! I would
say we were one of the first brands in India
to make completely natural condiments,
with pure fruits and real ingredients, in a
completely homemade style”.
Growing strong
“The inspiration for The Gourmet Jar came
from a small town in Burgundy, France.
My husband & I were living in Paris in 2009
and stayed at a small bed & breakfast on
a holiday in Burgundy. And they served us
a freshly made Banana Jam at breakfast
and my husband fell in love with it. After
we moved back to Delhi in 2010, he used to
keep talking about that jam and wishing he
could get it here. Being a good cook & food
blogger at that time, I decided to try making
a batch one day, added some rum to it , and
that’s how our Banana Rum Jam was born.
Once I launched the brand commercially,
the response was very encouraging, and
opportunities started coming to me slowly,
and that’s when I felt that this is something
with a lot of potential that I could turn into
a serious business. Initially, people used
to question the premium price point of
our products. It was hard for people to
understand the high cost of producing a
natural & handmade product. Then there
was the comparison with imported brands,
until 5-6 years back, the general perception
in India used to be that imported goods are
better,” Apeksha adds.
“Social media is one of the most important
tools for us and we found Instagram
being the best way of interacting with our
customers. Our speed of engagement/
replies is pretty quick. From time to time,
Rishab, (Rishab Suresh - Co-Founder &
CEO - The Gourmet Jar) ends up calling
customers to get their feedback or random
calls to abandoned cart clients. We love
talking to customers directly and this is
something that has generated additional
trust in the brand. Since last year, our efforts
in social media have intensified further,” she
points out.
Meeting the expectations
“Customer expectations when it comes to
delivery has changed massively over the
last few years. Logistics still remains a big
challenge for brands like ours with products
in glass jars. But we’ve tried to strengthen
our packaging such that it can withstand
bad handling. Also, tying up with shipping
aggregators like Shyplite has helped us ease
our fulfillment and logistics. Innovation is
an important value for us, but I think our
brand essence is creating delicious-tasting
products with real ingredients. There
are a lot of natural products out there,
but they don’t always taste as good. We
want to make products that make you go
“wow”. We are the magic in your kitchen
which helps you create delicious meals,
without compromising on health,” Apeksha
mentions.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 61

Puru Gupta
Co-Founder & CEO, True Elements &
Sreejith Moolayil
Co Founder & COO, True Elements
MILESTONE
True Elements is a digital first brand
with up to 70% of sales coming from
e-commerce channels.
The brand has grown 3x in the last
year & chasing 300Cr ARR in next 18
months.
They have witnessed 70% new
customers on their website each
month & have a repeat rate of a 65%.
Given the index of health-conscious
consumers this has increased in the
last one year.
The brand is also offering curated
& personalized offerings on their
website where the customer can
enjoy making Muesli or Snack based
on his own liking.
True Elements focus on both mass
& innovation- product development
and are currently present across 13
categories, with 65 products & 200+
SKUs.
ELEMENT OF CHANGE
The story of True Elements stems from the personal tragedies and is related to lifestyle and health issues
faced by both founders that drove them to think about food & health in India. In the span of 6 years, they have
spent every waking hour thinking about a brand that was 100% dedicated to the cause. Today the brand aims
to become India’s Most Trusted Breakfast and Snacks brand.
Story from the start
True Elements started with the idea of a
clean label brand, and with foods ranging
from Breakfast to Snacks, focused on
health benefits. Before the pandemic
customers weren’t looking aggressively
to consume these products and hence
creating demand was challenging. “Along
with that, we had a limited set of products
than what we have now. From a product
development perspective - one of the
biggest challenges for us was to ensure
that our products were top notch on taste
while not compromising on our promise of
providing clean food, with not even .001%
compromise. One of our biggest learnings
in the past few years has been that while we
can be very broad for our overall customers
in terms of offerings, all of them must
stitch together and form a cohesive story.
With that in mind, we ensured that all our
product development efforts were aimed to
capture 3 key consumption occasions i.e.
8am-11am-5pm bucke, which is essentially
the nashta market,” Puru Gupta - Co-
Founder & CEO - True Elements mentions.
Strategy driven
“Our main strategy is to keep a hawk eye
on the industry and consumption trends
in order to build offerings around them.
We have developed a robust mechanism
to track & record customer reviews
on Amazon & other marketplaces to
build insights & product development/
improvement roadmaps. We keep a note of
the satisfaction / dissatisfaction reviews
& take corrective action for the same as
top-priority.
Keeping the pandemic in mind, it actually
brought us closer to the customers than
expected! The index of health-conscious
customers increased over the last one year
& we made sure to reach out to those who
needed our products. We focused more on
industry trends, which search terms were
trending, what are customers seeking and
made sure to be present as a solution!”
Sreejith Moolayil - Co Founder & COO - True
Elements mentions.
Puru adds, “We at True Elements believe
in being True to our People. This constantly
directs and motivates us in putting our
front foot forward for enhancing the
customer experience. Our position of being
True, does not mean 99.9% True but being
100% True & Transparent to our customers.
We provide evidence for everything
we claim on our website to drive 100%
authenticity- right from Quality Reports to
Ingredients list to tracking details of every
ingredient added - everything is available
with just a click. This, we believe, adds
value to CX by building trust in our brand &
products”.
Growth Focused
Sreejith highlights, “We stand by 2 pillars
on the marketing front - Awareness &
Credibility. All our efforts, tactics & KRs go
in making these 2 stronger each day. For
awareness, we have started investing in
building brand equity & salience in addition
to pure play performance marketing. We
are present across all leading ecommerce
platforms & invest aggressively on both
search & display assets to keep fueling
the demand generation engine. We drive
Credibility via our strong Influencer base,
loyal customer base & by our very own
employees who spread the word across!
We believe our philosophy of providing
‘Food that DOES NOT lie to you’ enables
us in reaching out to the customers in a
meaningful way via crafted assets”.
“We are very focused on building
technology and believe that it is very
critical to maximizing potential. Most
of our internal systems as well as our
customer facing applications and tools
are all developed and built by our internal
team. Some of the specific ones include
our globally recognized Transparency tool-
which helps track ingredient journey, our
Seller app, our Promoter visibility app for
our salesforce, our internal productivity
tools, Internal ERP for complete
ecosystem from Raw Material till final
goods being shipped. We’ve also internally
built a personalization engine
on our website through offerings like Make
my snack & Make my muesli,” Sreejith
sums up.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 63
CATEGORY ANALYSIS
BEAUTY & PERSONAL CARE
The Indian beauty & personal care digital market is expected to be a $4 billion enterprise by
2025. The growth is poised to be driven by the plethora of manufacturers in the business
supported by an equally significant penetration of logistics players with robust distribution
networks and wide reach.

Top thoughts
India’s online beauty & personal care (BPC) segment has a huge potential as it is currently under-penetrated. Globally, the
penetration of online BPC in countries like China, UK and the US is between 12% to 18% versus under 2% in India.
Since the beginning of 2020, Indian consumers have heavily relied on products from local, home-grown brands that are
cost-effective and offer customised solutions.
Do-it-yourself (DIY) hair removal products for women, once a significantly untapped segment, saw more and more players
enter, primarily catering to the sub-30 age group.
The once-monopolised men’s shaving and grooming market in India also saw a number of home-grown D2C brands make
inroads.

Brands pivoting a change:

Significant markers
The Indian male grooming market alone was $643 million in 2018 and may cross over $1 billion by 2024, a CAGR growth of
almost 11%.
The personal hygiene market is expected to cross the $15 billion mark by 2023 as per current projections, and the hand
sanitisers segment alone will be worth over `2,000 crore by 2025.
The skincare market growth has been projected at a CAGR of 4.6% until 2025.
The Ayurveda economy has seen penetration of $10 billion. This dictates that the affinity for Ayurveda is high, with 15-16%
CAGR year on year.
Remarkable trend REVENUE GROWTH
The hairfall solutions market is getting created just like the nutraceutical
market in India and is expected to explode in the next 5-10 years. The
cluttered hair loss solutions industry, based on wrongful claims, is being
challenged by smaller D2C brands that are being more honest with customers
and providing holistic treatments that include both diet charts and
customised products. Two in five men in their 20s start facing male-pattern
hair loss, and the objective of these new-age brands is to make people
understand that hair loss or balding is optional and easily manageable.

Curtailing spends
One thing that brands will have to be careful about is that the Ad spends
allocations are going up significantly for a lot of the digital-only brands. Paid
39%
marketing saw a 6x growth in 2020 versus 2019. This will eventually mean brands
have grown
61%
that returns on Ad spends might come down as more and more brands aim brands have witnessed a
significantly
to attract more eyeballs from the same customer and therefore, the key revenue growth of less than
more, crossing
100% in the past year
differentiation will be the quality of the product. the 100% barrier

Trends on watch CUSTOMER GROWTH

NEW-AGE INGREDIENTS: Clean, non-toxic and naturally derived products
devoid of any synthetic ingredients or powered by superfoods - all these
solutions are big category disruptors today. There has been a tectonic shift in
people’s choices and preference to buy truly organic and vegan products that
are cruelty-free.

CUSTOMISATION: Most of the brands had been bucketing customers with

similar concerns and selling them a standard product that comes with a lot
of harmful chemicals, preservatives and often doesn’t solve their different
concerns. Today’s D2C brands in beauty & personal care are offering the
consumer customised solutions that target their specific issues. They are
increasingly investing in technology that allows the customer to interact with
them and share their concerns, so a well-crafted, bespoke solution can be
100%
offered to them. brands have seen a growth in their
customer base year-on-year

TWO-WAY COMMUNICATION: Brands don’t miss any chance to interact

with the customer, be it via website, Social Media or online reviews. They
DRIVERS OF GROWTH
promote two-way dialogue and want to be ever-present for the consumer.
Content and influencer marketing rules the roost when it comes to getting
the right message across to the consumer. Even during the lockdown, when
production and deliveries were shut, more and more BPC brands engaged
with the consumer by striking conversations on several different subjects.

MEN’S GROOMING: The Indian man has been more conscious about the
way he looks, and the social obligation to appear better is a strong reason
for the category’s growth. They are tired of the usual shaving and trimming
experience, and seek products that are not only exciting but also specially
designed for sensitive skin. The category is growing fast to cater to this
emerging need and is now seeing a lot more disruption than before.

GREEN IS IN: Packaging and packaging technology are another key area 6%
of investment for D2C brands in the beauty & personal care segment. They brands have
other factors
want the customer to enjoy the experience of ‘unboxing’ and are innovating For 94%
contributing to
brands, growth has been fuelled
on product and packaging to make things more sustainable for the eco- this growth
by Social Media engagements
conscious consumer.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 65

 MILESTONE
Aanam Sutras products are manufactured
after thorough R&D. The brand intends
to occupy a unique market position by
offering a specialty line that includes
skincare, cosmetics and before and after-
party products.
It claims to have a pricing that is 40%
lower than market leaders, yet able to
generate robust gross profit margins.

Pankaj Chaturvedi The unique Calmsutra line of products

by Aanam Sutras has been prepared to
Founder, Aanam Sutras provide a soothing effect to customers
from their hectic lifestyle through face
mists, vitamin-rich face gels and the
uniquely-positioned Hangover Balm,
among others.
Presently, Team Aanam Sutras is working
with a D2C and multi-level marketing
model to send the right message across
to customers and take the brand to
exponential growth levels.
CELEBRATING
GOD’S GIFT
Aanam Sutras is dedicated to serving the skincare and beauty industry in the country by offering the
highest quality skincare and make-up products that are affordable and accessible. ‘Aanam’, which means
‘god’s gift’, represents beauty that uplifts the mood and adds confidence to your stride. The cruelty-free
products have been formulated using beauty tips passed down by mothers to their daughters, with the
latest and most advanced technology for ensuring flawless skin.

Identifying a gap
The Indian market is rife with products that
are either affordable or premium, but none
that offer both at the same time, believes
Pankaj Chaturvedi, Founder, Aanam Sutras.
“This is what Indian customers are looking
for and we are here to fill that gap. Today’s
consumer is looking for more holistic and
healing benefits from skincare products.
They’re seeking relief from the effects of
a hectic 24x7 lifestyle. No existing brand,
except us, is offering a specialty line that
includes skincare, cosmetics and before and
after-party cosmetic products,” he adds.
Aanam Sutras products are made from
natural ingredients that are home-grown.
The brand’s founder is passionate about
creating products that not only enhance a
person’s outer beauty but also strengthen
their inner glow. ‘Your originality is our
inspiration’, is the brand’s ethos and they
have built products that are suitable for
different skin types.
The global cosmetics market size was
valued at US$380.2 billion in 2019, and
it is being forecasted that it will reach
US$463.5 billion by 2027, which makes it a
wonderful market to dip one’s toes in. “The
cosmetics market has also undergone rapid
premiumisation in the last five years which
opens the door to new avenues. But, this
isn’t some uncharted territory for us. We, at
Aanam Sutras, have substantial experience
of the products and market, and we’re
well aware of the challenges and potential
solutions. We also have an experienced and
well-known advisory board that makes sure
that we make the right business decisions,”
adds Chaturvedi.
Aanam Sutras’ products provide top-
notch quality developed and manufactured
indigenously. As a consequence of this
innovative strategy, its pricing is 40 per
cent less than market leaders. And despite
this, it is able to generate robust gross
profit margins. The brand also has strategic
tie-ups to deploy products faster to the
market. For online sales it has tied up with
Amazon, Nykaa, Flipkart, etc., and also
offers the entire range on its own website.
For offline sales in general trade it has tied
up with major skincare stores in Delhi-NCR
and for modern trade, works with Reliance,
Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle, etc. “Apart from
this, we also sell our products through kitty
crush parties, kiosks and reputed clubs,”
adds Chaturvedi. The founder also believes
that what makes them stand out from
the crowd is their offering of affordable
luxury - developing and manufacturing
world-class quality products indigenously
at far less the cost. “We’re also focused on
ensuring that only medicated chemicals are
used in production and we’re 100% against
animal testing. Furthermore, our products
are unique and innovative, and meet the
customer’s demand to a T,” he says.
Attention to detail
The Indian skincare products market is
expected to grow at a robust CAGR of 8.22
per cent during 2021-2025 and may reach
a value of `191.09 billion by the end of
2025. Chaturvedi adds, “That is the market
that we have in our crosshairs and we’re
deploying the best products and strategies
to thrive in it.” Aanam Sutras’ target
market is the upper-middle and affluent
class in the age group of 16-50 years, and
also offers unisex products to cater to
everyone’s needs.
In the future, the brand is dedicated
to offering beauty and lifestyle products
created with meticulous attention to detail,
keeping in mind the vitality of efficacy
and sensory pleasure. Its objective has
always been to formulate products of
the finest quality by investigating a wide
range of laboratory-made ingredients
and use only those with a proven record
of safety and efficacy. “While there is
nothing that can beat the beauty of your
soul and mind, wearing make-up can surely
elevate your confidence. Charging you
up from within prepares you to face any
challenge as you feel good when you look
good. Make-up is a catalyst that enhances
your personality, creates an aura, and can
help you in altering yourself into someone
you have always desired to be,” concludes
Chaturvedi.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 67


Dhruv Madhok & Dhruv Bhasin
Co-founders, ARATA
MILESTONE
Arata is the first, and the only,
brand in India to have received the
coveted EWG Verified certification
for its products.
The brand has grown over 10-fold
in two years, and significantly
during the lockdown. It caters to
over 250,000 customers across the
country, with more than 50% repeat
purchases. In fact, more than 85%
of its customers have rated it 8+ on
a scale of 10.
Arata has an institutional equity
and debt funding of more than
US $2 million through private
equity, venture capital and backed
by angel investors.
The brand has made significant
technology investments in its
website, marketing automation as
well as ERP (Enterprise Resource
Planning).
NATURAL & SAFE,
HONESTLY
Natural and non-toxic, honest personal care company Arata offers its customers trustworthy and
credible products that are infused with the highest quality of potent ingredients. The brand also ensures
that neither the environment nor animals are harmed in its production process by using bottles made of
Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) plastic and by not testing its products on animals or using animal and
insect-derived ingredients.
Home is where the clue is
“One evening in January 2016, I decided to
use my mother’s homemade hair gel recipe
to style my hair for Dhruv Madhok’s
(Co-founder, Arata) wedding celebration.
When Madhok asked me if I was concerned
about hair fall or whitening from the
excessive use of hair gel, I responded that
this hair gel was 100 per cent natural and
made with organic flaxseeds. The next
day, I sent Madhok a sample. He tried it
and noticed that this gel held his hair just
as well as any other hair gel in the market.
He immediately called me and said - Let’s
make this for everyone looking for a safe
alternative to style their hair. And that was
our eureka moment! It’s how it all started,”
says Dhruv Bhasin, Co-founder, Arata. The
duo envisioned an honest personal care
company that would offer trustworthy and
credible products, made of the highest
quality ingredients that were safe and clean.
Based on that vision and with the help of a
very talented group of people, they brought
Arata to life.
The brand prides itself in manufacturing
products that are not only safe and effective,
but also innovative and unique. “Our
formulae are infused with the highest quality
potent ingredients like rosehip, primrose,
sage and argan oil, and natural fragrances
made of spices, herbs and floral extracts.
We provide a truly world-class experience
at one-fourth the price of a comparable
product in Europe or North America,”
claims Bhasin. The brand does not test on
animals or use animal- or insect-derived
ingredients. It even packages its products
in Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) plastic,
which is plastic that has been obtained from
landfills and ocean waste, melted, sanitised,
recycled and moulded into bottles.
A monologue no more
Being a start-up that promised to deliver
authentic and honest personal care in a
space that was brimming with chemical
formulations each claiming to be better
than the other and well-established brands
that were ruling the roost, carving a niche
for itself couldn’t have been any less than a
mammoth task for Arata. “We discovered
that some brands blatantly hide behind
the garb of ‘key ingredients’ and don’t
disclose the harmful chemicals used in their
formulations. Large corporations often
take advantage of the trust placed in them
by disclosing synthetic ingredients using
scientific names, which their customers
don’t really understand. We also happened
to discover that the ingredients that caused
hair-fall and hair whitening were being
widely used not just in styling products,
but in virtually every single personal care
product in the country. A larger problem
became apparent: chemical ingredients
known to be carcinogens and banned in
North America and Europe, are still being
used in products made and sold in India. So,
by focusing on small niches in the market,
we efficiently captured market share.
By offering a differentiated product, we
attracted customers and by ensuring we
build a community, we retained them,” says
Bhasin.
Today, the brand also recognises the
importance of leveraging technology to
stay close to its customers. It ensures that
it stays in the mind of the customer by
interacting with him/ her across its website,
Social Media channels, marketplace reviews,
etc. Bhasin adds, “It’s not a monologue, but a
two-way communication.”
On the marketing front, the brand employs
several strategies effectively, including
funnel marketing across Facebook,
Instagram and Google; Amazon AMS;
content marketing and marketing through
influencers as well as affiliate marketing.
Arata has a rich marketplace presence, and
available across Amazon, Nykaa, Myntra and
Bigbasket among others. In the future the
brand hopes to scale its product offerings,
teams, geographies and international
expansion, but is presently focused on
being an internet-only name for the next two
years.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 69

Shantanu Deshpande
Founder, Bombay Shaving Company
MILESTONE
Bombay Shaving Company has
grown from 25 products across two
categories to about 175 products
across five. It serves over 9K pin
codes with an average turnaround
time of 2-3 days.
The brand has been witnessing a
healthy 20-25% month-on-month
growth across e-commerce.
Bombay Shaving Company’s shelf
presence at retail outlets has
expanded from 10K shelves to
almost 25K shelves across MT,
SAMT, GT and Pharma chains,
including distribution chains like
Metro Cash & Carry.
Within a few months of launching
its new product line for women,
Bombay Shaving Company gained
a 7% market and is now listed as
one of the top brands for women’s
hair removal on marketplaces like
Amazon and Nykaa.
NOT A HAIR OUT OF
PLACE
Founded in October 2015, Bombay Shaving Company wanted to reinvent the way Indian men approached
grooming and personal care. The aim was to introduce a brand that offered fuss-free grooming solutions
to men and encouraged them to invest time and money in personal grooming. The goal was inspired by
men having begun to focus a lot more on the way they looked, coupled with a clear demand from women in
wanting them to look better.
Grooming a solution
The idea of Bombay Shaving Company
got incepted over a conversation that
Shantanu Deshpande, the Founder, had
with his friend who was then interning at
Hipster New York shaving brand Harry’s.
This was regarding blades, shaving creams
and men’s grooming solutions, and it got
Deshpande to question if there could be an
opportunity in India. He spoke to his family,
friends and general consumers about their
shaving habits and one thing became clear –
nobody really wanted to shave. In fact, many
men hated the daily ritual and, if given the
option, would not shave. He realised that
an opportunity existed in India – and that
men grooming as a category was a large,
underserved, and monopolised market
that needed a brand disruptor. Hence, after
contemplating the idea for over a year and
multiple conversations with FMCG veterans,
he founded Bombay Shaving Company.
“Indian men were tired of the usual shaving
and trimming experience. There was an
opportunity to bring products that were not
only exciting but also specially designed
for sensitive skin. Our goal was inspired by
the rise of new innovations and behaviours
like Social Media and online dating,” says
Deshpande.
As an omnichannel brand, Bombay
Shaving Company claims to have disrupted
both digital commerce alongside modern-
trade shelves by bringing men’s grooming
products that are powered by superfoods
like turmeric, charcoal, coffee, aloe vera
and onion. The brand is synonymous with
trust, care and sustainable practices. “We
are category disruptors and creators, and
invest our money in building the brand and
being present in media relevant to our core
audience. We are focused on cultivating a
top-quality leadership team, ensuring an
empowered and performance-driven culture
where everyone is passionate about building
an organisation that solves real needs and
disrupts a traditional industry through
humanisation, personalisation and product
delight,” shares Deshpande.
Social listening is key
Bombay Shaving Company understands that
consumers discover and purchase products
in different ways and has set up 20K+ touch
points to leverage change and diversify how
it attracts and retains customers. It has
enabled social commerce and tapped into
consumers who like to discover and shop
for products while browsing Social Media.
It is also establishing a strong B2B channel
through corporate gifting. “Social listening
is key to understanding cultural trends. It is
essential for brands to track large cultural
shifts via content created on Social Media
Apps like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat,
which is why Bombay Shaving Company
has an entire team doing this and more.
The company makes it a point to observe
how content moves across platforms and
geographies and how it is being received
or consumed by its target audience,” says
Deshpande. When many brands slowed down
production during the coronavirus lockdown,
Bombay Shaving Company emerged with
a new product line. Hair removal products
for women was a category that had a lot
of untapped potential. Most brands were
addressing hair removal needs in a scattered
manner and Bombay Shaving Company saw
an opportunity to offer a more holistic hair
removal solution to women.
The brand also looks into what new
ingredients are emerging globally, what
ingredients are viable, how consumption
patterns are changing, what skin care
regimes are becoming more important
in evolved markets, and how people are
interacting with their products. These
learnings are then used to expand and
improve the product portfolio. It has
investments in the middleware where its
CRM, CMS and Shopping Platform operate
with best-in-class practices for speed,
personalisation, customisation and safety
of transactions. Another area of technology
investment is product and packaging, to
make things more sustainable. “We have
been focusing on a more profitable way to
market and build our presence and shall
continue to drive excellence in that function.
We are aiming to be a `1000 crore brand in
the near future and are expanding rapidly to
make this happen,” concludes Deshpande.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 71
 MILESTONE
Harini Sivakumar Bootstrapped till last year,
Earth Rhythm has received new
Cosmetic Chemist, Founder & CEO, funding that it plans to invest
Earth Rhythm in technology and building both
brand awareness and recognition
techniques that will aid in on-
boarding more customers.
The brand already enjoys a
repeat customer rate of 45-50%
that it has been able to maintain
owing to its product strength.
Earth Rhythm’s marketing
spends have almost doubled in
the recent past, and its short
to medium-term priority is to
achieve `100 crore ARR by March
2023.
The skincare brand had a
revenue growth of over 400%
between FY2019-20, and the
number of customers went up by
533% in the same period.
MIND THE GAP
‘We don’t promise miracles – we deliver results’ is the ethos of conscious skincare by Earth Rhythm, a brand
that promises clean, safe and biodegradable products that are backed by scientific research. The inclusive
brand employs people from weaker sections of society and those who are differently abled, and trains them
to be experts in the manufacturing process while empowering them to be self-reliant.

Seeking sincerity
Her son’s skin condition led Harini
Sivakumar, Cosmetic Chemist, Founder &
CEO at Earth Rhythm, to look for products
that catered to his specific needs. But, to
her dismay, there was a stark gap between
quality skincare and what was available
in the market. To fulfil this growing need,
Sivakumar began a meticulous research
on ingredients and products available in
the Indian cosmetic market and found that
some of the claims made by brands did not
even relate to the product label. To bridge
this gap, and what began as a pet project,
Soapworks India (now Earth Rhythm) was
established by her along with her father in
2018. But Sivakumar did not want to build
just a quality skincare business; she wanted
the brand to be socially and ecologically
sensitive as well. “My inspiration was clearly
to come up with a brand that did its bit in
eliminating the use of plastic, replacing it
with sustainable and eco-friendly products
as much as possible. We aimed to send
nothing to landfill. Today, we reduce what
we need, reuse as much as we can, send
little to be recycled and compost what we
cannot,” she explains.
Soon, Earth Rhythm received positive
recognition from Sivakumar’s friends, family
and the community. The company gradually
began expanding its product portfolio and
added more people to its core team. The
move had a snowballing effect in helping
the brand evolve. “When you do this over a
good period, passion starts taking over the
driving seat and that has kept me and our
team going strong to the point. The goal
is to create a strong brand that is clean,
safe, biodegradable yet clinically effective
and backed by scientific research. We are
positioned as a brand that is addressing
the needs and aspirations of new-age
customers,” says the founder.
One step at a time
The team at Earth Rhythm is constantly
working on new in-house formulations that
are based on trials and certifications. It uses
plant-based actives in its products that have
a proven efficacy. “While everyone wants
to get products out faster to consumers,
sometimes you must make a conscious
decision to delay the launches unless the
internal R&D and external trials are not
complete. This, clubbed with an in-house
manufacturing facility, makes us a unique
player in the market,” claims Sivakumar. She
believes the new-age consumer to be aware,
conscious and investigative, therefore, in
terms of diversification, the brand keeps
a close ear to the ground and pays special
attention to what its consumers need and
how it can gain more shelf space in their
homes.
As a digital-first brand, the bulk of
Earth Rhythm’s marketing spends go into
the digital space. The brand works with
in-house experts and agencies to map the
customer journey and create a strategy.
Sivakumar advocates that start-ups must
invest in good technology to support and
back up their marketing spends. Fulfilment
is another key area that the brand focuses
on. “A large part of our revenue comes
from our own website and not so much the
marketplace such as Nykaa and Amazon,
which makes our task more tedious in
terms of managing fulfilment. We get
orders from across the country, not the
bigger cities alone, which sometimes
makes it a challenge to even send the
orders to some of these remote pin codes,
often resulting in some inevitable delays,”
she shares. But, the company continues
to meet these challenges head-on
and is considering alternate models of
warehousing that can help it reduce the
time gap between order placement and
delivery.
Backed by new funding, Sivakumar plans
to continue investing in technology and
finding efficiencies to make the business all
the more profitable. “Keeping our customer
base happy and excited about our offerings
should augur well for us in the long run. We
are on the right track!” the founder exclaims.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 73

Nikita Deshpande Amit Patil
Co-founder & Creative Director, Ilana Co-founder, IIana

MILESTONE
Ilana has witnessed a year-on-year revenue
growth of close to 50%. It earned a revenue of
`2 crore in FY2019-20 and `3.3 crore in FY20-21.
Since its establishment three years ago, Ilana
has grown to a customer base of 50,700 and
continues to win more people each day with its
ethical, sustainable product line.
The company plans to launch a male-centric
brother brand in the future that will offer simple,
straightforward skin and hair care solutions for
men.
Currently bootstrapped and available across
leading e-marketplaces, Ilana’s marketing
spends are 30-35% of its revenue.
BOTTLED GOODNESS
Young and sustainable, skincare brand Ilana has scripted its story of success by lending a ear to its
customers and delivering on its promise of being transparent. ‘What’s on the label is what’s in the bottle’,
says Ilana, and it ensures it delivers the message to its customers through its innovative products. The brand
also truly leverages the power of Social Media to stay relevant in the minds of its perceptive audience.
Personalising care
Ethical innovation, sustainability and
transparency have been the three guiding
pillars at Ilana in creating personal care
products that are gentle on the skin and
on the planet. “The world needs kindness
more than ever today, not just in our actions
but also in how we innovate. But, the
notion that coming up with a transparent,
ethical and sustainable brand would
be a straightforward process was soon
shattered as I realised the smaller details
of it. However, at the end of the day, the
core values of the brand are what gave me
the strength to keep going,” says Nikita
Deshpande, Co-founder & Creative Director
at Ilana. Having begun as a two-member
team with Amit Patil as Co-founder, the
brand has grown stronger since, backed by
people who share its ideology. Today, Ilana
consists of 90 per cent female employees,
providing meaningful employment to those
around it.
With the personal care & beauty market
constantly growing and newer niches being
established every day, it is a challenge
to stay relevant and constantly be on top
of the game. From veterans who have
captured a major chunk of the market to
international brands entering this space, it
is very difficult to spread awareness, says
Deshpande, adding that the industry still
has a lot of potential with people from all
age groups and socio-economic classes
taking interest in personal care. But, being
a start-up in a highly competitive space had
more challenges ahead. “Right from ideating
the brand story, the strategy and the design
to R&D and the formulation itself, each step
comes with its own challenge. Building a
trustworthy team and leading them in the
right direction while nurturing their values
and spirit was also something that needed
to carefully be thought through,” adds
Deshpande.
Today, Ilana strives to strike a balance
between quality and price competitiveness
so customers get good value for their
money without having to settle for products
that are just good enough. The brand
understands the concerns millennials and
Gen-Z face and what they want out of their
personal care. It is meticulous in choosing
ingredients, where and how far they come
from, and how they are extracted and
refined. It even considers the load on the
environment, which may sometimes mean
replacing a natural ingredient (which has
a large carbon footprint in extraction or
uses bonded labour) with a certified-safe,
laboratory-made alternative.
The right message
In the three years of being part of the
industry, the team at Ilana realised that
maintaining a voice and tone throughout
all its marketing efforts was very important
when it came to brand image. “The
messaging, communication and imagery -
all have to reflect what you stand for. This
helps people understand your story better
and connect with you on a deeper level. The
notion that ‘you are more than your products’
is what we strive to achieve. Our marketing
communication mainly revolves around
establishing ourselves as a reliable source of
information through a youthful and relatable
voice,” says Deshpande.
During the recent lockdowns, when it
became more crucial for brands to stay
alive in the minds of their customers given
that deliveries had taken a hit, Ilana took an
innovative approach. The brand leveraged
its Social Media platform to spread the
word about DIY skincare and hair care. This
helped it form meaningful relationships with
its regular consumers. The bootstrapped
skincare brand also ensures its customers’
end-to-end journey is an enjoyable
experience for them. It keeps a close eye on
its in-house packing and fulfilment apparatus
to minimise errors and maximise efficiency.
Ilana also keeps a lookout on the feedback it
receives from customers and provides them
with prompt customer service.
“As we grow ahead, we also wish to give
back to the environment more than we
consume. Hence, being a plastic positive
company has always been on top of our
agenda,” concludes Deshpande.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 75
 MILESTONE
Sidharth S Oberoi Within six months of its launch,
LetsShave reached 1,00,000
Founder & CEO, LetsShave customers and currently enjoys a
loyal customer base of 6,50,000.
In October 2018, the company
acquired funding from its razor
manufacturing partner Dorco, which
also became the latter’s first such
investment in Asia.
Later, in February 2020, Wipro
Consumer Care Ventures, the
venture capital fund of Wipro
Consumer Care and Lighting,
also acquired a minority stake in
LetsShave.
The brand claims to be one of
the first to introduce the world’s
first 6-blade razor with trimmer
for both men and women through
an innovative manufacturing
technology.
A CLOSE SHAVE
Personal grooming, as an industry, was a late bloomer in the Indian D2C space. Highly monopolised, the
category had enough room for new entrants, but as many challenges. Taking them head on in late 2015 was
LetsShave, a brand that not only aimed to sell reasonably priced and more diverse grooming products to
Indian men, but also wanted to offer them a subscription that would free them of the worry of re-stocking
each time they ran out of a product.

Priming a market
LetsShave was established in November
2015 as a bootstrapped start-up from
Chandigarh in the Indian grooming space.
With a clear focus on the men’s grooming
market, especially shaving products, it
on-boarded one of the world’s leading razor
manufacturers - Dorco. Talking about the
ideation of the brand, Sidharth S Oberoi,
Founder & CEO, LetsShave, says, “I studied
Industrial Engineering with a minor in
Entrepreneurship and Innovation, at Purdue
University. As a student at Purdue and the
experience of doing self-care, I learnt the
importance of grooming products and the
ease that they bring to one’s life. That’s when
the idea of bringing good quality grooming
products cropped into my mind.”
During his first job in the USA as a
Project Engineer at CSA Group, Oberoi
was tasked with conducting consumer
product evaluations based on tests to help
retailers and manufacturers quantify and
analyse the performance of the products.
He particularly loved developing ways to
increase productivity and efficiency of
technicians and also reducing the testing
process’s lead-time, an exposure that
gave him the vision for bringing leading
razors into the manufacturing process of
LetsShave products when he decided to
form the company.
But, the gaps that LetsShave strived
to fill were also its biggest challenges. It
wanted to introduce premium quality, yet
affordable grooming tools for men at a
time when the market was monopolised,
hence consumers had little idea about
what to expect or demand. A handful of
players decided the price and quality of
shaving products (only the basic ones were
available), and consumers had no choice
but to go with those options. This lack of
awareness required LetsShave to not only
sell its products at a reasonable price but,
at the same time, educate people on how
small additions to their personal care kit
could make a huge difference. The second,
and biggest, challenge was to sell the idea
of subscription-based shaving where
customers could order a whole shaving kit
with razors online, get it delivered at their
doorstep, and get reminded about changing
the blades every month. Based on these
reminders, they could order again or order
in advance for a few months to get a regular
supply of blades without having to visit the
market physically or forgetting to refill. “My
aggression of supplying quality products
in the grooming section is what kept me
going,” Oberoi adds.
The name counts
LetsShave’s marketing strategy has been to
build trust and value through personalised
content marketing and engaging with
influencers. Even its packaging is smart
and practical, the most vital ingredient to
establish a brand’s recall in people’s minds.
“We are preparing ourselves to use data-
driven and automated marketing tools
that will help us save time, scale faster and
improve the ROI while avoiding damages
that may be caused by intuition-based
decisions. We are of the strong belief that
no marketing or branding is better than
the product itself. We try to find innovative
ways so that everyone tries our razors,” says
Oberoi.
Though LetsShave began with a focus
on millennials as its target group, it was
taken by surprise when it saw demand
from both older men as well as women.
Quick to adapt, the company began to
manufacture products to cater to these new
demographics as well. While B2C is its main
focus, LetsShave has a small B2B presence
as well. The company has already attained
a year-on-year revenue growth of 200 per
cent and will soon expand to international
markets. “A lot of Indians suffer from body
image issues. So when we decided to launch
LetsShave, we wanted to address this
issue head on. We wanted our customers
to embrace their bodies as they were and
pay some attention to their grooming,
which would lead to an increased sense of
confidence and self-esteem. Thus began
our tryst with shaving products and we
eventually diversified into a whole range of
personal care,” shares Oberoi.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 77

 MILESTONE
Since its diversification into the
skincare category, Love Earth, as a
brand, has grown 4-5x.

Paridhi Goel In its pipeline are 30-40 new

products that will be introduced in
Founder, Love Earth the market in the coming year.
Besides a marketplace presence
across Amazon, Flipkart, Nykaa and
Purplle, the brand is also available
offline in cities like Ludhiana, Delhi
and Mumbai.
Love Earth continues to witness
a year-on-year revenue growth of
20% along with a customer base
growth rate of 50%.
AU NATUREL
Love Earth stepped into the personal care category with only one agenda – to make people adopt organic products
that promoted a healthier lifestyle. Though convincing an audience did pose as a challenge at the beginning of the
journey, Love Earth managed to build a strong community of followers who believed in its ethos and backed it, and
were eager to convince others of its efficacious offerings.
A leap of faith
Personal care brand Love Earth began its
journey in the online sphere as a company
that prepared small portions of rosewater
mixes for its clients, meant for gifting. Over
time, the brand realised that more and
more people had begun valuing home-
grown products over the chemical-infused
alternatives readily available in the market,
and resolved to take a plunge into the
business of personal care. “We saw a great
shift in people’s choice and preference to
buy organic products. When we entered
the category, we saw there were very
few brands that were organic and used
paraben-free ingredients, so we began with
the aim of introducing products that were
organic and non-artificial,” says Paridhi
Goel, Founder, Love Earth. Today, the
brand has more than 70 haircare, skincare
and personal care offerings, and even reed
diffusers. It continues to innovate on and
expand its product offering while keeping
to its ethos of being organic and all natural.
The beginning, however, came with its
set of challenges. Goel says that the first
and most crucial challenge that Love Earth
faced as a brand entering the market of
personal care was convincing an audience
of the efficacy of its products. “It was a
little tough at the start to make people
believe, but slowly and gradually we saw
people starting to believe us and using our
products. This became our motivation,
kept us moving and growing. The change
in people’s choices directly affects the
industry, too, and this is going to surge,”
she adds. Another hurdle in their journey,
and a continuous one, has been research
and development (R&D). Love Earth goes
through several samples for ingredients
before finalising on one, and this sometimes
becomes a rather tedious mission. But,
the bootstrapped brand continues to
strive to inspire consumers to lead a more
wholesome, healthier lifestyle by choosing
to opt for natural, organic products.
Customer, the ambassador
Love Earth offers a wide range of products
– from handpicked tea leaves to organic
skincare, haircare, personal care and
home care products, as well as face tools
and multi-pots. The cruelty-free brand
continuously monitors and listens to
customer requests, understanding their
demands and coming up with the best
possible ways to meet them. “Queries from
customers are always taken on priority.
Sometimes, we get to know about an
international product our customer wants
to try, so we try to bring it to them in a
more reasonable range. Every customer is
important. We encourage our customers to
create content about the products they have
used and ask them to write an honest review
and put it on Social Media from where we
re-post it. This is also an encouragement for
them,” explains Goel.
The company has also been creative
in its engagement with the audience.
It celebrates Face Yoga Day with its
followers every Sunday. On the occasion,
a Yoga expert is invited to explain how
to use the tools and their benefits. Each
session, 30-60 seconds long, is one of the
simplest, most practical ways of getting
the audience’s attention.
Though hit by the pandemic business-
wise with government restrictions on
order deliveries, Love Earth soon made
up for lost time by working long hours to
dispatch orders with utmost care, staying
protected and sanitised. “Barring the
unforeseen pandemic, we make sure we
have all our products ready and available
in stock. We have never gone out of stock
for any product from our website. We
even have reputed logistics partners who
deliver the product on time. Our products
get delivered mostly within four to seven
days without any delay,” adds Goel.
Love Earth believes that while
marketing is crucial to making its
presence felt in the market, what is even
more important is the quality of that
product. It believes that building trust in a
product and then maintaining that trust is
essential to make more and more people
learn about the brand, mostly through
word of mouth marketing from happy
customers who have already used its
products.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 79
 MILESTONE
Established in 2008, Mellow
stepped into the online space in
2020 and has been growing ever
since.

Sujata Sharda It has plans underway to move

beyond the borders of India. The
Founder, Mellow brand aims to soon launch on
Nykaa, Sublime Life and Vanity
Wagon, as well as Amazon US and
UAE.
Unperturbed by the lockdown, it
continues to spend approximately
`4-4.5 million on marketing.
The brand has also clocked a year-
on-year revenue growth of `22-25
million.
AFFORDABLE LUXURY
Inspired by nature, Mellow was established in 2008 as an offline brand selling home-made hairfall solutions. The
success of its products in the local community and then through word-of-mouth marketing led the brand to
create a robust online presence for itself while eliminating the notion that Ayurveda was a luxury only few could
enjoy. Today, it has successfully made affordable Ayurveda solutions available to a wider consumer base.
Pocket-friendly aspirations
The journey of Mellow began with a mother’s
quest for a fitting solution to her daughter’s
hairfall woes. She met with several Ayurveda
practitioners, botanists and experts on
herbs, and after a thoroughgoing process
of research and experimentation with
natural formulations in her own kitchen,
Sujata Sharda, Founder, Mellow, made the
first sesame hair oil – the hair elixir. The
oil yielded astonishing results and was an
instant success! As word of the natural
elixir spread far and wide among relatives,
communities and beyond, orders started
pouring in and demand grew. It was time
for Sharda to move beyond the confines of
her kitchen to lay the foundation for Mellow.
Thirteen years since, the brand is still
standing strong on its ethos of chemical-
free, natural products. “What keeps us going
is our commitment to provide the purest and
most natural Ayurvedic products affordable
for all,” says the Founder. She is involved in
every aspect of the brand, from research
and manufacturing to packaging; is the
driving force behind product development;
and actively contributes ideas, inspirations
and solutions to the R&D team.
In the start-up years, Sharda
manufactured, packaged and labelled
all the products on her own. Once orders
started pouring in, the brand moved to a
retail offering. In 2020, it established its
presence online. Through its journey, Mellow
has stayed true to its core – the people. “We
are a people-centric brand, obsessed with
customer satisfaction and solving their
pain points related to hair and skincare. We
strongly believe that every product should
be consumer oriented, should cater to the
needs of people and should not be there
only for the sake of it. We inculcate the
same values in the R&D of the brand. If you
have a problem, we have a solution,” adds
Sharda. Since inception, Mellow’s affordable
skincare products have sought to alter the
way people view Ayurveda – as a luxury
accessible to few – and make it available to
them readily. The brand picks up the finest
herbal ingredients, and all products are
manufactured at its plant under stringent
quality controls and conform to GMP (Good
Manufacturing Practice).
Follow the customer
Mellow has had a loyal customer base
through the years, some having been part
of the family for more than a decade. Being
people-centric, it continually devises
ways to reward such commitment through
personalised offers, samples and discounts.
It was during the COVID-19 pandemic,
in 2020, that the brand’s founder realised
that a retail presence wasn’t enough. If one
wanted to be in the game for the long haul,
making a mark online was equally important,
if not more. “To be absolutely honest, we do
realise that we are a little late to go online,
but with our customer-first approach, the
purest Ayurvedic products and spiffing
marketing, we are quite confident to turn
things around in a short span of time. Being
a decade-old brand established in 2008,
we do know and understand the skincare
and beauty market and what the consumer
wants. Since 2020, we have been trying to
replicate the same online, and are going
fully onto the digital space this year,” shares
Sharda. Mellow has several ideas in the
pipeline and hopes to keep consumers
hooked through its future offers, campaigns
and strategies.
Driven by an expanding customer base
post its digital debut, Mellow also plans to
test international waters via Amazon US and
UAE. Domestically, its marketing blueprint
will focus on growing the brand through
direct communication with consumers
via its Social Media channels of Instagram,
Facebook and Pinterest. “Since we started,
we have come a long way. We believe we
have progressed a lot. More than hard
data and numbers, we value customer’s
delight. We have also always been inspired
by Ayurveda and natural, chemical-free
products. We believe in Ayurveda and really
want to bring it to every household. We want
to operate in the affordable luxury space and
our vision is to make Ayurveda accessible to
all,” concludes Sharda.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 81

Dr Himanshu Gandhi
CEO and Co-founder, Mother Sparsh
MILESTONE
With a focus on enhancing
the customer’s experience,
Mother Sparsh has been able to
successfully garner more interest
among consumers, which has led
to a 40% year-on-year growth in its
customer base.
The brand has also continuously
worked on its product line
extension across various
categories, and has diversified into
body and skincare products that
appeal to all age groups.
It has actively experienced growth
by market penetration into various
states in the country, which has led
to a 50% year-on-year increase in
revenue.
Mother Sparsh is now recognised
and accredited as India’s No.1
Trusted brand by Dermatologists,
in accordance with a survey
conducted with pan India
dermatologists as per MRSI
guidelines & standards.
IN SYNC WITH
MOTHER NATURE
Having begun as a baby care brand that sought to offer customers honest products made from the finest and most organic
of ingredients, Mother Sparsh had a challenging line to tread – convincing new-age mothers of the efficacy and safety of its
products in the face of time-tested ones that had been in the market for years on end. But, perseverance and agility led the
brand to continuously strive to be better and never deviate from its principles of safe, organic, sustainable care.
Making a strong case
As rising consumer awareness about
sustainable and toxin-free products led
new-age companies to focus on going
herbal, organic and chemical-free, Mother
Sparsh began as a baby care brand offering
the first-ever range of plant-powered
products. It wanted to bring to customers
products that met global standards while
being organic and sustainable. “Our core
value has always been that as a baby care
brand, we adapt to the changing needs
of mothers to bring nature in its most
unadulterated form. We have a strong,
efficient research & development team
which uses innovation to transform nature’s
best resources into effective products,”
says Dr Himanshu Gandhi, CEO and Co-
founder, Mother Sparsh. Today, Mother
Sparsh has progressively grown into a
holistic brand that crafts and holds an
extensive line of baby care products that
are rooted in nature and the traditional
Indian science of medicine - Ayurveda.
Mother Sparsh has always strived
to bring to its consumers innovative
products for good health, skincare and
hair care, while being organic at its core.
It also manufactures products inspired by
original, time-tested, authentic Ayurvedic
preparations that have resonated deeply
with its consumers and ensure their trust.
“The lookout for new products as opposed
to the traditional offerings by brands that
would meet the growing requirements
of increasingly aware and informed
consumers of the new millennium is our
utmost priority. We strive to ensure that
we meet the specifications and needs
while elevating the safety standards and
transparency with our consumers,” says Dr
Gandhi.
Innovation and research have been the
ethos of product development at Mother
Sparsh, but its continued communication
with customers is what has been a key
driver of its growth. It engages with parents
regularly, and sampling has also helped the
brand understand the narrowed needs of
consumers. “Additionally, our portfolio of
ingredients and quality that we offer have
set us apart and helped put us on the map,”
adds Dr Gandhi.
No alternative to honesty
With increased competition, requirements
for creative and aggressive marketing
practices along with a pipeline of innovative
new products and features, the focus at
Mother Sparsh has been on the adoption
of the smart tech stack, data analytics,
increased and efficient R&D operations, and
overall efficient operation management.
It also has a strong online presence owing
to its continuous effort to reach out to
consumers organically over various digital
platforms. “Our independent web operations
over the Mother Sparsh website and our
presence on major online shopping portals
with support of comprehensive logistics
and customer communication helped us sail
through the pandemic smoothly,” says Dr
Gandhi. The brand has also been able to fight
traditional perceptions in baby care brands,
making customers opt for more natural
and conscious solutions against the tried
and tested traditional products. It ensures
this trust is upheld by offering high-quality,
effective products. Mother Sparsh has also
built upon a foundation of honest marketing,
expanded its independent operations
and digital presence by adopting an open
communication strategy and authenticity in
brand marketing and storytelling which has
continued to drive consumer interest. Owing
to the global pandemic, it initiated changes
in advertising, marketing, promotional and
media spends. Given the mass adoption of
digital purchasing, it focused 60 per cent
of its marketing spends on digital media. It
also continually explores the specifics of
retail fulfilment strategies to improve the
customer experience, and aims to invest
back into the community by partnering with
home-grown start-ups and services, while
supporting the community by sourcing
locally.
Leading with eco-innovations, Mother
Sparsh strives to be a purpose-driven
brand, as the new-age consumer
has become more sensitive to the
environmental impact of their buying
decisions.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 83
 MILESTONE
MyGlamm has witnessed a CAGR of
400% since its launch in October
2017, emblematic of the shift
in consumer behaviour of both
discovering beauty and making a
purchase online.

Darpan Sanghvi In August 2020, it acquired POPxo,

where it began the content to
Founder & CEO, MyGlamm commerce approach of the brand
and together reached out to 88
million women.
In July 2021, MyGlamm closed its
series-C funding at `530 crore, the
largest amount raised by any Indian
beauty brand in a series.
Soon after, in August 2021, it
acquired trusted parenting
platform BabyChakra and entered
the mom-baby segment
DEMOCRATISING
BEAUTY
Founded less than five years ago, in 2017, MyGlamm aims to democratise the beauty and skincare industry in
India by giving consumers the power to tell a brand what they want, thus changing the entire experience of
how women buy beauty products in India. Based on these insights it offers them the perfect solution to their
makeup needs, constantly innovating products that women may use unhesitatingly.
By the customer
‘When people talk, listen completely. Most
people never listen,’ are the famous words
of novelist Ernest Hemingway and the
ethos of brand MyGlamm that believes in
listening to its customers intently and acting
on these insights to not only offer them a
product they desire, but build with them a
relationship of trust. Over the years, it has
built a platform for women to share their
beauty stories and wish-lists, and is eager to
provide them the products that match their
expectations. Its philosophy has been to not
only reach customers but also interact with
them.
The company’s unique 3C (Content
+ Community + Commerce) approach
to business has changed and elevated
its product offerings. Over the years,
MyGlamm and POPxo (a brand it acquired
in August 2020) have built a platform for
women to share their beauty stories.
The brand believes in the importance of
getting women to actively participate in the
creation of products that address specific
beauty needs that they have. With the
help of technological advancement, it also
aims to make online beauty purchases as
comfortable and trustworthy as those at an
offline retail outlet. Today, MyGlamm has
expanded to skincare, personal care and
haircare, and will soon be stepping into the
baby care segment. In 2018, the brand also
introduced its luxury segment of ‘Manish
Malhotra Beauty by MyGlamm’ for the bridal
market in India.
Investing wise
One of the biggest challenges that
MyGlamm initially faced as a D2C brand
looking to get all transactions on to its
own platform was the cost of acquiring
customers. Darpan Sanghvi, Founder
& CEO, MyGlamm, says, “We found
the answer to that in our Content to
Commerce model after the acquisition
of POPxo. Since then, we have been
acquiring over four million customers
annually. Once you are able to acquire a
customer cost effectively, it allows you
to invest in other forms of marketing
that is geared more towards brand
building rather than sales or performance
marketing. And then it becomes a self-
perpetuating cycle of high customer
acquisition along with brand building.”
MyGlamm’s marketing team stays in
constant touch with consumers with a
focus on group calls where it takes inputs
on a variety of aspects, from ingredients
to packaging, and makes sure they match
the customer’s expectations. The brand
also seeks to offer them a memorable
online shopping experience and actively
engages them through features such as
‘Virtual Try-On’ where customers can try
lipstick shades right from their phone;
the ability to shop for products used in a
video right from the video itself; highly
customised, user-specific product offers
using Machine Learning algorithms based
on users’ behavioural patterns; data
science for content, to understand users’
reading patterns and what they are most
likely to buy after reading the content;
and QR codes on products bought
from anywhere to get incentivised and
also view makeup tutorials. “We make
consumers a part of the production
process through our monthly focus group
calls that help us understand minor
details that the consumer cares about,
straight from packaging to ingredients
and even product mechanisms. This
leaves no room for hesitation in the
customer’s mind when it comes to
purchasing the product,” says Sanghvi.
The brand also has its own influencer
community MGXOBCs, which consists of
makeup enthusiasts from all over India.
This community creates content, shares
reviews and gets additional benefits
from the brand. Influencer marketing
via Plixxo also allows it to strategically
place its content on social media. Today,
MyGlamm delivers to over 15,000 cities
in India, a number it hopes to take to
35,000-40,000 by the year end. The brand
is utilising funding to the amount of $20
million to invest in product development,
support data science and technology
research, increase offline expansion,
fund working capital requirements and
expand content creation capabilities
and digital reach of POPxo and Plixxo,
while also investing in the mother-baby
category through Baby Chakra. It is
eyeing an IPO for FY 2023-24.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 85

Ritika Jayaswal
CEO & Founder, Nourish Mantra
MILESTONE
Nourish Mantra donates 1% of
its profit to the cause of mental
health awareness, still considered
a taboo in comparison to physical
health. It also aids other NGOs
and collaborates with small, eco-
friendly businesses.
As a responsible brand, it has
recently launched its conscious
collection with plastic-neutral
packaging.
Nourish Mantra’s products do not
depend on toxic synthetics, animal
ingredients or animal tests.
Besides a domestic presence, the
brand also caters to the American
market where it has outsourced
fulfilment to a third-party
warehouse.
BEAUTIFUL FROM
WITHIN
A blend of traditional Ayurveda with modern science, skincare brand Nourish Mantra advocates holistic
wellness. Mindful in choosing ingredients for its formulations, from green herbs and fragrant oils to exotic
clays and more, Nourish Mantra’s Ayurveda-backed recipes help tackle the new-age barriers to health – air
pollution, excessive screen time, chaotic lifestyle, toxic products and much more.
Union of the senses
While working with a beauty brand in New
York, Ritika Jayaswal, CEO & Founder,
Nourish Mantra, was charmed by the idea
of meditation and introspection. Having
thrown herself into the busy city life, her
body’s needs of proper nutrition, sleep and
calm had taken a backseat. Worried and
anxious, she began her search for stillness
and started practising Vipassana – an
ancient Indian technique of meditation.
The practice involves complete silence
and solitude, giving the mind a clear path
to envision creatively. The enlightening
experience made Jayaswal realise that
what she felt on the inside was also perhaps
reflected on the outside. With these
notions of purity and self-care, she had
the urge to promote holistic beauty and
wellness, and that was the day she decided
to build a brand around it. “To reach where
I am today, I dove deep into the industry,
understanding all the ins & outs and the
complete product lifecycle. I worked with
numerous professionals and connected
with a lot of specialists. I knew skincare was
a competitive market, but understood the
actual figures and operational complexity
only after stepping into the arena,” she
shares.
Nourish Mantra believes that beauty is
a process, and hence tailors its creations
to rejuvenate and recuperate the skin
with utmost care and sensitivity sans
the rush. Its ethos is rooted in the three
principles of beauty – Roopam, Gunam
and Vayastyag. While Roopam, or external
beauty, is achieved by the suppleness of the
skin, the bounce of the hair and the sheen
of the nails, Gunam, or internal beauty,
refers to a person’s inherent traits such as
a good nature, strength of character and
intelligence that make a person attractive.
Vayastyag is the perfect union of both
Roopam and Gunam that makes beauty
timeless and ageless.
The conscious consumer
With several Ayurvedic brands already in
the D2C space, Nourish Mantra sought to
paint a more holistic picture of wellness.
It merged ancient Indian ingredients that
aid health & healing with contemporary
beauty and skincare formulae to craft
products that suited the skin, hair and
body while nourishing them from within.
Another key ingredient for Nourish Mantra
was knowing what its customers wanted
and ensuring its end product was suited to
their very needs. So it began by listening
to consumers and fusing their feedback
and suggestions with its own values.
“Customers play the biggest role in a
consumer brand. In this market, wherever
and whenever the customers spend time to
find specific solutions, we try to be there
with our holistic approach. We do not just
promote our product values but also our
brand notions. It is important for us to help
create a market of conscious consumers.
We want them to be aware of the facts
and understand the importance of the
causes and values we stand for,” explains
Jayaswal.
In the initial days, Nourish Mantra invested
in a 360-degree marketing approach to
make its presence felt. As it tested the
waters, it understood what worked best
for it and pushed for that segment with a
bigger budget. During the pandemic, the
brand went completely online and kept from
opening physical stores. It transformed
according to the need of the hour and
amplified efforts to create brand awareness
and carry out tasks under its ‘Give Back’
mantra through online connections and
collaborations. “We are seeing multiple
start-ups entering this line as the barriers
to entry are few. The real challenge in this
industry, though, is to sustain and grow,” she
adds.
The bootstrapped business currently
caters to fulfilment in house, but plans to
outsource it in the near future. It is working
to join hands with the right logistics partner
as it understands that today’s consumer
perceives quick deliveries as a must-have,
not an add-on service. “Our brand DNA is
natural, effective, conscious and holistic.
We plan to work firmly in all of these
directions. We are continuously working on
cleaner skincare innovations and to do more
under our ‘Give Back Mantra’ programme.
Our commitment to the community and
environment will only further from here,”
concludes Jayaswal.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 87
 MILESTONE
Vikas Bagaria Pee Safe has a strong pan-India
footprint in over 8,000 stores
Founder, Pee Safe and 100+ cities. It is also set to
launch its own branded outlets
through the franchise model.
Having raised a seed round of
$1 million from a group of angel
investors and Venture Catalyst,
Pee Safe received another `30
crore in Series-A funding. In
June 2021, it further raised `25
crore ($3.75 million) in a pre-
Series-B funding round.
Plans are underway to raise
another $10 million through a
Series-B round towards the end
of 2021.
Despite the pandemic, Pee Safe
has witnessed a 70% year-
on-year growth of its online
business in the fiscal 2020-
2021.
MAKING A
BREAKTHROUGH
Hygiene and wellness brand Pee Safe has been making strides ever since inception. It first disrupted the
category by launching the toilet seat sanitiser spray that went on to be a bestseller. The product set the
tone for what was to come – a vast bouquet of hygiene and wellness offerings for both men and women that
solved everyday problems simply and innovatively. The brand has also been known to hold conversations
on essential subjects often considered taboo.

Belling the cat

The journey of Pee Safe, which began with
the launch of the toilet seat sanitiser spray,
was driven by a personal experience in the
family. Public washrooms have often been
melting pots of infection, the most common
being UTI. Vikas Bagaria, Founder, Pee
Safe, through the experiences of his wife,
noted that women were apprehensive of
using such washrooms and didn’t seem to
have a solution to dealing with the menace.
His resolve and intellect thus led to the
ideation of the toilet seat sanitiser spray
that was received with an overwhelmingly
positive response. Initially made popular
through word-of-mouth advertising, the
brand soon began disrupting the hygiene
and wellness ecosystem by diversifying
into other product categories, including
eco-friendly sanitary pads, organic
tampons, menstrual cups and panty liners;
a maternity care line of breast pads;
intimate hygiene products for both men and
women; and other sub-personal hygiene
segments through products like Palm Safe
and Moskito Safe apart from anti-pollution
masks.
At the onset, Pee Safe had several
challenges to overcome and taboos to
banish. Personal hygiene had always
been one of the major problem areas in
India and a growing concern during the
pandemic. Feminine hygiene, too, had been
unduly neglected and matters related to
it considered taboo. The third was male
hygiene and the general awareness around
it. In India, the neglect of hygiene among
men was considered a sign of manliness.
So, a brand wanting to make its mark in the
category had to first educate the audience
of the importance of everyday hygiene. “It
was not just a disruptive product idea and
timing that worked in our favour; we have
always strived to address what has not been
discussed out in the open. For instance, we
recently launched an online platform named
The Pleasure Playbook by Domina. The idea
is to build a safe and exclusive community
for women to hold conversations on
personal topics such as sex, health and
wellness. We have been able to empower
women to speak up about these issues and
want to continue challenging taboos and
raising awareness,” says Bagaria.
Advocate, not merely sell
The personal hygiene sector is directly
related to innovation. Based on such
values, through its journey, the brand has
been creating smart solutions to unsifted
problems. With the market for hygiene
and wellness expanding, accelerated by
the pandemic, Pee Safe, too, is planning
to expand its reach on both online and
offline channels. “There are also detailed
plans to run intensive hygiene awareness
campaigns on a pan India level. We wish to
ensure that personal hygiene and sanitation
products are available in every part of the
country and people don’t need to risk facing
health problems due to lack of products
or awareness,” says Bagaria. The brand
regularly undertakes popular campaigns to
reach out to its target group. Its campaigns,
including the Pee Room Conversations, have
helped reach more than 2.5 million women
across India. Their digital promotions such
as #HerPwr, #IHave, #OwnTheRed and
#TakeCareMaa have also created a huge
impact. Pee Safe is well-known for its
impactful micro-influencer and effective
cause-leadership today.
Guided by the mantra of keeping things
simple, Pee Safe has refrained from
negatively using its goodwill by focusing
more on awareness campaigns and sharing
valuable information through Social
Media. “Our marketing strategy revolves
around digital communication and using
our outreach to connect with consumers.
The aim is to spread awareness about the
importance of sanitisation and educating
people about how the products help
them. No matter how much we wish, the
current pandemic is not the last or the only
contagion to affect our world. In such a
scenario, our products such as sanitisers,
surface disinfectants, face masks, etc., will
continue witnessing market expansion in
the years to come,” says Bagaria.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 89

 MILESTONE
Shankar Prasad Plum enjoys a year-on-year
revenue growth of 2.5x,
CEO, Plum matched by a similar growth
of its customer base.
While it began with skincare,
the brand is now present in
haircare, bath & body (with
Plum BodyLovin’), makeup
and men’s care (with brand
Phy) segments as well.
The brand is also actively
working to expand
internationally.
Back in 2014, Plum was
the first brand to say no to
fairness creams. It was also
the first brand to give 1% of
its revenue to earth-friendly
causes.
ON ITS METTLE
Founded in July 2014, beauty & personal care brand Plum soon rose to be a name to reckon with. Its founders
always believed in taking a holistic view of consumer, brand and product, and this has been the driving force
behind the company, which has grown to be a 150-member-strong organisation from just three back in the day.
The brand continues to stay true to its ethos of helping people choose and champion real goodness.
The certainty of conviction
It was 1997 when Shankar Prasad, CEO,
Plum, began his career in the beauty
& personal care industry. Plum is the
culmination of his personal journey – an
amalgamation of his core values, knowledge
as an engineer, experience of working in
the personal care space and his passion for
creating joyful things that people identify
with. Sharing the story of the brand, he
says, “We started small, in a 500 sqft
apartment, with just a table and a couple
of chairs. We launched with just one SKU
in July 2014, and quickly followed it with
14 others in September. Two years in, we
still had just three of us multi-tasking our
way to glory and having loads of fun. It’s
only after four years that we moved to our
first small office.” Prasad takes pride in
how the initial team believed in what it was
doing, approaching work with passion,
commitment and freshness of thought.
Having grown to a 150-member organisation
today, what has kept them going is the love
and trust that customers place on their
products.
Over time, as the market evolved, so did
challenges for the brand. On the one hand,
finding clean ingredients and manufacturers
who would align to Plum’s way of working
was a challenge; on the other, building
a brand was equally testing and still is a
large part of where the founders spend
their time and effort. “We learnt from our
customers as to what their needs are. Most
of our top-sellers are created in response
to specific demands from our customers.
For us, product quality, brand consistency &
dependability and innovation are central to
what Plum is about. When a customer picks
a Plum, she’s assured that she’s getting a
thoughtfully created, delightfully detailed
product that’s honest about who it is for,
what it does and what it doesn’t,” he says.
One brand, One message
Staying true to what Plum is about - helping
people choose and champion real goodness
- is the most important part of marketing
at Plum, especially with the significant
increase in awareness amongst consumers
about products and ingredients. Given its
150+ SKUs, it’s often a challenge for the
team to allocate budgets and therefore,
picks and chooses what they are spending
on taking into account time of the year, new
launches, category focus, etc. “We aim to
have consistent yet pertinent messaging at
all levels of the funnel,” says Prasad.
The brand is also backed by strong
customer support built as an empowered,
passionate, responsive team with quick
resolution and escalation mechanisms.
Similarly, its Social Media team, also
customer-facing, is a bunch of high-energy
individuals with a passion for engaging with
followers. “During the pandemic, we had to
adjust to all of us working from home, often
with patchy internet. We have weekly catch-
ups across the wider customer support
team, including our supply chain, quality and
marketing teams, so that any complaints
and issues are discussed, coordinated
and resolved,” adds the CEO. Plum’s pick &
pack operations as well as logistics are fully
outsourced.
Prasad believes that capital is a must-
have strategic resource that needs to be
accessed and deployed the right way. “This
is the holy grail for any CEO and CFO. It’s
no different in the D2C or online beauty
ecosystem. Sure, we are seeing high activity
levels now and therefore, we, too, are
adapting to what’s happening in the broader
market,” he adds.
In terms of product, Plum’s founders love
to innovate by marrying delightful textures
with efficacy, safety with performance,
and reliability with convenience. All the
categories that the brand is present in, in
particular the mass-premium segment that
it plays in, are exhibiting strong double-
digit growth led by online channels. “We
will continue to focus on our core brands
and core categories, and aim to make
our brands stronger in all the markets
they operate in. While India itself is a 10x
opportunity, we are actively working on
expanding internationally as well,” Prasad
concludes.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 91
 MILESTONE
Rustic Art has been witnessing a
year-on-year growth in revenue
between 40% and 50%. Its
customer base has also grown
three-fold since the time of its
establishment.
Its state-of-the-art manufacturing
Sunita Jaju facility is GMP-certified, powered
by solar energy, and recycles every
Founder, Rustic Art and drop of wastewater it produces.

Surabhi Jaju Over 75% of the employees at

Rustic Art are women. The brand
Director, Rustic Art also believes in hiring locally, and
all its employees have thus been
locally hired.
Spreading its message of a
sustainable way of life, the brand
will soon be expanding overseas
into the US, Middle East, Mauritius
and Australia.
LESS IS MORE
Rustic Art first attempted to enter the physical retail market with its beauty and personal care line in the early
2000s, but driven by a lack of awareness among consumers at the time about safe-to-use products that were
manufactured without harming the environment, the brand faced resistance and had limited reach. Then, in 2014,
it entered the e-commerce space and hasn’t looked back since. Its customer base, too, has grown three times
since then.
Green to go
Brains behind the brand, Sunita Jaju,
Founder, Rustic Art, post her Masters
in Sustainable Development, observed
how toxins from day-to-day personal
care items were not only hampering the
health of the people using them but also
harming the environment. She wanted to
solve the problem by bringing to people
the convenience and joy of sustainable
living while offering the results of modern
products. Jaju believed that age-old
practices in the field were neither scalable
nor practical with changing times, hence,
wanted her brand – Rustic Art – to be
a modern solution that was based on
traditional principles.
Her daughter and Rustic Art Director,
Surabhi Jaju says, “We are on a mission to
make sustainability a way of life. The only
things we have to give to the future are our
planet and values. Rustic Art ensures that
both these entities go a long way. We have
been creating awareness and making people
realise the importance of saving the planet
at an individual level through innovation in
personal hygiene for all. We aim to create
a sustainable product line with everything
that an individual and their home needs.”
Rustic Art currently offers products under
six categories - personal care, beauty, baby
care, home care, menstrual hygiene and
pet care, and will soon launch a range of
cosmetics, too.
Though the brand began its journey by
first entering the space of physical retail,
it soon realised that making its way into
e-commerce would help it capture a bigger
customer base, especially in the initial years.
“This became even more crucial when we
launched menstrual cups in 2015. We spoke
to each and every customer, resolved their
queries even in the middle of the night,
and held their hand through the learning
curve. We have a very active customer care
team that interacts via email, WhatsApp
and Social Media. The rise of Social Media
enabled us to be in close contact with our
customers, understand their needs and
feedback, and build a strong relationship.
To date, our loyal customers are the ones
who inspire us to create new products.
They are our biggest fans and also our best
critics which, in our opinion, is the best
combination,” says Surabhi.
Getting into details
The team at Rustic Art constantly
researches new ingredients and textures,
and innovates on its formulations. Currently,
the brand has 135 SKUs, with more to be
added soon. Its customer-first approach
to innovation also helps it hit the nail on
the head when it comes to resolving issues
they face with their personal care. “Our
foremost priority while formulating any
product is ingredients. Most of our R&D
time is dedicated towards researching the
efficacy and source of the ingredient. Once
we are satisfied about its origin and quality,
we go on to create a product with it. We also
pay attention to what our consumers have
to say. We make every effort to provide the
highest quality product at a fair and correct
price across all platforms. Before going to
market, we test all of our goods in-house
as well as with a focus group for at least six
months. This guarantees that the product
delivers on its promise. To assure customers
convenience, we have made items available
in a variety of formats, including bulk
packing, zero-waste stores, retail stores,
online, and even via direct orders from a
few long-term, loyal customers,” explains
Surabhi.
Rustic Art believes in the principle of
‘less is more’, a philosophy it adapts when
engineering products. Its cruelty-free
and vegan products are constantly being
innovated on to be low-waste alternatives
for everyday use. The bootstrapped brand’s
marketing strategy is also mostly based
on educating more and more people about
a toxin-free, healthy life. “We are firm
believers of transparency and our marketing
efforts revolve around the same. We don’t
promise overnight miracles; we focus on
facts and the virtues of ingredients, and the
results that our formulae deliver,” concludes
Surabhi.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 93

Chaitanya Nallan
Co-Founder & CEO, SkinKraft Laboratories
MILESTONE
Close to a million consumers
have already registered and
taken SkinKraft’s unique SkinID
questionnaire for an in-depth
analysis of their skin. On an average,
5,000-6,000 people take the
questionnaire every day.
With revenue of `155 crore, the
brand has seen an exponential
growth over the last year and is
looking to double its revenue again
this year. It has been witnessing a
month-on-month revenue growth of
12-15%.
It currently has 8,50,000 registered
users with repeat rates as high as
40%.
With its energies focused on
distribution, SkinKraft is available on
marketplaces and social platforms
like Purplle, Flipkart, Trell, Health
& Glow and Tata Cliq, as well as
Amazon India, US and the Middle
East.
GOING BEYOND FACE
VALUE
Science-backed and data-driven, skincare brand SkinKraft entered the market with one agenda – to
provide consumers with a customised skincare regimen by getting to know their skin type, habits and
lifestyle even better. It did not merely want to steer clear of manufacturing generic products that were
mass-produced and did not take into account the unique skin identity of consumers, but also wanted
customers to understand their skin needs and the importance of tailored regimes.

Into the depths

“SkinKraft was born out of two undeniable
truths about the current skincare industry,”
says Chaitanya Nallan, Co-Founder &
CEO, SkinKraft Laboratories. The first
truth, he continues, was customers trying
to find even basic skincare products and
often being caught in an unrewarding
cycle of experimentation. “The second,
despite growing levels of frustration
among their consumers, was skincare
brands continuously churning out generic
formulations catering to the mass market,”
Nallan adds. The ideation of the brand
thus lay in the overwhelming number of
queries from people regarding skincare.
“We found that ideal skincare begins
with an understanding of the skin and its
characteristics, issues and needs. This
realisation resulted in the creation of
SkinKraft, a dermatologically approved and
scientifically backed customised skincare
regimen. Over 10,000 hours of research
across India, Japan and Taiwan went into
laying the foundation of what was to come,”
he says.
Though customised beauty is a laborious
process, SkinKraft has incorporated
technological innovations into its process
to craft bespoke regimens for its discerning
customers. Its SkinID questionnaire is
an in-depth analysis of their skin type,
skin troubles, lifestyle, etc., measuring
each parameter that can affect the skin’s
health. “The process is similar to that of
a dermatologist and based on the result
or skin ID, products are suggested to the
customer,” Nallan shares.
But, educating the customer on the
importance of customisation was initially a
challenge for the brand. “When we started,
the main challenge was to create awareness
around the new and innovative concept of
customisation. It was about breaking the
customer’s habit of buying generic, off-the-
shelf products or keyword-centric products.
Instead of positioning ourselves in the
market, what we did was drive awareness
and conversation around the subcategory of
customisation itself -- how it differed from
the traditional setup and more importantly,
empowering the customers with the
knowledge and hence the confidence of
picking the right products,” shares Nallan.
First educate, then sell
SkinKraft is a data driven cosmetic company
that brings customisation to the forefront.
It understands the exasperation that stems
from the prevalent trial & error approach
that most women engage in, and it aims
to put an end to it. SkinKraft products
contain successfully tested ingredients to
enhance the skin’s current health. For every
new customer, the brand taps Artificial
Intelligence (AI)-driven technology to provide
dermatologically approved and customised
skincare solutions to customers. Most
SkinKraft customers belong to tier-I cities
like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and
Hyderabad. In the last few years, it has also
seen an increased interest in customised
skincare using AI and ML. “Our model’s
accuracy is 75-95 per cent for various
categories of product, and that’s improving
with time and more feedback,” claims Nallan.
The company has seen significant growth
during the pandemic and has expanded its
distribution channels even further. He adds,
“The pandemic simply shifted the interest
of consumers and made home delivery even
more important. Even as we expected a
growth, due to COVID, the pace increased as
we relied primarily on digital platforms.”
The heavily content-driven brand
advocates and promotes the idea of
customisation by explaining product
ingredients and skincare issues,
empowering customers to find the product
and regime that suits them best. It uses
platforms like Instagram, Facebook,
YouTube, and the television to convey its
message. The brand also ensures that its
customers enjoy a positive end-to-end
experience, and fulfils orders from its own
warehouse. It is working round the clock to
ensure presence on all key platforms, and
also expanding its product portfolio to other
categories to cater to demands on such
platforms. SkinKraft is expanding beyond
topical creams, lotions, serums and oils to
provide ingestibles like effervescent, nano
strips and gummies. It has also recently
launched customised nutrition supplements
to cater to all nutrient deficiencies and
boost immunity.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 95

Prabhmeher Singh Anondeep Ganguly
Co-founder and CFO, Skin Pot Co-founder and CEO, Skin Pot

MILESTONE
Skin Pot has witnessed year-on-
year revenue growth of 30%.
Its customer base, too, has
expanded at the rate of 60% over
the same period.
The brand allocates `2.5 lakh for
marketing and its technology
investments have touched `15
lakh.
With the objective of being a
global name, Skin Pot plans to
soon expand into international
markets.
COMFORTABLE IN
THEIR SKIN
When Skin Pot entered the market, it wanted to shatter the myth that the fragrance of a product is directly
related to its effectiveness. The journey had begun with the search for scientifically designed skincare
products that were efficacious and did not advocate the idea of elaborate regimens to get perfect
skin elasticity, tone and balance. Skin Pot wanted to deliver clinically effective, biocompatible skincare
formulations without the ubiquitous toxins, sensitisers and irritants.

A more certain basis

“It all started during the lockdown when
we tried several Indian and international
skincare brands to solve our skin issues
of enlarged pores and pigmentation.
Two weeks into the regime, we realised
that our efforts went futile. So, coming
from a scientific background, we took it
upon ourselves to solve our issues,” says
Prabhmeher Singh, Co-founder and CFO,
Skin Pot while also speaking on behalf of
Anondeep Ganguly, Co-founder and CEO,
Skin Pot.
Ganguly’s father, a scientist and specialist
in plant molecules, skin diagnosis,
biomarkers and skin treatment for more
than 40 years, had a strong network of
scientists who helped the founding duo
dive deep into the issue to find solutions to
their skin problems. They realised that most
combinations of essential oils were harmful
to the skin and not beneficial as claimed,
and to counter that they established Skin
Pot. Its formulations have pre, post and
probiotic effects to help get healthy skin
microbes back to balance, and also use a
unique liposomal technology that helps
to deliver identical skin molecules at the
right skin levels. The hybrid formulae
help regenerate, repair and protect skin
by maintaining the skin micro biome. Its
products contain skin microbiota-igniting
technology with the help of plant stem
cells that helps to ignite skin micro biomes,
leaving users with healthy and radiant skin.
They target the root cause of skin issues
like eczema, acne and dry skin, even fine
lines and UV damage caused due to the
imbalance in the skin micro biome.
One of the main challenges the duo
initially faced was banishing the myth that
better the fragrance, the more effective
the product. The market, at the time, was
laden with perfumed products that had
essential oils – an idea that Skin Pot did not
advocate. “People have related fragrance
to the product’s goodness for several
years. We are trying to break the myth that
essential oils are good for the skin through
our non-fragrant products. Our serums
are odourless and do not contain essential
oils. We are here to make a difference in
the beauty industry to make women feel
confident in their skin. We want to inspire
beauty that comes with a sense of self.
Our differentiation lies in being a clinical,
clean beauty brand with evidence-based
skincare because we are using high science
ingredients that are clinically tested and
proven,” says Singh.
Communication is key
As a brand, Skin Pot is more focused on
communicating with its customers and
understanding them. It is developing
technology to listen at scale and improve
discoverability, to co-create products with
customers as well as increase visibility
across all online platforms. “We feel it is very
important to get your brand narrative right
while understanding your cohort. To achieve
a sharp funnel, you need to understand the
delicate dance between data and content. If
you get this play right, one definitely has the
right to win,” Singh believes.
The customer’s experience is also vital
for building trust in the brand. Skin Pot uses
heavy performance tools and nano delivery
warehouses to cut down on delivery time.
“The benefit of being a D2C brand is that we
can directly interact with our consumers
and understand their feedback and scope
of improvement. We are active on Social
Media and all digital channels,” Singh adds.
Given the kind of growth that e-commerce
has witnessed, the brand expects the
ecosystem to only get stronger from here
and Indian logistics on a par with global
practices.
Skin Pot will soon look to test international
waters once the pandemic is on the
downturn. “That said, we are not looking to
offer a viral product to the skincare market,
and we are also not into mass production.
Instead, we believe in slow and sustainable
growth by following our passion for science
and innovation. We believe in creating more
innovative formulations to revolutionise
the beauty industry with our formulations,”
concludes Singh.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 97

 MILESTONE
Dr Chytra Anand Having been in the market for
only eight months, Skin Q has
Founder, Skin Q seen strong month-on-month
revenue growth between
25% and 30% in the last two
quarters.
The brand has also been
witnessing a strong
customer retention and
has a monthly organic
customer acquisition rate
of 60% through community
engagement.
Skin Q is India’s first
dermatologist-formulated
active skincare brand for
Indian skin.
Presently available for
purchase through its own
website and marketplaces, it
will soon be available through
its Skin Q Mirror App.
A PRECISE FORMULA
Launched a mere eight months back, home-grown skincare brand Skin Q aims to disrupt the category with
its multiple actives-based products and a customer-centric strategy that focuses on being available to the
consumer round the clock through select channels. It also encourages its website visitors to engage over a
quick assessment of their skin type and what they seek from a product, hand-holding them through a fitting
skincare regime.
Timeless ingredients
Having practised for over 15 years in the field
of cosmetic dermatology, Skin Q Founder
Dr Chytra Anand felt the need for a
customised skincare solution that targeted
the concerns of people through evidence
and science-based products. She envisaged
a skincare range that would focus on the
efficacy of active ingredients through an
expertly crafted cocktail of three or more
active ingredients as opposed to the single
active-based products that were already
available in the market, combined delicately
to optimise penetration and target skin
problems with a previously unseen
precision. “The Skin Q philosophy is that
ingredients don’t just fall as monochromatic,
good or bad choices. Our fundamental
philosophy is to speak to the nuance of
Indian skin concerns & solution and to give
our consumers all the information they need
to be educated,” says Dr Anand.
Skin Q determinedly refuses to mislabel its
ingredients and strictly rejects the idea of
formulating skincare products with banned,
ambiguous or controversial ingredients,
therefore being free of parabens, silicones,
phthalates, PEG, formaldehyde as well as
artificial colours and fragrances, even at
the risk of the final product having a less-
than-attractive texture, colour or scent.
“Instead, we choose powerful, good-for-skin
ingredients that are dermatology-backed
and clinically tested. We also go through
rigorous rounds of clinical testing to ensure
our final formulae are not only clean, safe
and stable, but also seriously effective,
discernible and performance driven,” shares
Dr Anand.
But, creating awareness and educating
people on choosing the right product for
their skin type has been a continuous
challenge for Skin Q. Dr Anand says, “The
Indian skin type is different from that of the
rest of the world. We need to recognise this
and care for our skin accordingly. With a
plethora of options available in the market,
the challenge lies in helping people make
the right choice and staying consistent with
their skin care regimen to see results.” Skin
Q is India’s first Made Safe-certified active
skincare due to the strength and precision
of its formulations.
Driving conversations
Skin Q aims to be customer-centric, which
gets reflected in its personalised, one-
on-one engagement strategy and the
conversational commerce engine it has had
in place from day one. “When someone lands
up at our website, they’re encouraged to ask
questions and have a two-way conversation.
We first ask them about their skin type
and tone, their top three skin goals, and
what they seek. Our people aren’t really
trained to make a sale, they’re trained to
inform on science, hand-hold and educate,
as a trusted guardian of the customer’s
skincare regimen and journey,” explains
Dr Anand. The brand now wishes to take
this personalisation and contextualisation
to scale through technology, building
better customer connections, trust and
transparency. But, in doing that, it doesn’t
intend to be everywhere, with the belief
that the move would dilute its ability to
be available round the clock. Instead, it
relies on the power of its Social Media
handles and direct-to-consumer website
experience to best engage with consumers
via experiential customer chat & support
platforms equipped to provide tactile
feedback.
The brand has also integrated with
leading players to handle logistics and
fulfilment. It claims to reach any corner
of India within 24-48 hours, allowing
it to focus on delivering a world-class
customer experience. Skin Q has
also sharpened its focus on product
development, R&D, technology, patenting
formulas and tracing the origins of its
ingredients. Skin Q is now working to
build a strong portfolio of cross-category
products such as supplements, haircare
and personal care that would resonate
with its customer base. The brand has also
started working on a sustainable supply
chain with ethically sourced ingredients,
carbon neutrality, safe and sustainable
packaging. “We will also double down
on community building by harnessing
the energy of Social Media, and will try
building one of the first brand-agnostic
peer beauty communities to solve skin
problems and allow people to have
unfiltered authentic conversations with
others on their favourite brands and topics
of skincare,” concludes Dr Anand.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 99

Vineeta Singh
CEO and Co-founder, SUGAR Cosmetics
MILESTONE
In 2019, SUGAR Cosmetics received
`75 crore in Series B funding from
marquee investors such as A91
Partners and India Quotient. Then,
in 2021, it received a `153 crore ($21
million) Series C funding round led
by Elevation Capital (formerly, SAIF
Partners), with existing investors
A91 Partners, India Quotient and
Stride Ventures.
Besides a massive online presence
through its own website and
App as well as e-marketplaces,
SUGAR is present at 30,000+ retail
touchpoints across 130+ cities
pan India through exclusive brand
outlets, brand-owned kiosks and
large-format retailers.
The company scaled net revenues
to almost twice as much, from over
`57 crore in FY19 to over `105 crore
in FY20, at an 85% year-on-year
growth rate.
SUGAR’s customer base has also
grown exponentially over the years.
Today, it has a digital fan base of
over 5 million customers besides a
strong retail customer base across
the country and internationally.
GIVING VOICE TO
IDEAS
SUGAR Cosmetics entered the Indian market in mid-2015 to enable women to explore, crack the code and
relish the matchless beauty products exclusively recommended by beauty connoisseurs. This was a time
when the Indian beauty industry was dominated by multinational brands of which only few actually had a
range that suited the Indian complexion and skin tone.
Making a move
Indian millennial women started wearing
make-up regularly only in the last decade to
feel more confident, powerful and happier
about themselves. Their biggest pain was
that they’d have to reapply their make-up
through the day and nothing would last
them from morning to night. Also, many
global brands had shades that weren’t
designed keeping Indian women in mind
and that made a huge difference to how
flattering or not the product looked on
them. So, when SUGAR launched matte,
long-lasting make-up with shades for India,
the brand grew virally through women
talking about it on Instagram. But, how
did it all begin? Vineeta Singh, CEO and
Co-founder, SUGAR Cosmetics, says, “I’ve
always felt very strongly about building
something with women as the core target
audience. I remember making many
women-centric business plans - lingerie,
athleisure and beauty - on paper as a naive
new B-school graduate. It was the idea of
beauty subscriptions that actually got me all
excited! The beauty industry was expanding
and moving towards a younger demographic
that engaged on digital media to authentic
products and content - the perfect direct-
to-consumer recipe. Of course, it took us
years to find the elusive product-market fit,
but every hit & miss has shaped SUGAR to
what it is today.”
A challenge that SUGAR faced initially,
like many other businesses, was working
capital. Managing the credit cycle was key
to keeping the working capital cycle to a
bare minimum, which in turn would ensure
efficient capital use and rotation. “With little
funding when we had started, this was really
tough. There were times when we were out
of stock and yet couldn’t order a new batch
of products because we just didn’t have the
money. Today, we have a dedicated team
that monitors this daily and proactively
intervenes to help our trade partners ease
and improve our cash flows,” adds Singh.
SUGAR Cosmetics products stand for
striking shades that perfectly suit every
Indian skin tone, extreme colour payoff and
long-lasting formulas. The product range
extends from liquid and bullet to crayon
and pencil formats in lipsticks; liquid, stick
and cushion formats in foundations; and
an array of unique skincare that is water-
based, clay-based or charcoal-based,
especially designed for young Indian
women.
Anchored in content
SUGAR started off as a digital-first brand,
and over the years has dabbled with
everything from performance to influencer
to affiliate marketing. But, if there’s one
overarching theme across everything it
does, it’s content. Singh adds, “I think that
building a brand involves building a voice
before you build sales. And a voice is only
as powerful as the content it articulates
consistently and clearly across time,
geographies and channels. Hence, we have
always focused on curating rich content
that is engaging for the audience and not
very product-centric.” Today, SUGAR has an
Instagram following of over 1.7 million!
Marketing the product effectively has
also played a pivotal role in determining the
success of the D2C brand. “Performance
marketing and a laser-sharp focus on
bottom-of-the-funnel metrics like add-to-
cart and conversion rate can help a D2C
brand scale rapidly. At SUGAR, we have
found a larger value unlocked by investing
in a solid content & earned media strategy
that can organically expand top-of-the-
funnel metrics via high-quality traffic and
assets that keep on giving,” says Singh.
Besides marketing, and induced by the
pandemic, logistics and fulfilment have
become a key aspect for brands. SUGAR’s
central warehouse is operated in-house
out of Mumbai with one 3PL warehouse in
Delhi. All coordination onwards and returns
are managed by a team that sits out of its
headquarter that is equipped with real-
time data and tracking metrics for faster
turnaround times.
Talking about the future, Singh
says, “Strengthening our core pillars of
distribution, product, content & community
building will be key. Our focus will be on
curating strong content that caters to
individual platforms. We will also be looking
at various innovative collaborations to
strengthen our reach and engagement with
the consumers.”
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 101
 MILESTONE
With an IPO a goal in the future, The
Ayurveda Co. is currently taking
baby steps towards the initial seed
round of funding.
Its marketing spends have been
ever-increasing, growing from `5

Shreedha Singh lakh prior to the COVID-19 pandemic

to `25 lakh and `80 lakh during and
Co-founder, TAC post the lockdowns, respectively.
The brand has seen 100% year-
on-year growth in revenue over
its short lifespan and an equally
appealing growth in its on-ground
customer base at 15x.
TAC has also been investing
significantly in technology, and
estimates an average annual
investment of `50 lakh.
UPPING THE WELLNESS
QUOTIENT
Launched in 2019, The Ayurveda Co. (TAC) entered the personal care category with the intent to employ the time-
tested science of Ayurveda to create modern solutions to skincare that would bode well with consumers. It was
driven by its ethos of bridging the gap between the masses and the classes, a divide that was prevalent in the early
days of its inception, in the penetration of Ayurveda and Ayurvedic skincare products.
Making a match
The digitalisation of beauty products &
services and an ever-growing awareness
about them triggered the founding of The
Ayurveda Co. Not just the product, even
the ideation of the brand was a result of the
convergence of two different schools of
thought - one of valued medical intervention
and the other of efficacious Ayurveda
practices. The result – a functional blend
of the modern and traditional! “ Param
Bhargava (Founder, TAC) and I have had
a different upbringing when it comes to
wellness. Param hails from a family of
doctors and values medical intervention,
and my mother has always been a keen
follower of traditional Ayurvedic practices.
So, when Ayurvedic treatment worked for
my chronic skin condition for good, we
decided such impactful products should be
made readily available in the market,” shares
Shreedha Singh, Co-founder, TAC.
The duo noted that modern science and
Ayurveda complemented each other and
could yield effective and sustainable results.
So, they set out to study ancient wellness
practices, connected with Ayurveda
consultants, and researched development
centres for viable ways to combine the two
and manufacture products that showed
efficient results in a shorter period. More
than 750 participants with various skin,
hair, and body types tested the first set,
and after considering their concerns and
feedback, TAC bettered the end product.
“This practice continues even today, with
every product personally verified. With TAC
we are taking steeper steps into Ayurveda,
beyond beauty and wellness, and venturing
into health, nutrition and sexual wellness
to accentuate the wellness quotient while
being extremely result-oriented, fuss-free
and effective,” says Singh. With innovation
and modernisation, Ayurveda remains the
guiding star of their mission as they build an
ecosystem around it.
Relatable content
Customer-centricity is the heart & soul
of team TAC. It strives to provide as many
touchpoints to its consumers as it possibly
can through email, SMS, Social Media,
telecalling and the works. “The beauty of a
D2C brand is that the customer is as close
to you as your computer or mobile phone,
just a click away! Being able to connect
with them, take their feedback and words of
appreciation helps us improve our product
and reach, and reassures us of our work
being on the right path,” says Singh. Their
marketing efforts, too, are aligned with the
pillars of TAC, educating consumers to take
informed decisions. “Initially, personal care
and beauty were not welcome in the online
sphere considering the religious on-hands
experience people desired. But, the ability
to make them smell and feel the products
through multiple visual mediums even
before the purchase has contributed to the
rage it is now. We believe that consumers
today are aware individuals, and we wish
to educate them to make sound, informed
decisions about everything they choose
for a quality life. We believe in being honest
in our communication, creating relatable
and informative content through influencer
marketing, and building a strong community
to give the right push,” says Singh.
With a regionally available fulfilment
model and solid logistics partners, TAC has
developed a robust delivery apparatus.
During the COVID wave, with the influx of
orders, all its mediums of communication
were available to customers round the
clock. Singh adds, “Our customers were
equally cooperative and understanding
of the unprecedented situation causing
delay in order delivery and other human
errors. To cater to the changing sentiments
of consumers leaning towards clean and
natural self-care products, we developed
TAC from mass-prestige class to mass-
premium.”
In the future, and having created traction
through e-commerce, The Ayurveda
Co. looks to balance its presence with
penetration in the offline market as well. “We
are on a mission to take Ayurveda from India
to the world and go global with the Science
of Life in modern times. In the process,
we will strive to promote the right product
at the right price and at the right time,”
concludes Singh.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 103
 MILESTONE
Colette Austin Since the launch of its website in
December 2019, The Skin Pantry
Founder, The Skin Pantry has witnessed a 20% month-
on-month growth in revenue, to
be further optimised by fresh
launches in existing and new
categories.
The month-on-month growth
in customer base has also been
between 20% and 30%, owing
largely to the brand’s marketing
efforts. Its customers regularly
support its growth through
repurchases and word-of-mouth
referrals.
The Skin Pantry will soon launch
‘Pantwee’, its range of certified,
organic massage oils and
moisturisers for toddlers.
The brand’s factory is possibly
the only one permitted in the
heart of Mumbai due to zero
emissions and zero chemical
waste.
FOOD FOR THE SKIN
Founded in a studio kitchen by Colette Austin in 2015, The Skin Pantry is part of a growing movement
towards a future where all beauty is clean beauty. Its mission is to get safer products into the hands of
consumers. Austin’s 30-plus years in advertising and brand identity design have been instrumental in
positioning, packaging and creating a distinctive personality for The Skin Pantry. Today, the brand is part of
an invested partnership firm - The Skin Mill LLC.

A world of good
True to its name, The Skin Pantry, Founded
by Colette Austin, began production in a
studio kitchen, with limited ingredients and
a sterling will to not be taken for a ride by
the dubiously ‘natural’ products available in
the market that had little to do with anything
organic. A few health setbacks early in the
day had led Austin to re-look at her food
and personal care choices, and the lack of
trustworthy options in the market forced
her to use ingredients readily available
in her kitchen to create emulsions and
creams. “At first I made the products for
myself, but there was always lots left over,
so jars were filled and handed out to family
and friends to try out. Soon, requests were
made for refills, which was when I decided
to take it seriously and create a brand. Quite
naturally, the name ‘The Skin Pantry’ came
to mind, simply because ingredients from
the kitchen larder and cabinets were used to
formulate the products,” she shares.
The Skin Pantry’s range of handcrafted
skincare products made fresh to order in
micro batches with certified organic, natural
and plant-based ingredients are created on
the belief that beauty should be good for you!
Its range includes the signature non-soap
smoothie face washes, face moisturisers,
face & body scrubs, body milks and body
butters. It uses neither chemical ingredients
nor chemical preservatives to ‘pickle’ its
products for years, which is why they have a
shelf life of three months. The preservatives
and emulsifiers used are Ecocert-certified
and organic, 100 per cent plant and vegetable
based, without synthetic stabilisers,
petrochemicals, fillers, sulphates, silicones
or parabens. The vegan products are also
cruelty-free. “Formulate, advocate and
educate - internally, that’s our motto for
creating products that truly perform while
we hold ourselves to unparalleled standards
of safety,” adds Austin.
Being within eyeshot
The Skin Pantry manufactures, markets,
sells and ships its own products. The almost
exclusively digital-first brand engages with
customers through multiple channels,
including influencer and micro-influencer
marketing, the creation of immersive and
dynamic content spread across Social Media
channels, effective PR and performance
marketing initiatives, regular sampling
both with consumers and influential
reviewers & bloggers, engagement of brand
ambassadors conducting regular pop-ups
at major cities, frequent cross-promotional
activities with like-minded brands on
Social Media, factory pop-ups and much
more. The brand also claims to offer its
customers rapid turnaround support that
includes prompt assistance with respect
to product enquiries, super-fast deliveries
and hassle-free returns. “Every effort is
made to ensure the fulfilment of customer
orders is timely and seamless. Our focus
is also to ship orders on the same day, in
eco-friendly packaging, ensuring end-to-
end order visibility. We enable the fulfilment
process by choosing to partner with the
best logistics team as well as a continuous
communication with the customer at every
level,” shares Austin.
With the pandemic shifting the focus of
Indian consumers from makeup to skincare,
making them flock to online marketplaces
and portals, The Skin Pantry resolved to
make its website more customer-friendly
with fewer clicks, easier navigation and a
smooth, seamless payment process.
The Founder believes that the growth they
are witnessing in the organic and natural
skincare space is just the tip of the iceberg,
and will be multi-fold in the coming years,
outpacing the growth rate of conventional
skincare products. In the future, The Skin
Pantry aims to be an Ecocert-certified
organic skincare brand with a global
presence and/ or worldwide franchises.
It also aims to expand its franchise into
several other product ranges for both
women and men. “We will continue to stay
true to our objective of creating a brand of
unparalleled integrity, while catering to the
ever-changing customer needs through our
versatile range of clean beauty products,”
concludes Austin.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 105

 MILESTONE
Saloni Anand Within two years of its launch,
over 75,000 people had used
Co-Founder, Traya the Traya online diagnosis
algorithm.
Though an IPO does not fit
into its equation yet, Traya has
already received its seed round
of funding and will be raising
funding again in the near future.
Close to 40% of the seed
capital the brand received
was invested in technology
development, and the rest
in R&D as well as product
development.
The brand’s month-on-month
revenue growth has been
approximately 20% and its
customer base has grown
ten-fold in a year, since August
2020.
KEEP YOUR HAIR ON
Through its well-researched customised solutions for hair loss, D2C brand Traya vows to do three things
differently – one, to avoid making wrongful claims and be honest with customers; two, to create a holistic
treatment that embodies the benefits of prescription medication, Ayurvedic medicines and nutrition; and
three, to be a doctor-prescribed, not merely a doctor-backed, brand treating the root cause of hair loss.

At the core
It was Traya Co-founder Altaf Saiyed’s
series of health issues that motivated him
and Saloni Anand (Co-founder, Traya) to
dig deeper into the underlying reasons
that had led to the condition. Being in his
early thirties, Saiyed wasn’t too keen on
the prognosis offered – taking medication
every day for the rest of his life to keep
the ailments in check. This triggered the
duo’s in-depth research into alternative
treatments and the only science, they
realised, that guaranteed fixing these
issues in the long run was Ayurveda. While
taking what the doctor prescribed, Saiyed
began consulting Ayurveda practitioners for
treatment and bettering his eating habits.
Inspired by the positive result, the duo soon
realised that what the haircare industry
in India lacked was a customised solution
to hair loss and haircare issues faced by
people. The consumer’s despair was further
intensified by the lack of suitable products
in the market, leading them to believe that
hair loss, specifically, was a complication
that couldn’t be treated. So the Traya duo
resolved to create a holistic hair solutions
brand that targeted hair loss issues
troubling a majority of the Indian population.
“We realised that what was missing in the
hair loss treatment industry was that there
was no treatment, there were just products.
More research was needed to understand
the scope of the problem, so we started a
pilot programme with 55 people and that’s
how it all began. What fuelled our fire was
when people started seeing results after
they had given up all hope,” shares Anand.
Today, word-of-mouth advertising and
referrals are its fastest growing channels.
Every customer that gets on the Traya
treatment is assigned three doctors – a
dermatologist, an Ayurvedic doctor and a
nutritionist – who write the prescription
based on the information collected by the
hair coaches. The brand honestly vouches
that its treatment works for stages 1-5. “We
refund the money if we think we cannot help
the case. No treatment can help people in
stages 6 and 7, and they should head for
a transplant. This policy of choosing our
customers has helped us reach a 93 per cent
efficacy rate for customers who complete
more than five months with us,” shares
Anand.
Un-conditioning the mind
With the growing frustration in Indian
consumers with the unmet promises of
haircare products, building trust for their
brand was one of the biggest challenges
for Traya’s founders. Creating awareness
that hair loss was a health issue and needed
proper treatment, not a shampoo, oil or
spa, was crucial. Justifying the treatment’s
duration and its scientific roots was also a
big challenge. But, the founder duo vowed to
meet the challenge head on and developed
the hair coach system. “The hair coaches are
trained individuals who act as the customer’s
personal coach throughout the treatment.
In our interactions with dermatologists
we realised that most people who start a
treatment don’t follow it through completion.
Consistency is as important in hair loss
treatment as it is in weight loss treatments.
So, the hair coaches stay in touch with the
customers and make sure they stay on
track with their treatment, to answer any
questions they have while on the treatment,
to act as a bridge between customers
and the team of doctors, and to track the
progress of the customers,” explains Anand.
Being a holistic hair loss solutions provider,
Traya’s doctors may suggest a product that
is not available but is needed to help the
customer. The company then sources it from
outside and includes it in the kit (bears the
cost themselves) because the aim is to help
the customer get whatever solution they
need to fix their hair loss.
Traya is a fully online solutions brand
where all doctors and coaches use the
backend customer adherence platform
(CAP). The brand does not plan on exploring
other channels till it exhausts the huge
market available online.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 107

 MILESTONE
Vedix has an in-house warehouse
that processes more than 10,000
orders a day and has the capacity to
triple that number to meet seasonal
demand.
Having tied up with leading delivery
companies allows the brand to
maintain industry-leading delivery
timelines across more than 19,000
Jatin Gujrati pin codes.
Business Head, Vedix Over the next three years, Vedix
plans to grow its business 4x by
expanding into other categories,
expanding on to other platforms
and foraying into international
markets such as the US and Middle
East.
Serving more than a million
customers, the brand has also
doubled its revenue over the last
three years.
MADE FOR EACH
OTHER
Ayurvedic beauty and wellness brand Vedix offers customised skincare, haircare and wellness
products to its consumers, formulated on the underlying principle that each individual has a unique
set of characteristics that need to be addressed independently. It leverages the power of Big Data and
technology to understand its customers’ requirements and curate specific solutions. The company now
aims to clock `500 crore in revenues by 2026.

Spotting singularity
Under the aegis of IncNut Digital,
customised haircare, skincare and wellness
brand Vedix was established in 2017. IncNut
founders realised that most women were
not satisfied with the products they were
using, and were frustrated with constantly
trying something new without the certainty
of it suiting them. A further in-depth
survey allowed them a more thorough
understanding of women’s issues with skin
and haircare products, and motivated the
founders to talk to Ayurvedic doctors and
conduct an in-depth research. Thus was
born Vedix, a brand that endeavoured to
challenge the notion of ‘one size fits all’ and
to break the vicious cycle of trial and error
that often led to unsatisfactory results. Vedix
sought to provide customised Ayurvedic
solutions in the beauty and wellness space
for both men and women. “The concept of
customisation was completely new when
we launched Vedix. We had to spend time
building customer awareness on why this
was better than a conventional approach.
However, once customers saw the impact of
customisation and the results it delivered,
the brand took off. Today, we have one of
the highest retention rates in the industry
which reflects the value that customisation
adds for our customers,” says Jatin Gujrati,
Business Head, Vedix.
The core of Vedix is the Tridosha theory
of Ayurveda. Every person is born with their
unique set of doshas (Vata, Pitta and Kapha)
that make their Prakuriti, and true Ayurvedic
solutions are customised to address each
individual’s uniqueness. Vedix seeks to
achieve this by understanding the imbalance
in one’s current state of doshas (vikruti)
through a questionnaire, and then leverage
Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence-
driven technology to craft hyper customised
products. “We want to modernise Ayurveda,
its knowledge, concoction and delivery to
make it accessible to the time-pressed
consumer. Big Data, AI and cutting-
edge technology are leveraged to craft
customised solutions for each individual
and continuously incorporate consumer
feedback to deliver an ever-improving
product,” explains Gujrati.
Speaking the language
Vedix’s marketing efforts are primarily built
around its customers. In addition to its
content, which talks about the products,
benefits of various ingredients, skin and
haircare, the brand also uses a lot of content
created by actual customers sharing their
experience after using Vedix products.
“Our customers send us videos and written
testimonials sharing their experience of
using our products. We share such personal
experiences on our social platforms and
believe that this kind of content connects
better with new customers because they
are able to relate better to those problems
and experiences of using the products.
We also tie up with a lot of influencers and
celebrities to give the brand the right push,”
says Gujrati.
Vedix started out as a haircare brand and
built a strong brand equity in that category.
Earlier this year, it launched its skincare
range. The brand generates more than 95
per cent of revenue from its website, but
also realises that a lot of first-time digital
consumers start their online purchase
journey with marketplaces such as Amazon,
Flipkart and Nykaa. Already live on these
platforms, over the next 12 months, the
brand hopes to generate 20 per cent of its
business from here.
With Ayurveda and holistic living concepts
gaining significant traction in countries
beyond India, Vedix also plans to leverage
the trend and introduce customised
Ayurvedic products to international
consumers. “In the next 12 months, we
intend to be available in the US and the
Middle East, and expand to other countries
soon after that,” adds Gujrati.
Over the last few years, Vedix has
created a dominant position in the Indian
D2C haircare market with its range of
customised Ayurvedic oils, serums and
shampoos. It also claims to be India’s first
skincare brand to launch 100 per cent
edible-grade non-foaming cleanser made
with high-quality ingredients. Vedix aspires
to evolve the brand that continues to
innovate in the area of modern Ayurveda.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 109


Manish Chowdhary
Co-founder, WOW Skin Science
MILESTONE
WOW Skin Science has grown from
strength to strength over the last
few years. Despite the pandemic,
its sales did not slow down and
the company is confident of an
impressive growth this year as well.
The brand has successfully tapped
into the online space through
marketplaces Amazon, Flipkart,
Myntra, Nykaa, Purplle and Big
Basket. It has also launched its own
shopping App to extend its sales
reach.
WOW has been witnessing a
massive year-on-year growth of
120%.
Not far behind is the brand’s
customer growth rate at 80%.
A WOW-SOME
EXPERIENCE
One of the first few brands in the country to promote the concept of beauty care without harmful chemicals and
preservatives, WOW Skin Science delivers sustainable nature-infused and research-backed products that give
customers visible results and long-term benefits. It has also earned itself a name as one of the pioneering D2C
beauty brands to leverage the reach of digital platforms and touch base with consumers across pin codes.
Pioneering ideas
Started in 2013, WOW Skin Science was
born out of a passion and vision to develop
and deliver the best of beauty and wellness
products inspired by traditions from both
East and West, backed by research and
science. All its formulations are a blend of
Ayurvedic preparations, Western herbal
medicine practices and modern scientific
research. “We have been working hard to
become a new-age beauty and wellness
brand committed to delivering products
based on modern science and age-old
wellness traditions. We are a highly
customer-focused organisation that
delivers beauty and wellness solutions
that the customers want. The aim is to
deliver a WOW-some experience when
the consumers use our products at a
price that they love. We were also one
of the pioneering D2C beauty brands in
the country that leveraged the digital
platform to reach consumers at every tier
market across the country. We continue to
leverage the same, and our customers are
quite comfortable in picking our products
online,” says Manish Chowdhary, Co-
founder, WOW Skin Science.
To ensure its consumers enjoy the
maximum and long-term benefits of using
its products, WOW Skin Science does not
use any harsh chemicals, mineral oils,
sulphates, parabens or silicones in its
formulations, thus retaining texture and
feel to enhance the overall experience. The
indigenous brand hopes to help consumers
restore, revive, revitalise and revel in
nature-infused beauty and well-being.
“Since the brand’s inception, the focus has
been to be a sustainable, earth-friendly
and skin-friendly brand. We started this by
ensuring that none of the harmful additives
went into our products. Our formulations
are plant-based, vegan and have a very
high percentage of naturally derived
ingredients from the best of sources. Our
products are cruelty-free and packed
in sustainable packaging that can be
recycled. We continue to innovate on our
formulations and blend traditional beauty
recipes with modern ingredients,” adds
Chowdhary.
Careful consideration
Initially bootstrapped, the business ran
very lean operations. It had a strong
belief in its hero ingredient - Apple Cider
Vinegar - and started with this in the
market as a wellness drink. Once the drink
became popular among its consumers,
WOW further exploited its potential as a
haircare ingredient. “Our flagship Apple
Cider Vinegar shampoo helped us take
off. The biggest challenge for us was to
create brand awareness without spending
a huge amount of money; we did not have
extra cash initially to spend on marketing
in a big way. We decided to leverage the
digital medium and used e-commerce
to make WOW Skin Science products
easily accessible to our consumers. Since
customer is king for us, we set up a strong
consumer support team to respond to
any and every kind of consumer need.
We even offered easy replacement if a
customer was unhappy. This created trust
and we saw repeat buyers. Our growth
has been driven by the fact that as an
organisation, we are constantly delivering
what our customers want. We listen to
their demands and try to pre-empt their
needs on a regular basis to ensure that
they are happy with our products and are
having a great brand experience,” shares
Chowdhary.
WOW has also invested in technology to
track customer behaviour and purchasing
trends. It uses data analytics and
predictive marketing techniques to deliver
the best to its consumers. Its founding
team believes that the success of WOW
in the online retail space has been due to
one key strategy that it adopted – spending
lots of time understanding consumer
needs, building systems and processes
to garner data, and taking inputs from
insights generated by that data. It also
works extensively with beauty and wellness
influencers to reach out to consumers and
promote new products and beauty care
concepts. “We work with influencers both
macro and micro, and we have had a very
high level of connect with our consumers.
We have spent lots of time perfecting the
art of enhanced customer experience,”
concludes Chowdhary.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 111
CATEGORY ANALYSIS
HOME & HOMEWARE
The Home Decor and Kitchenware market in India is worth over 38000Cr for which the size of
its digital market is supposed to touch $4 billion by 2025. This sector has acquired a funding
of almost $447.4 million, till date.

Top thoughts
More than 90% of the home and home décor segment is estimated to be held by unorganized players.
The potential is large and brands that are super focused on segmenting customers and identifying their core customer base
and creating unique offerings for them will be the ones that will succeed.
A one for all formula will not work given India’s diverse identity and varying customer needs.

Brands pivoting a change:

Significant markers
In India, the mattress category is an ~ 2-3 billion USD opportunity that is growing at ~10-20% Y-o-Y
The furniture segment in India is currently worth US$16 billion

The Online 5.4

Home Decor
Addressable Market in $ Bn

Market is 3.8
Estimated
to Reach
$5.4 Bn By 2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4

2025. 1.9

1.1 1.2
Online home 0.8
decor will be
growing at a
CAGR of 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022F 2023F 2024F 2025F 2026F
20.4% during
2020-2025 Source: Statista
 REVENUE GROWTH

Remarkable trend:
The sleep solutions sector in the country is growing significantly, with
the mattress market expected to reach US$2.5 billion by 2022. The
sleep and home solutions category were fairly unorganized until a few
years ago. With an underserved customer experience, there was very
little innovation in the product design, service experience, and business
model, until a bevy of brands made their way into this segment.

Something tailor-made
Home furniture in India is available in a wide range to suit different
customer needs. According to a report by Mordor Intelligence,
approximately 25% of the urban population live in homes with five 30%
Brands have
or more rooms, while 45% live in houses with three or fewer rooms, had Exceptional
70%
Brands have had 100%
which is expected to boost the demand for home furniture products. Revenue Growth
Revenue Growth touching Pre-
crossing Pre-
In addition to this, the development in the housing sector and the rapid COVID Numbers
COVID Numbers
growth of metro cities are changing the living standards and lifestyle
of the population, and are further propelling the need to purchase new
furniture/home solutions products.
CUSTOMER GROWTH
Trends on watch
ONLINE MARKETS WILL SEE A STEADY GROWTH: Offline retail
outlets are the popular distribution channels among Indian customers,
satisfying the urge to touch and feel the products before purchasing.
However, a considerable number of people are shifting towards online
shopping. Given the pandemic, it is an undeniable fact that online
purchasing is monopolising many sectors and is all set to scale up the
Indian furniture market as well. Due to its ease, comfort, variety of
options, price comparison, delivery at the doorstep, and availability of
customised products, the online market is already impacting our lives
and is expected to make some breakthroughs. 10%
Brands have
served their
A SURGE IN ERGONOMIC HOME SOLUTIONS PRODUCTS: One Existing
90%
Brands have served 150% more
of the latest trends that are observed amongst consumers is the Customer Base
Customers in the Last 1 Year
requirement of ergonomic products. The same could be said for the
sleep and furniture market, which has witnessed a massive surge in
DRIVERS OF GROWTH
demand for such products. Professionals around the world have noticed
an increase in investments for the development of ergonomic products,
which are both stylish yet affordable at the same time.

DIGITALIZATION OF THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS: For a long

time, furniture companies have relied heavily on manual processes, but
today’s increase in demand, penetration of e-commerce businesses
and the need for cost control leave no option but to digitize processes
across the value chain. For sleep and home solutions companies
this means integrating the workflow from the e-commerce website
through production in order to shorten delivery times, minimize errors,
enhance quality, and increase margins. With the rise of customization, 10%
Others
manufacturers also need to make sure they have the right tools to
manage all configurations to produce made-to-order pieces without 90%
of Sales have been generated
error. through Social Media & Digital
Marketing

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 113

 MILESTONE
Deepa Bhowmick In the late 1980’s, Deepa’s father brought
these cane products to Pune. He made
Founder CEO, DaisyLife little value-adds to adapt these products
to city people’s needs and sold them in the
wholesale market at Mumbai. That’s where
he got the channel to the tourist locations
and the potential for tourist shopping.
Mahabaleshwar became the brand’s home
market.
DaisyLife has always predominantly been
a B2B business, however they started
exploring the B2C segment in 2017.
In early 2017, the brand team started a
concept Café store called Café Daisy in
Pune. The idea was to use their brand
products and display them as being really
functional and show how beautifully they fit
in with the modern products.
They test-marketed on Amazon in 2018 and
the response was very encouraging. End of
2019, they went live with their own website.
This was the time the brand went all out D2C
on varied channels and platforms too.
ORGANIC BY NATURE
DaisyLife is into ‘everyday use’ handicrafts. DaisyLife products are made from Plant-based materials like
bamboo, cane, coconut-Shells, jute, wood, and wicker. The brand is all about naturally connecting oneself to
nature as a part of our daily lifestyle. To get that sense of well-being every day. The brand’s ethos revolve and
evolve around making simple, functional, beautifully imperfect products.
Blooming beautifully
A full-fledged family business that started
in 1960’s as a B2B business was routed to
become a complete D2C brand in 2017,
courtesy efforts by Deepa Bhowmick,
Founder CEO at DaisyLife. “It started in the
1960’s for us. My great-grandfather was the
1st man from India to travel to Japan to bring
the machines to process bamboo in Tripura.
These products were a part of the day-to-
day life in every village home in the north-
east. Since then, they have been replaced
with aluminum, steel, melamine, plastics
and thus we transformed to promote these
in different ways. I have personally been a
part of this industry for almost 4 decades
now. It’s an unorganized sector and since I
got involved full time in 2013, it grew 1500
times till the pandemic,” Deepa notes when
talking about the industry and the brand’s
entry into the market.
Customer is key
“It was easy to tell clients what they need
to do to build brand awareness, to create
the right communication strategy, to build
loyalty but while working on building my
own brand, though I put together all my
experience with the best brands I have
worked for, I still felt like I was shooting in
the dark. There are a lot of natural materials
used in Swedish and Japanese lifestyles
and I love the sense of calm they instill. I’m
inspired by Ikea and Muji. These two brands
have been my guidelines in terms of their
design sense, their approach to everyday
products, the origins of these businesses
and how they have evolved. As a company
culture and a B2B business, we believe in
building relationships, we believe in meeting
our customer needs, we strive for customer
delight and that’s translated in our D2C
format as well. Our products are our life line,
it’s like gold for us and we take utmost care
to give the best, pack it well and ensure the
best experience for the customer, making
them feel they have received a treasure,”
Deepa highlights when talking about
acquiring customers.
She further says, “We innovate how we
can use these products and adapt our
products to fit into our urban lifestyles.
Nobody looked at mass handicrafts this way.
We are making them a part of daily routines
again. It is enabling people to appreciate
these products, giving them their unique
spins and creating their own stuff they are
proud to showcase. Last couple of years
has pushed us to explore different channels
and the potential for these products is
extremely positive in light of the sustainable
development goals, single use plastic issues,
and zero-waste initiatives. Natural materials
and handmade products are gaining traction
and the way to go especially for stuff that
doesn’t need to be complicated. Change
is not always necessary, there has to be a
strong valid reason. Ease and convenience
come at a cost and in the long run, it has to
be worth it”.
Technology push
“A homegrown business managed on pen
and paper, we have come a long way. I
believe in lean teams, automations and
system driven setups. We have a strong
inventory management and billing system
from Canada, the first thing I installed when I
joined full time. we have an online showroom
and since 2018, I have been working with
our clients to make them familiar with using
an online channel for placing orders. This
format is difficult to adopt in the B2B sector
in India for seller as well as buyer however
the pandemic gave it a push. We have our
B2B website live as well, now and slowly
people are adapting. For D2C in the post
pandemic setup, I have plans for QR based
shopping. It’s what I had in mind when I had
started Café Daisy, it’s now a possibility,”
Deepa Bhowmick, Founder CEO at DaisyLife
mentions.
Further she says, “Having automated
systems in place makes all the difference.
We have a strict policy to dispatch within a
certain timeframe, we have reliable shipping
partners and we take the effort to explore
options to make sure the order is shipped
while keeping the customer in the loop
through the process”.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 115
 MILESTONE
Ayush Baid Ellementry, a lifestyle brand of handcrafted homeware
products was started in 2018. The unique manufacturer-
Founder, Ellementry to-customer relationship of ellementry and the
overwhelmingly positive response within 1st year of
operation led the brand to invest in 8 retail stores in major
metro cities like Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai,
Gurugram and more.
The business has grown to `26 Crores (Approximately –
USD3.5 Mn) in less than three years.
In three years of its operation, EllementryɁhas created
a space for local artisans to showcase their talent and
flourish.Ɂ It is providing full-time employment to more than
4000 artisans.
The brand has a strong R&D department that keeps on
researching materials and designs that are the right fit for
the Indian lifestyle.
They are India’s first direct manufacturer brand of
handmade products. The manufacturing capabilities allow
them to price the products competitively, maintain quality
control, and ensure a short turnaround time in production.
From manufacturing to retail outlets, Ellementry can
diversify their products and deliver international quality
products faster.
EARTHY & IN VOGUE
Since its inception, Ellementry has been encouraging basic sustainable living in people, promoting beautifully
handmade products made of earth-friendly material while reviving the cultural roots with a modern silhouette
and adhering to international food safety standards. Ellementry is a brand by Dileep Essentials and is the retail
offshoot of Dileep Industries. This multi-award-winning company has excelled in the exports arena for the last
three decades. The business model of ellementry is B2C, focused on the Indian market.

The story so far

It all began when Ayush Baid, Founder,
Ellementry, assisted his father with
promoting his business-to-business
handicraft exports. He noticed how
well-received Indian handicrafts were on
a global scale. The foundation stone for
Ellementry was laid while Ayush was in
the final semester of his undergraduate
degree in data analytics and business
administration from University College
London (University College of London). “The
domestic market for handcrafted household
products was largely untapped, especially
in the specialised categories of cookware
and serveware, which caught my attention. I
wondered if these things may find a market
in India if they were marketed correctly. I
always wanted to re-contextualise Indian
craft for the local market while putting
artisans at the forefront. Despite the
tremendous task, I was determined with
my pursuit. I couldn’t have done this alone,
so I built a core team and hired like-minded
people during the process”. The market for
the product brand Ellementry is worth nearly
7000Cr. When it comes to handcrafted
homeware, Ellementry is the only Indian
company to build a direct link between the
manufacturer and the client. This helps the
brand in maintaining product quality and
speed up the manufacturing process at their
end.
Ellementry has elevated the homeware
category with its innovative and culturally
rooted products. Ellementry is renowned
for its environmentally friendly products,
product versatility, and design aesthetics,
which have made the brand a choice for
households in India and various parts of the
world.
In this short period, I am proud to say that
Ellementry has created a space that allows
local artisans to showcase their talent and
flourish. Ellementry is providing full-time
employment to more than 4000 artisans.
The beauty of their hands, combined with
the knowledge passed down from the ages,
makes their products soulful.
Getting closer to customer
Ayush mentions, “We are India’s first direct
manufacturer brand of handmade products.
This way, we can have quality control in
our hands, and our turnaround time of
manufacturing products is faster. We can
have a competitive price for our products
and minimal dead inventory because we
manufacture what consumers want. For
example, during the lockdown, we realized
that people were looking for work from
home furniture- so we came up with work
from home table that can be used in multiple
ways- it can be used to have food, plus it can
be used as workstation as it has sections to
keep books and mobile too. If a particular
product does exceptionally well, we
replenish it quickly, which other brands who
don’t have a manufacturing backend cannot
do so fast.”
Technology Savvy
Data and technology have been the
backbones of Ellementry since its inception.
On their website and even in the retail stores’
technology plays a vital role. They have
the technology to mark the hot spot area
in the retail stores. “In fact, for our stocks,
we use the software. We use technology
to collect and analyze that data and do
selective marketing to reach the right kind
of audience. For example - In Bengaluru 12th
road Indiranagar, to get the right traffic in our
store, we use cookies and tap the right target
audience – 25-40 years aged women having
the right purchasing capacity.” Says Ayush.
Future Roadmap- Overseas
Market
“Ellementry has a family backing, but we
are receptive to strategic partnership if it
adds some value to our current operational
setup.” he further adds.
Over the next year, Elementary’s objective
is to expand internationally. After pioneering
the consumer-to-manufacturer model in the
homeware industry in India, they are now
expanding internationally. Efforts are being
made to penetrate the US and European
markets via e-commerce. Ayush and his
team is aiming to create an all-in-one
solution for all your home needs.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 117


Gaurav Zatakia
Founder & CEO, Flo Sleep Solutions LLP
MILESTONE
Innovation is definitely at the core
of what the brand is. From the aloe-
vera gel that they infuse into their
fabrics, to the 3D air-flo technology
that helps keep their mattresses
cool, to the adjustable thickness of
their pillows, every feature in every
one of their products has been
designed to address a pain point
that the community of consumers
had with each of the product
categories they exist in.
The brand registered ~100%
revenue growth over FY21 and
~150% customer growth over FY21 .
The brand uses full funnel
marketing – they try and leverage
every marketing channel /
opportunity that’s available to them
but if there’s one thing they’ve
learnt over the last 3 years it’s this
– ‘if your product, price point and
customer experience aren’t 10/10,
scaling beyond a point becomes
very challenging because you likely
won’t be driving any meaningful
word-of-mouth revenue’.
Reducing delivery SLAs, the brand
today has set-up warehouses in
almost every city of India. This
helps them keep the logistics cost
under control.
WITH THE FLOW
With their unique ‘Go with the Flo’ brand positioning, Flo mattresses are designed to support and enrich our
body functions during sleep. Ergonomic design, supported by the proprietary Responsive foams, 3D air-flo
technology, and aloe-vera gel infused fabrics, Flo mattresses is changing the way in which the nation loves to
sleep. Flo turned 3 this year and the company is not eyeing for funding, rather is even more charged up with
their bootstrapped experience.

Kickstarting the brand

With a mission to support the on-the-go
lifestyle of modern India, Gaurav Zatakia,
Founder & CEO of Flo Sleep Solutions
LLP, launched Flo. Before he launched
Flo, he had spent close to 10 years working
at Hush – a premium mattress brand
that his family owned. Hush at the time
was predominantly a B2B supplier of
mattresses and other sleep essentials to
many of the leading 3/4/5 star hotels &
resorts across the country. And, one of
the things that would happen fairly often
back then, says Gaurav, was that “a lot of
people that had stayed at one of these nice
hotels, would call us to say they had just
enjoyed the best night’s sleep on one of our
mattresses and wanted to inquire about
where they could buy one for their own
homes.” Regular encounters like this got
Gaurav interested in the B2C space and he
helped set up distribution for Hush across
various Indian cities.
Unfortunately, he soon realised that
traditional distribution channels (which
were inefficient and involved unnecessary
overheads) were driving prices up to the
point where his products were out of
reach for most young Indians. “I thought
it was ironic that good sleep was so far
out of reach for most young Indians at a
time in their lives when the quality of their
sleep could make all the difference. So
while I was thinking about how good sleep
could be brought within the reach of more
Indian households, I discovered a wave
of direct-to-consumer brands disrupting
multiple industries in the West, cutting out
middlemen and re-imagining supply chains
by leveraging the power of the Internet.
I almost instantly knew that a marriage
between my knowledge of how to build
great quality sleep products and a D2C
distribution model via the internet, would
allow me to deliver incredibly comfortable
sleep solutions at price points that every
Indian could afford. And that’s how Flo was
born,” Gaurav informs.
Selling it right
“Today, by leveraging the power of the
Internet, and cheap data that brought
hundreds of millions of Indian consumers’
online, brands like Flo can reach customers
in practically any part of India at a fraction
of what it would traditionally cost to reach
these consumers. Additionally, practically
every part of our business from purchase
to operations to customer support is highly
supported by technology. The AI powered
chatbot on our website for example, helps
ensure that visitors to our website are
supported 24/7 x 365 days a year. Our ERP
helps ensure that incoming orders are
quickly matched with available inventory.
Our customer support software helps us
keep track of CSAT scores for each of our
agents etc.,” Gaurav mentions.
The brand has reengineered the supply
chain to remove middlemen that add little
value to the consumer, but dramatically
inflate the product price. Their direct to
consumer approach helps them bring you
over 50% in savings, and a 5 star sleeping
experience at an affordable price.
Being a differentiator
“In a category like ours, I don’t believe that
there can be a stronger differentiator
than the brand that we’re building. I firmly
believe that in the world we live in today,
everything about a business can be copied
except the connection that brands are able
to forge with their consumers. At Flo, we
follow a fairly simple approach towards
brand building: we first invest a lot of
time understanding our target audience
and their primary pain points. We then
build products that solve these problems
and communicate these solutions to our
target audience. Thereafter, the only thing
that fuels word of mouth & growth is our
ability to deliver on all of the promises
we’ve made. Understand Consumer >
Build Solution > Communicate Solution >
Deliver What Was Communicated > Seek
Feedback Constantly,” Gaurav sums up.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 119


Sandeep Sridhar
Founder & CEO, Home Canvas
MILESTONE
Home Canvas was founded in 2015
and is a part of Nasscom’s 10,000
startups & is owned by Nuevo
Digital Solutions Private Limited,
based out of Bengaluru, India.
Home Canvas is present across
major marketplaces Amazon,
Pepperfry, Flipkart and Jaypore at
the moment.
The brand’s revenues have grown
over 3 times compared to the pre-
pandemic period.
Home Canvas has built a community
of over 1,30,000 people organically
since its inception and uses the
platform to build meaningful
connections with users.
ERGONOMICALLY
INCLINED
Home Canvas believes good design can enhance our quality of life and make our spaces more comfortable, inspiring and
uplifting. They blend functional superiority, aesthetics and craftsmanship in a seamless manner to create products that
are creative and spark joy. They enjoy conceptualising, designing and creating products that are unique and on trend.
Home Canvas works with a variety of materials and crafts and that often means having to partner with skilled artisans and
tap their know-how and craftsmanship, while creating products that are engineered to be functional and durable.

Functionally built
India has always had great craftsmen
and makers and the ability to make great
products has always existed. The furniture
category is dominated by local makers,
brands and designers who have catered
to a very limited geographic market. The
opportunity was to be able to work with
this talent pool and provide the business
intelligence, resources and the platform
to be able to cater to a larger audience.
Sandeep Sridhar, Founder, CEO, Home
Canvas when talking about the brand’s
inception story mentions, “We have focused
on creating designs that are truly innovative
and unique. Whether it is the Porto table,
that’s a compact portable table, that was in
huge demand during the lockdown or the
STANDi table that we have just introduced
that makes it easy for people to create a
standing workstation with minimal changes
to their existing work setup. Our Popsicle
chairs are truly unique and bring back the
charm of a Pariasian café to your patio’s and
balconies. Home is increasingly becoming
a big part of everyone’s identity and people
want to create really unique spaces that
reflect their personality. In one generation,
furniture has gone from being a purchase
for a lifetime to an indulgence where you
change your furniture every few years
to change the look of your home. While
comfort and durability had always been a
priority, the design and aesthetics have
become of prime importance now driven by
Instagram and Pinterest. Consumers will go
out of their way to find unique pieces that
can enhance their space. Consumers are
also seeking meaningful connections with
the brands that they buy from. What is the
brand’s philosophy, are they responsible,
sustainable and do they give back to the
community they operate in? So they tend
to associate with brands that are truly
authentic and stand for values that they
espouse themselves”.
Cracking the niche
Sandeep’s journey into the furniture domain
began with his personal experience while
trying to set up a new home. He realized
that there were a lot of manufacturers, but
they lacked the connection with consumers
in terms of both insight into what they
wanted and the access to market. The need
for smart, trendy and functional furniture
for the modern Indian urban consumer
and the opportunity to bring design-led
interventions to the category is what
inspired him to start Home Canvas.
“Our journey over the last 6 years has
had several challenges with regards to
establishing the brand. Building customer
trust in a highly competitive market
with an unorganized supply chain and
an underdeveloped logistics system has
presented its fair share of challenges.
Delivering on the brand promise
consistently despite these challenges and
building trust with customers has been
our driver for growth. After Sales service is
another area that is challenging and can be
a differentiator for brands when done right,”
Sandeep highlights.
Customer ready
Sandeep further adds, “The customer is
at the focus of all our efforts right from
understanding how consumers live and use
their spaces at home and identifying what
problems they face in optimizing space
or understanding what unique needs they
have. Both the Porto and the STANDi table
were born out of this deep understanding
of consumer lifestyles. We also use social
media very effectively to stay in touch
with our users and glean insights. We
have built a very strong community on
Instagram and Facebook and use that as a
medium to gain feedback on new products,
share inspirational ideas and as an active
communication channel. It’s been one of
the simplest and most effective means of
gaining insights for the brand”.
“Logistics is a huge challenge for our
business and the infrastructure to support
the category is still evolving. When we
create new products, we take the logistical
challenges into account and design
products in such a way that they can be
transported easily to customers. For our
most successful and fast selling products,
we have designed them to be shipped flat
packed with easy to assemble instructions
for the customer that lets them assemble it
in less than a few minutes,” he sums up.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 121


Krsnaa Mehta
Founder & Design Director, India Circus
MILESTONE
The operation of India Circus
was started in November 2012
with a view of providing modern,
contemporary-chic, sophisticated,
and affordable style with an All-
Indian palette aptly defined as
“affordable luxury”.
India Circus, the contemporary
lifestyle and home decor brand was
acquired by Godrej in September
2018. With this acquisition,
Godrej has been working towards
strengthening the position of
India Circus as a lifestyle brand
that offers home décor, utilities,
personal accessories and fashion
products.
At present they have 3,000 active
SKUs listed across 76 product
types under 4 Core Categories –
Home Décor, Dining, Fashion and
Accessories. They have recently
introduced a 5th Category –
Furniture, which has been an
instant success.
There’s a healthy growth in new
customers on the brand’s online
channels. They’ve also rolled out
their international website last
quarter. This will help them cater to
the phenomenal demand coming in
internationally.
DESIGN FOR EVERY
HOME
India Circus, a Godrej Venture is primarily a lifestyle brand. The core categories of the brand are Home Décor,
Dining, Accessories and Fashion. They have expanded a lot in Décor and Dining categories as today these two
categories contribute more than 80% to the business. One can find almost all the products from cushions to
dinner plates to copper drinkware and more. The fun thing is that a person can walk into any of their stores and
completely set up one’s home décor with their products.

A notch higher
“When we had started this journey, we
were more focused on lifestyle accessories
but with changing times and needs of
customers, we have moved to product
categories that are more utilitarian and
which every individual requires in their
day-to-day life. We have disrupted the
categories by carefully curating and
developing our range on the basis of design,
quality, size and price brackets. All our
core categories are well balanced, and one
can find different designs in various sizes
in different materials at multiple price
points, ensuring different requirements of
various customers are met,” Krsnaa Mehta,
Founder & Design Director, India Circus, a
Godrej Venture mentions.
When narrating the brand’s inception
story Krsnaa says, “I got interested in
designing at a very young age. The first thing
I probably designed was a cushion cover
when I was 16 years old. I had designed it for
my father’s store, Zeba. Being a person who
is highly interested in good Home Décor,
I often found that there wasn’t any option
to be able to buy well-designed things at
affordable prices, especially things with
Indian designs. The idea and concept were
born out of the lack of great Indian designs
at great prices! I wanted to make and
promote Contemporary Indian design and
culture. A larger section of middle-income
Indians couldn’t afford to have well-designed
products. Thus, an idea was born and from
a simple concept, it grew and has become
what it is”.
Eyeing customer-centric growth
Currently, the brand is focusing on
strengthening their furniture category and
in the near future, fashion for sure. That
said, they continue to introduce new and
exciting items in their Décor and Dining
segments month on month. “The ideas were
born with the same intent, furthermore not
compromising on the quality and the niche
of the product. The major challenge we
faced at the start was managing logistics,
which however follows a controlled strategy.
Also, demand forecasting was another
issue due to an overwhelming response
to our products. Fortunately, we rapidly
approached our break-even. We believe
that the key to our success is an acute
understanding of our clientele’s aesthetic
sensibilities, which we apply to a wide
and diverse range of products,” Krsnaa
highlights.
India Circus is blessed with the strong
backing of the Godrej & Boyce team with
the apt business acumen required to grow
the brand. This has helped it to scale up the
ladder without many hassles. A robust and
dedicated customer service team ensures
that the customer has a seamless and
pleasing experience right from the time the
product is ordered till delivery.
Marketing seamlessly
“We employ the sharpest and most up-to-
date technology to gauge the success of
our online marketing, including social media
platforms to further establish our presence
in the market. Paying careful heed to the
data we receive from various technological
programs, we accordingly forecast demand
and set goals to provide the most effective
service. We have become an omnichannel
brand where customers can not only
shop on social media but also through the
website and our brick & mortar stores. We
have partnered with a leading logistics
partner to ensure seamless delivery. We are
continuously working on this to integrate
digital and physical experience and very
soon we are also planning to launch a store
pick-up option for online orders,” Krsnaa
mentions.
Further, the brand is taking a highly
analytical and data-driven approach to their
decision-making. Most of their A&SP spends
and resource management strategies
during the pandemic were based on
multitudes of data that they compiled and
analyzed from their stores and their website
to further strengthen their approaches.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 123

 MILESTONE
Kaunteya launched the brand
with four series- Byah, Dasara,
Jyamiti and Pichwai, with each
series based on a distinct art and
architectural form. Since then, they
have launched newer products
in these series after gauging
customer interest.

Sonal Jetha They have also diversified

into newer product lines that
Founder, Kaunteya complement our tableware such as
table linens and cutlery.
The brand plans to branch out into
more product ranges, both in the
tableware industry and beyond,
while holding on to their two main
building blocks- luxury and the
Indian culture.
The brand has witnessed a 200%
YOY revenue growth.
ELEGANCE SERVED
The collections of Kaunteya reflect the vivid hues of India. Along with adding a flair of luxury to your tableware
collection, each product from Kaunteya tells a fascinating story of Indian art, culture and heritage. With their
range of exclusive dinnerware, they intend to inculcate the magic of Indian mythology into everyday life. Their
carefully crafted crockery line is adorned with intricate designs that are silk screen printed and hand-decorated.
Finished with a touch of 24 karat pure gold makes their Tableware a perfect gift for a loved one, a precious
heirloom to be passed on to next generations, or simply the best companion for your morning coffee.

Raising Kaunteya
Luxury market in India is expanding with
more disposable income and Indian art
has wide acceptance in Indian as well as
overseas market. There were very few Indian
companies who had a substantial presence
in the luxury tableware industry. “So, this
was a consciously taken decision. We found
the blend of Indian art and culture with
luxury tableware to be a unique proposition,
one which in our knowledge had not been
tapped into by any brand before us.We are
really optimistic about the future growth
of the luxury tableware industry as well as
the luxury industry in general. It has shown
a steep upward trend since its inception.
“I was fascinated by Indian art and culture;
Kaunteya grew out of this fascination. We
wanted to present Indian art and culture to
the world in a format that could do justice to
India’s magnificence and we found tableware
to be the perfect medium for the same,”
Sonal Jetha, Founder Kaunteya mentions.
Carved from history and drenched in
heritage, the Kaunteya collection is the
reflection of the vivid hues of India. The name
KAUNTEYA itself is derived from the Epic of
Mahabharata, wherein the sons of Kunti are
termed as Kaunteya. The intricate designs
are silk screen printed; hand decorated and
then fired to achieve the beautiful colours.
Finished with a touch of 24k pure gold which
also makes them perfect heirlooms, these
are pieces that can be passed on to newer
generations with utmost pride.
“As we were primarily selling through
the online medium, one of the biggest
challenges that we faced was getting people
to be comfortable with the idea of buying
luxury tableware without having a ‘feel’ for it.
Positive customer feedback, targeted social
media marketing and media coverage have
collectively helped us gain a customer base,”
Sonal adds.
Luxury touch
Since inception, Kaunteya has always
attempted to provide a personalized touch
to all of its customers. “We have encouraged
our customers to reach out to us via any
medium that they prefer and have catered
to their specific concerns and requests. As
we had these processes in place prior to
the pandemic, we believe that they helped
us tackle the challenges that the pandemic
presented. We have primarily relied on
word-of-mouth marketing, offline shows
and have invested in social media. We try to
highlight the quality of our products in every
marketing act that we perform. We believe
that a comfortable delivery experience is a
huge contributor to customer satisfaction.
We have a dedicated logistics team that
tries to ensure that products are ideally
dispatched on the same day at which the
order is received,” Sonal notes.
The designs, finish and closeness
to Indian art and culture is our main
differentiator. Kaunteya series don’t change
with change of trends, seasons and fashion.
They are designed to have longevity in
their appeal, age and class, intended for
customers who would like to own an ageless
luxurious craft. Kaunteya series may not be
designed for masses but retailing the series
with individual pieces makes it affordable
for everyone. But quintessentially, Kaunteya
series are for tableware connoisseurs,
the new breed of table setters who host
state dinners and mega events, hotels and
resorts. Targeted to people looking for
something different and who value a worthy
wedding gift, and are willing to adopt and
live the Indian art, architecture, traditions in
a different form.
Cutting that niche
“We believe that our designs and the stories
that we seek to convey through them are
the two things that have helped us gain an
audience. We are fortunate to have found
people that are as passionate about luxury
and the Indian Culture as we are. We have
been automating various aspects of our
operations and our financial database.
We have been increasingly using analytics
to ensure greater customer engagement
with our marketing campaigns,” Sonal
highlights. Kaunteya has been a completely
bootstrapped venture from the beginning.
They have been profitable since the
beginning and the profits have financed their
expansion.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 125

 MILESTONE
Initially, the only material that
Objectry used was ‘wood’, their
first collection included platters,
coasters, clocks, bowls, and more.
This collection grabbed many
eyeballs because of its unique
features. Then the brand ventured
into ‘Black Pottery’ from Manipur,
and eventually they diversified into
several product categories based
on the materials that they were
Aanchal Goel using.
The USP of the brand is DESIGN.
Founder, Objectry The various product categories
that they adhere to are designed
by incorporating an essence of
simplicity and sophistication.
Objectry’s future plan is to open a
one-stop home decor retail store in
Mumbai, considering Maharashtra
is their biggest market, for
everyone who wishes to buy
furniture from Objectry but would
like to experience the look and feel
of the products personally.
SIMPLICITY RULES
Established in 2015, The idea behind Objectry is to find joy and celebrate the simplicity of design. They believe
in the sensibility that allows a material to lend itself to the design. The approach adopted, paired with Indian
artisanship, organically results in work that is utilitarian yet distinctive. The brand’s collections are an attempt
to make basic everyday things interesting while exploring the properties of different materials. They have
learnt that the best renditions of their designs are delivered by traditional craftsmen.

Shaping up
In 2015 when Objectry was started,
home decor was not a popular category.
Consumers did not splurge as much on
home decor products as they are doing
today. Ever since the pandemic hit the
globe, there’s been a monumental shift
in the way consumers are spending their
money on home decor. “This sector has
clearly seen a tremendous rise in the last
two years since people are spending a lot
of time indoors and investing to make their
personal space beautiful and functional is
the need of the hour. There has been a shift
not just in people’s perception but also in the
demographics of the consumers. Millennials
have started taking a keen interest in the
home decor segment and are the leading
decision-makers under this bracket. We
have noticed that buyers are becoming
increasingly conscious about the products
they buy - they prefer something that is new
and unique. Hence, our range of products
caters to this specific audience who would
like to purchase idiosyncratic mugs, coffee
tables, planters, lamps, and more,” Aanchal
Goel, Founder, Objectry mentions.
“We established Objectry in 2015 with
a passion to demonstrate with form
and material while exploring different
techniques. We have also realized over the
years that design has a feel-good factor
attached to it, this encourages us to bring
innovation to the products and helps to
experiment in several ways. The idea behind
Objectry is to immerse oneself in the
simplicity of the design. Our offering is to
find joy in everyday things,” she adds.
Crossing the hurdles
The initial challenge that the brand faced
when they started Objectry was ‘Pricing.’
“We wanted our products to be innovative
but with the least possible cost involved.
The consumers will only purchase the
products based on their budget, owing to
this, we wanted to make products that are
unique and fits every budget, as well as
are profitable to us. Even today, the main
challenge that we face is the volume of the
products, but we still prefer to maintain our
quality of design and the materials that we
use. Apart from that, the other challenge
that we faced was educating the eye of the
people who were attracted to the design but
were not sure of why or what they should
buy. These were a few challenges that we
were prepared for from the very beginning.
However, the situation is a lot easier now, we
have a strong customer base that includes
trendsetters, students, international
designers etc who follow us for our design
language,” Aanchal mentions.
Gaining trust
“Social media has played a very vital role
in connecting us with our customers. In
the beginning, we used exhibitions as a
medium to connect with patrons and get
their insights on the kind of products or
materials they liked. And now because of
social media, we can get real-time feedback
and insight on our products. We get an
apprehension of how they react to a certain
design, shape, or material. This helps us
understand what our customers need and
based on that we create our products.
Initially, we used to do a photoshoot and
list the products on our website, however,
now because of social media we get instant
feedback on people’s reactions to a certain
product line and materials. For example, it’s
easier to gauge via social media whether
our target audience likes a stone top
better than a wooden top. Social media
enables direct customer interaction and is
extremely useful when designing a product.
Logistics and packaging required a lot of
brainstorming initially because customers
don’t prefer to pay shipping charges but
want the products to be delivered quickly.
We are now working with aggregators
who help us with shipping. However, the
packaging is something that we have to
be very mindful of since we don’t want any
damages while delivering. This was another
challenge that we faced in the beginning but
over the years we have dealt with this issue
as well,” Aanchal throws light on the varied
aspects of customer journey and fulfilment.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 127


Raghunandan Saraf
CEO & Founder, Saraf Furniture
MILESTONE
In 2014, Saraf Furniture forayed
into the online furniture space as
insaraf.com to offer value-for-
money furniture made of sheesham
wood to Indian consumers. The
manufacturer and online seller
provides finished as well as
customised products to buyers.
Saraf Furniture has invested almost
INR 1.20 cr towards technology and
looks to tie-in all the loose ends and
add more value to the processes.
Saraf Furniture is a bootstrapped
entity and the company intends to
continue this way with an eye on
IPO 5 years down the line.
Saraf Furniture has registered 30%
to 40% revenue growth and 48%
customer growth year-on-year.
INNOVATING
TRADITIONS
The vision of Saraf Furniture is to inspire its communities by leveraging on its three key values- Principal, Passion and
Perfection- and to promote new value for its core networks -- Industry, Partners, and Employees. Through these efforts, the
brand hopes to contribute to a better world and a richer experience for all. As part of the vision, the brand continues to pursue
to design and innovate for the international market but they have also mapped out a specific plan to mark a distinguishable
online retail presence across India and to become one of the biggest retail online stores in the country and abroad.

Carrying forward the legacy

Sardarshahr, 250 kms away from Jaipur is
a town in Rajasthan known for its elegant
mansions adorned with colorful fresco
paintings and carved woodwork. This place
is also known for its unique Sheesham
Wood or the Indian Rosewood, appreciated
for its sturdiness and durability. Therefore,
understanding the requirement, the journey
for Saraf Furniture began 40 years ago
with the trading of Sheesham wood to
the local merchandisers. “Eventually, the
introduction and the growing interest of
Indian architecture in the overseas market
built an opportunity for us to evolve our
expertise into furniture designing and
styling, maintaining our ethnic designs
yet suiting the taste of the International
audience. Thus, by 1998, we had
transitioned to become an accomplished
exporter of customized furniture that
aims to fulfill a dream of having a beautiful
bedroom to an exquisite living room,”
Raghunandan Saraf, CEO & Founder, Saraf
Furniture mentioned.
“In the initial stages we confronted a little
trouble in creating brand awareness, as the
clients had a rough separation between
normal furnishings and furniture made of
Sheesham wood. One more test was to
discover and enlist individuals who had a
similar business vision as ours. That was
additionally a time when e-trade stages
like Flipkart and Amazon were entering the
market. In our product offerings we have all
that is needed for your living room, bedroom,
and study and lounge area. We have all kinds
of furniture with over 6000+ varieties. We
used all kinds of digital marketing strategies
and tools, including TVC and A/B testing, to
bring more customers to the platform. We
have also listed ourselves on e-commerce
platforms to gain traffic, ”Raghunandan
adds.
Thirty-two-year-old Raghunandan has
been well acquainted with the furniture
business since his school days. As a
teenager who wanted to help his father, he
recalls assisting him in several business
meetings, client interactions, and overseas
trade shows. And that’s where his tryst
with business began. After completing his
MBA from SRCC in Delhi, Raghunandan
moved back to his hometown Sadarshahr
in Rajasthan to join his family business.
However, the growing desire to revamp the
traditional furniture exports business led
him to start Saraf Furniture.
Reaching out
“Targeting our customer base at the right
point has always been our priority. We
are constantly evaluating market trends,
surveying the audience and also doing the
needful. During the pandemic there was a
shift in market patterns and evolution of
trends like ‘Work from Home’ and ‘Use of
Multi-Purpose Furniture’. We understood the
growing need of the hour and incorporated
them in our plans. We are solely connected
to our customers. Something which gave us
an edge in the market is our understanding
of our customers and their needs. We plan
everything around them,” Raghunandan
highlights.
For taking care of the brand’s fulfillment
needs they have multiple warehousing
facilities all across India. Also, they have
partnerships with Third-Party Logistics
to enhance the smooth functioning of the
business.
Making it innovative
Raghunandan admits that innovation is the
key to survive in any market. It provides the
necessary edge in the competition. “Our
USP is that we are the only organization
managing a wide range of furniture,
around 6000 assortments, produced using
Sheesham wood. In terms of technology
adaptation, we are focusing on AR/VR
technology to enhance customer buying
experience and implement technological
advancements in last mile satisfaction”.
Commenting on the brand’s future plans,
Raghunandan mentions “We have a few
things arranged. We’ll extend our offline
presence across the nation in significant
urban cities. Additionally we are in course of
opening another factory which will expand
our production capacity to 200%. With the
operation of the new factory we’ll be able to
hire 500-1000 more workforce. Apart from
these we’ll further initiate on expanding our
existing product portfolio. So yes, few things
are lined up for processing”.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 129

 MILESTONE
Serein was born to fill a gap in the
market in the lifestyle tableware
category. Serveware in India
is usually made of porcelain
or ceramics and have a typical
dated design and styles. Florals,
monochromatic patterns, gold or
silver leaf trimmed serving pieces
ruled the table decor market.
There was an acute lack of serving
pieces that actually resonated
with today’s generation of well-
heeled consumers who are dining
at restaurants that serve cuisines
from all over the world. Serein
perfectly fits this niche.
Serein’s pieces are one of a kind,
since they are made of natural
stones like Amethyst, Aventurine,
Blue Agate, Rose Quartz and from
Acacia Wood, Slate, Marble and
Brass, Serein creates and curates
tableware pieces that you would
feel absolutely thrilled to have in

Mansi Dalal and around your home.

Cheese Platters, Grazing Platters,
Founder, Serein Hi Tea Displays and Cake Stands
have gained huge popularity in
the lockdown, as they are the
most diverse tableware products
which can be paired and styled
extensively.
The brand has developed an AR/VR
app, where customers can actually
view the product in the comfort of
their homes. Currently they have
6-8 products that are visible with a
360 degree view. Soon, they will be
adding many more to the mix.
TOUCH OF PERFECTION
Serein is an immersive experience of life at its most mindful. The brand believes pleasure is a purposeful ritual
that connects you to your inner bliss. Their curated, handcrafted tableware, home decor and lifestyle pieces
deliver exacting quality and refinement, and will leave you inspired and intentful. The brainchild of Mansi
Dalal, Serein, just as the name suggests stands for a philosophy that resonates with people looking to add a
charming touch to their inner quarters.

Bringing up Serein
Mansi Dalal, Founder, Serein says,
“We specialise in indigenously crafted
tableware, tailored for the aesthetic palate
of the millennials and Gen Z consumer.
Our tableware collection makes a
contemporary modern style statement.
Serein’s handcrafted tableware, home
decor and lifestyle pieces deliver exacting
quality and refinement, and will leave you
feeling inspired and intentful. Our brand
Serein seeks to create an impact that is
meaningful, our products are designed to
delight and crafted to last. Since the launch
of the brand in 2019, we have received
an amazing response from the digital
community. People are now hosting all kinds
of events, occasions and functions in their
home, so it’s the best time to bring out and
style the dining area in aesthetically crafted
lifestyle products and elevate the dining
experience at home. Besides being featured
in various top home decor magazines, we
have our products listed on the International
portals Etsy & Amazon. Our international
clients have been growing day by day”.
The product that Serein brings forth
appeals to a younger, more aspirational
generation, which inspires men and
women, equally. A psychological shift
of how people consume their meals has
taken place. “Mindful eating, conscious
consumption of calories, serving and plating
food in Indian homes have evolved and so
the serveware pieces needed to change
too! Grazing platters, cheese platters and
small plates are unique, one of a kind. The
exposure the brand offers to this category
includes modern, sleek serveware that
has an international feel and caters to the
hedonistic Gen Zs,” Mansi adds.
Walking the talk
Mansi says, “Inspiration from the
decor segment comes from a personal
experience. I have noticed that the
products found in western countries are
not easily available here. Either they are
really expensive, or it becomes a logistical
nightmare to call for it from abroad. The
inspiration also comes from being able
to cater to the psychological shift of the
millennial generation, who have now
switched to a mindset of more mindful
eating, self love, enriching their own lifestyle
experience and elevating tastes. Our
core ideology of the business is all about
experiencing an elevated sense of being,
self awareness, treating oneself right, self
love and connecting with one’s self to enrich
life. I wouldn’t call it a challenge as such,
but making people understand and aware
of how these tableware products can be
used in an everyday environment to host
ourselves to live a very well-lived life, as
opposed to one that restricts table setting
to only hosts visitors or guests”.
Keeping it natural
The key factor that the brand keeps in mind,
in order to add to their product mix; is to
curate bespoke, extremely superior quality,
aesthetic pieces and to put together the
best there is out there in the world. “Our post
covid strategy is all about connecting with
people in their natural home environment.
Our aim is to be available to consumers who
like to immerse themselves in experiencing
life to the fullest, rather than just passing
through it. Instagram has been our ‘go to’
friend for every touch point and interaction
with our customers. We launched our brand
on the digital platform of social media -
Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn
and Google My Business in 2019. During
the lockdown period, due to our constant
content sharing, we saw a tremendous
increase in our followers, as everyone was
confined in their homes and everybody was
on these digital platforms. These online
platforms have not only gained us organic
followers, but has also increased our sales
post-COVID restrictions,” Mansi highlights.
Further, Serein has already expanded
their product category to include wellness
and lifestyle products. They have recently
introduced a very small section of textile
and accent furniture to their repertoire.
The plan is to be a one stop solution for any
home decor items their customers would
need.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 131


Mathew Joseph
Co-Founder, Sleepyhead Home Decor Private Limited
MILESTONE
Sleepyhead has grown ~13x since
FY19. They ended FY20 being the
second biggest mattress brand in
the e-commerce space.
Sleepyhead retails through
sleepyhead.com and has a strong
relationship with Amazon and
Flipkart since inception. They
continue to be a strategic brand
in the category. They have also
established relations with Bajaj
Finserv EMI Stores, Pepperfry,
Tatacliq, Paytm Mall etc.
Sleepyhead was able to expand its
service ability to 13000 pincodes in
FY 21-22 as against 8000 pincodes
in FY 20-21. They were serving
around 4000 pincodes in the first
year of their inception.
Sleepyhead has around 200000+
happy customers with an average
product rating of 4.5 stars across
platforms.
COMFORT ON POINT
From king size mattresses and singles to queen size mattresses, sofa cum beds and double size mattresses,
Sleepyhead is engineered for perfect sleep. Made of durable memory foam, the premium quality of their
orthopedic memory foam mattresses offer comfort far beyond coir or spring. The brand aims to help
customers get more comfortable. Which is why their luxury products are priced 60% lower than retail.
Getting ready
A 100% subsidiary of Duroflex, Sleepyhead
was introduced to bring the concept of
‘mattress in a box’ to India. Mathew Joseph,
Co-Founder at Sleepyhead Home Decor
Private Limited says, “It’s a younger quirky
brand, which has no rules. It is for a younger
audience between 18 to 35, who’s just coming
into the workforce. The growth within the
online space and consumers shifting to
online to fulfill their shopping needs inspired
us to launch Sleepyhead. The brand has
adapted a number of strategies from the
start to reach out to the customer and make
them feel special. From being able to come
with a packaging, which helps in sending
mattresses rolled up in a box to offering
them ‘100 days free trial’, we were able to
win customer trust and generate positive
reviews. Since, shopping online is mostly
based on good reviews, it helped us get more
customers”.
Some people like their mattresses to
be firm and some like to simply sink into
their soft mattresses. In order to create
the perfect mattress for all, we perfected
a unique three-layer foam construction
that provides the ultimate combination of
support and coziness. Not too firm, not soft,
just unbelievably luxurious.
Making it right
When all the big mattress companies were
focusing on how to build custom beds for
every single human body-type walking the
face of earth and consequently confusing the
already-confused consumers, Sleepyhead
decided to do the opposite. “We thought that
an intelligently-designed mattress could be
the revolution that the sleep world in India
needed. So we designed mattresses that are
perfect for 90% of sleepers, regardless of
their body-type or sleeping position. When
most mattress companies bet on the ‘wow’
factor by displaying the grandiosity of their
products in furniture stores, Sleepyhead bet
on the ‘ease’ factor. We decided to double
down on the quality and make our products
more convenient; more reliable and also
reduce the service cost to a great extent,
by making the mattress available to you in
a nifty little box (smaller than the mattress
itself). At Sleepyhead we believe that life is
complicated as it is, and we are here to make
life easy for our customers, in whatever small
way we can,” Mathew adds.
Comfort is at the heart of everything the
brand does and from mattress the brand
is slowly expanding in the sleep solution
category, to further offer the customer
something new and comfortable, they
can vouch for. Sleepyhead mattress is a 6
inch mattress made from a combination
of 3 different types of high quality foams.
It uses a high density foam as its support
foam, responsive memory foam (developed
by NASA, no less) as the middle layer that
moulds perfectly to your body, relieves
pressure and further enhances the right
sleeping posture and a layer of comfort foam
on top to keep the mattress fresh and bouncy
which makes it the perfect surface to sleep
on. However, all this innovation comes at a
small price as the brand ‘directly’ sells the
product to the customer and sends it to their
doorstep, cutting down the extra cost of
middlemen.
Future focused
Sleepyhead’s major focus today is to
strengthen their non-mattress category,
which includes beds, sofas and sleep
accessories in the upcoming years. The
brand also aims to hit a revenue of INR 1000
crores by FY26. Understanding the need of
the hour, fulfilment has emerged as the hero
proposition for our brand. Sleepyhead has
recently opened 7 new warehouses in India
and are working towards bringing down the
delivery time for mattresses, across India.
Pre-COVID the it would take around 5 days
to get a Sleepyhead product delivered to
the customer doorstep. Today, the brand
has almost lowered it down to 2-3 days in
major metros and is further working towards
tightening it, so that they crack the within
2 days mark. “Customers want to buy our
‘mattress in a box’ idea because they want
to get mattresses instantly to meet their
needs. So, we have to be agile and ready to
serve this instant need. From working on our
production and tightening the processes of
manufacturing, we are now working towards
cutting down all the slack in our logistics
and making it seamless as we go,” Mathew
highlights.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 133

Ankit Garg
CEO & Co-Founder, Wakefit.co
MILESTONE
Wakefit has so far served over 6
lakh customers and will continue
to invest in research, customer
experience, feedback, and product
excellence to become a household
name among consumers in India.
The brand is targeting a revenue of
INR 800 crore for FY 21-22.
Today, Wakefit is one of the leading
D2C sleep and home solutions
brands, having serviced over 19,000
pin codes across the country and
almost 40% of their demand comes
from Tier 2 and 3 markets.
Wakefit has raised Series A and
B rounds of INR 65 Cr and `185 Cr
respectively over the last three
years.
Wakefit had about 350 employees
on staff last year when their overall
headcount was close to 600. This
year, they have ramped their staff
to over 1000 people, with a total
employee base of close to 2,400.
They have set up 22 experience
centres in cities across India,
including Bengaluru, Hyderabad,
Coimbatore, Lucknow, Gurugram,
Kolkata, Chennai, Bhopal,
Bhubaneshwar, Jaipur etc.
GENUINE APPROACH
Ankit Garg (CEO & Co-Founder, Wakefit.co) worked in a German MNC to gain most of his experience in foaming. The MNC
used to supply foam to mattress companies and Ankit knew the cost of materials. Subsequently, when he went to buy a
mattress for himself, he realised the huge gap in salespeople’s knowledge as well as price disparity. That’s when he thought
of starting Wakefit. With intentions to solve the pertaining problems in the market and fill the gaps that existed, Ankit built
Wakefit by partnering with Co-Founder Chaitanya Ramalingegowda and over the years they have built a steady team.

Inception story
Ankit Garg, CEO & Co-Founder, Wakefit.co
narrates the journey of Wakefit, “My Co-
Founder Chaitanya Ramalingegowda and
I, started Wakefit.co in 2016 with a vision
to revolutionize the way India sleeps, by
offering premium quality mattresses at an
affordable price delivered to the customers’
doorstep. The mattress industry had seen
minimal innovation and the sector paid
little to no attention to what the customers
really needed. During our initial stages of
the business, we personally delivered the
first 100 orders in my car while making it a
point to speak with each customer face to
face to understand their feedback about
the product and how we can improvise.
By virtue of positive customer word-of-
mouth, we ended our first year at INR 6.75
crores. Today, 5 years down the line, we
have recorded 3x growth in revenues year-
on-year since then. With our entry into the
home solutions category, we further intend
to address the needs of the customers by
providing products of world class quality.
We have been scaling aggressively despite
the on-going pandemic and targeting a
revenue of INR 800 crore for FY 21-22. We
are looking to expand into newer segments
constantly. With the upcoming festive
season, Wakefit.co anticipates further
growth in consumer demand”.
Customer approaches
At Wakefit, customer experience is key
and consistent research has helped with
deeper insights for their customer base.
They have strived towards strengthening
their relationship with the customers
even after the product has been sold and
they believe this is an ongoing process
of open communication. As a digitally
native company, all of Wakefit’s order
fulfilment and customer delight processes
are technology-enabled. Further, a robust
ERP system gives them good control of
the overall health of the business. As a
D2C brand, Wakefit believes it is important
to stay on top of consumers’ minds and
constantly keep them engaged to make
a strong impact. Generating out of the
box content is also something that they
constantly do in order to keep consumers
engaged. In the past, they have launched
multiple campaigns such as ‘Open letter
campaign’, which went viral and received
over 15 million views on YouTube, 61,000
likes on Facebook, more than 260 letters
on the Postbox microsite, and saw 122,000
traffic to the Postbox microsite. This was
followed by two more digital campaigns —
‘Bhaad Me Jaa 2020’ and ‘Sonu Sood, Ghar Ki
Baat’ — which also became popular on social
media.
“Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, we
expanded into the home solutions space.
Besides our flagship mattresses and sleep
accessories, we expanded to include a
range of ergonomic furniture, including
sofas, study tables, bookshelves, shoe
racks, TV units, bedside tables, coffee
tables, dining tables, and more. Adding
furniture was always on the cards but the
pandemic pushed us to launch this earlier.
Today, the furniture segment contributes
20% percent to Wakefit’s revenue. Since
people are at home, and they are investing in
their homes, this has contributed positively
to our revenues. Our strategy has been
rather simple since day 1 - recognize what
the consumers want and innovate based
on their feedback. This has helped us
build disruptive and high-quality products
consistently over the years,” Ankit adds,
talking about the expansions the brand has
carried out.
Future plans
Wakefit.co’s goal is to build brand awareness
and the best way to do it, in their opinion is
to take the stance of educating customers
and to focus on innovative ideas and
content that will resonate with the brand’s
target audience. For instance, intelligent
campaigns – such as their open letter
campaign which went live during the
lockdown period last year – gave them the
opportunity to engage with the customers in
meaningful ways. They have always focused
on frugal marketing campaigns and not
traditional advertising. For instance, their
sleep internship programme, went globally
viral and brought awareness around the
brand, sleep as a category and the solutions
they wanted to bring to the market.
Wakefit, aims to become a one-stop-shop
for all home solutions in India. The brand’s
future plans entail strengthening the brand
and ramping up production capabilities
and distribution networks across Indian
markets.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 135

 MILESTONE
Wood so Good plans to scale up till
they are a household name.

Veronica Goenka As a new and growing company,

they have only seen upward
Founder, Wood so Good revenue growth since their launch.
The brand has experienced an
explosion of customer growth
due to the power of social media
advertising.
Wood so Good is always on the path
to create an extremely responsive
website and an equally ready
customer service team.
MAKING MINIMAL
SHINE
Wood so Good entered the home and homeware segment to cater to a prominent need gap of selling
minimal yet eye-catching homeware. They have in no time received very good response for their offering,
partly influenced by COVID and partly because the market is showing a lot of interest for products made by
hand in a minimal Pinterest-friendly aesthetic.
Starting something different
“We started out with a variety of décor
products but realized that our tableware is
what receives the most love and demand.
So, we started picking more tableware
pieces while sticking to our much-loved
feel-good minimal aesthetic. We realize
that as people are stuck in their homes,
they want to enjoy simple experiences like
sharing a meal with their families. That
means a lot of people are on the lookout
for tableware like that we offer, to elevate
their serving game. We have customers
telling us that they find a lot of handcrafted
wooden tableware across Instagram, but
they find it hard to finalize things that are
minimal and yet eye-catching enough to go
into their shopping carts. We have been told
on several occasions that they appreciate
how we fill this gap in the market while also
offering export quality wares at prices they
love as well as cash on delivery,” Veronica
Goenka, Founder, Wood so Good mentions
when narrating the brand’s inception story.
She says that artisanal homeware has a
bright future. It already does great overseas
and as per the trends, it’ll be much bigger in
India too. Woodenware, jute etc. are natural
materials and their sales offer livelihoods to
our highly skilled local artisan communities,
so according to the Wood so Good team,
customers are slowly choosing these
reasons to shop handmade as they are
becoming more conscious of their footprint
and impact on the economy. In a nutshell,
they believe that naturally made artisanal
homeware will soon be as common as
cheaper mass-produced home accessories
if not more.
Crossing hurdles
From finding the right manufacturers, to
the right audiences, Wood so Good has
had to find their way through innumerable
challenges since the start. The right way to
fulfill and getting hold of the right delivery
partners, was also a pain point initially. “It
takes a while to get it right. It’s taken us a
while to understand what kind of people
like our aesthetic, where they live and what
they’re about. We interact quite a bit with our
customers on Instagram to understand their
likes, dislikes and feedback. Instagram has
also been a good way to lift peoples’ spirits
during the pandemic and communicate
critical messages about health, our
community and how these things affect our
business and our customers’ experience.
We look at things people like to do and try to
come up with tools that can enable them to
enjoy those activities more. A lot of people
took up baking during the pandemic, so we
launched a lot of serving boards that are
great for serving patisserie,” Veronica adds.
Aiming higher
Completely self-funded, Veronica informs
that funding is not on the cards in the recent
future. But she hints that scaling up in
future may require them to look at the IPO
or funding way. When speaking about the
brand’s USP and innovation, she says, “We
are constantly working with our designers
on sustainable designs that allow the use
of different natural materials and artisanal
techniques. Our collection of enameled
platters and bowls are a unique find that
effortlessly enhances any table décor. These
are available in shapes that offer a touch
of quirk to the table while maintaining its
elegance. This blend of attributes has taken
a lot of time to develop but hits just the
right notes as per many customer reviews
we have received on Instagram. On the
other hand, we are constantly working to
improve customer experience on our site
as well as in our fulfillment process. Our
site for instance is constantly updated for a
smoother customer experience”.
“Also, we have invested quite a bit on
our site and continue to do so in order to
enhance customer experience. We work
with a great team that has been helping
us to improve every aspect of customer
journey on our site. Whether it is initiating
checkout smoothly or have options to add
to cart at different places on the site. We
continue to learn about optimizing our
platform to maintain continued growth and
site traffic,” Veronica sums up.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 137

Lokendra Ranawat
CEO & Co-Founder, WoodenStreet
MILESTONE
December 2016, the first
WoodenStreet store was launched
in Bengaluru.
December 2017, first WoodenStreet
Android and iOS apps launched.
In 2018-19, 12 WoodenStreet stores
were launched across India.
In 2018, WoodenStreet UK store
was launched.
WoodenStreet bagged USD 1 Million
in seed-funding from RVCF in
2018, and USD 3 Million in Series-A
funding from ANI along with RVCF.
In both the cases, the funds have
been channelled towards greater
expansion, both domestic and
global.
In March 2017, WoodenStreet
launched direct deliveries in 100
cities.
CARVING A CHANGE
Co-founded by Lokendra Ranawat, Dinesh Pratap Singh, Virendra Ranawat and Vikas Baheti, in May 2015,
WoodenStreet provides custom-made solid wood furniture at low price points. With over 5 lakh+ happy
customers and 300+ delivery centers, WoodenStreet today has a reach almost at every corner of India, and the
wooden furniture the brand brings to the front perfectly blends with the Indian home decor with ease. Wooden
Street provides you with ready-made and customized solid wood furniture online. At WoodenStreet, the team
is committed to serve customers the exclusive range in home furniture products like sofa sets, coffee tables, wardrobes, dining
tables, all crafted from premium-quality solid wood.

Story so far
Jaipur-based online furniture seller
WoodenStreet was born from a personal
insight, “I think every idea starts from a
personal experience that is because till
you don’t face certain constraints in some
situations, you would never want to find
solutions to those. While I moved back from
London to India, setting up my new home
was a difficult task. And, at that point I felt
the need to buy cost-effective furniture not
being met by the Indian market. So, with this
thought in mind I, Virendra Ranawat, Dinesh
Pratap and Vikas Baheti (Co-Founders),
we arranged the entire setup frame for
WoodenStreet. My inspiration and what
kept me on the growth path was not to
overthink, if you feel something that is right
and has faith in that, no one can stop you,”
Lokendra Ranawat, CEO & Co-Founder,
WoodenStreet mentions.
WoodenStreet has reached up to become
a 21 billion USD brand and is going to
increase to 42 billion USD in the future. With
space saving, multi-functional and smart
furniture pieces being the top trends of
today, WoodenStreet has reoriented their
offerings. At the very start, the offerings and
focus was mainly on solid wood furniture
and “I would say that’s what I have started
with. But, as you dive deep into something,
as your team grows, ideas come & develop,
you meet new people – all these play a
great role in diversifying the product range.
So, the strategy was quite simple and
straightforward. You can call it a trend or
I would say, actually a basic need of the
hour for space-saving and multifunctional
furniture in today’s booming apartment.
These days, people really care about and
genuinely want to invest their time in
something worthwhile. And, needless to say,
this pandemic has taught us this in the right
way,” Lokendra adds.
Customer ready
WoodenStreet has always believed in
keeping the customer’s requirements at
their heart’s core and for the brand, every
customer’s furniture-buying experience
should be at par. Moreover, with that being
in mind, “we set out to launch multiple
brick-and-mortar experience stores across
India, (which now number 35+) to help grow
that “touch-and-feel” experience that the
customers usually look forward to. We
also let technology rule the front-end with
easy-to-use customization features on
the website and app, Virtual Reality tours,
3D visualization and visual media in easy
formats for a customer to get a gist of
products and the utility offered. Talking
about the tweaks, as everyone was working
from home during those times so the needs
in terms of furniture at that time also got
increased such as study table, laptop tables,
office chairs and dedicatedly items that
needed to create a perfect WFH set up
but again people have an eye on low-cost
solutions because of the crisis. So, we
brought out the affordable WFH solutions
and a new modular range which turned out
to be the biggest tweak considering the
pandemic,” Lokendra highlights.
Innovation at core
Innovation is of course and always will form
the core of the brand and the team always
tries to conclude every idea by bringing in
innovative thoughts in context to that. The
USP for the brand is Customisation and
that is what makes them a trendsetter in
the furniture world. As, they were the first
players in the online furniture industry who
were offering complete customization for
any furniture category. Talking about the
technology adoption, Lokendra says that the
brand lets it rule through their easy-to-use
customization features on the website and
app, Virtual Reality tours, 3D visualization
and visual media in digestible formats for
a customer to get a gist of products and
the utility offered. They are also planning to
come up with an AI system to help customers
at best and also improve their backend part
aggressively as per users requirements.
“Going forward, our major focus will
be one strong logistics and installation
network. And, as I said previously also that
being an omnichannel presence is equally
important our aim is to now create 50
stores over the next two to three years and
eventually start expanding globally. Yes,
we’re already getting orders from the UK and
Netherlands and to execute it is already on
our future to-do list,” Lokendra sums up.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 139

CATEGORY ANALYSIS
APPAREL
With India’s e-commerce industry projected to grow by 84% to US$ 111 billion by 2024, driven
by mobile shopping, it is poised to become a favourable market for fashion retailers on the
back of a large young adult consumer base, increasing disposable income and relaxed FDI
norms. In less than a decade, fashion D2C brands have raised $756 million.

Top thoughts
In a sector that was largely penetrated by international brands that were the key players in the market primarily due to a lack
of availability of home-grown labels that could match their quality and style, India’s up-and-coming apparel brands have been
major disruptors.
Driven by game-changing technology, the market has become more favourable for D2C start-ups, making a significant shift
from offline to online retail not only among customers, but also among existing apparel brands.
Customisation of the product has been the driving force for fashion and apparel e-commerce.

Brands pivoting a change:

Significant markers
The men’s apparel industry has been clocking an average CAGR of 12-13%.
The innerwear category, too, is seeing a gradual growth in consumers as they gain more confidence in shopping online, driven by AI-
powered technology. As a category, about 10% of purchases are now made online that is indicative of an apparent shift in behaviour.
The ethnic wear category has also been constantly growing and is estimated to be over $25 billion by 2025.
Remarkable trend REVENUE GROWTH
Brands are increasingly investing in building a robust supply chain and
fulfilment network. Investments in warehouses and warehousing technology
have also grown significantly. D2C brands understand that making the
customer’s end-to-end experience seamless is crucial to success. Bewakoof,
in fact, has spent the most on logistics as a share of total expense in FY20
compared to other major D2C brands. Its logistics expenditure rose by 50.2%
in FY20.

A full circle
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly altered the course of the industry
and its individual segments, turning it on its head. While western work-
wear was one of the fastest growing categories before the pandemic hit,
post it, consumers have moved from formal, stiff fabrics to comfortable, 30%
have seen
season-less, skin-friendly fabrics. Subsequently, the pace of recovery for growth, but the
70%
brands have witnessed more
casual wear and lounge wear has been the fastest, followed by kids’ wear and rate has been
than 100% revenue growth in
slower.
innerwear, ethnic wear, denims, formal wear and lastly, occasion wear. the past year

Trends on watch
CUSTOMER GROWTH
LIVE SHOPPING EXPERIENCE: Indian apparel brands are increasingly
investing in making the shopper’s experience as real as the one they would
have at a physical store. Brands understand the need to be quick and
seamless, and are heavily investing in technology that offers customers the
choice of virtual trials.

MADE TO MEASURE: Fashion has grown at a massive pace in the last

decade and the double-digit growth rates are expected to last another
decade, to say the least. A tailored experience with AI-based catalogue
curations and recommendations that are based on what they’ve liked
and shopped historically is increasingly being adapted by D2C players in
the realm. Brands are continuously innovating on technology by offering
customers made-to-measure garments via a virtual interface. Another shift
that has shaped the industry is the increased acceptance of home-grown 100%
brands have seen a growth in their
brands in contemporary fashion that now offer garments that are suited to customer base year-on-year
the Indian body type. In keeping with their ethos of one size does not fit all,
brands are diversifying into the plus-size segment as well.
DRIVERS OF GROWTH
BREEZY FABRICS & COMFORTABLE FITS: In this entire duration of
a prolonged WFH setup, and as we now step into a future of work where
most people will be working in a hybrid setup between office and home,
the concept of work-wear has changed drastically. This has led to a need
to reimagine work-wear, as comfort is becoming key even in a stylish and
structured formal look. There has been a marked shift from formal clothes to
now mostly tees and casual bottom-wear. The lines that once defined work-
wear have also blurred.

FULFILMENT & WAREHOUSING: Brands are increasingly forecasting

demand for the season based on the performance of styles and surges &
dips, and accordingly managing production and maintain lean inventories for
cost effectiveness. Back by agile supply chains, they manage replenishment
and production when they see demand surge for any particular style. D2C 100%
brands have induced content-driven
apparel brands are investing in automated warehousing, supply chain and Social Media strategies to drive
growth
distribution, as well as state-of-the-art CRM systems.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 141


Nidhi Yadav
Founder, Aks Clothings and
Satpal Yadav
Founder, Aks Clothings
MILESTONE
Aks Clothings has developed a
special unit for women so they can
get better employment. This also
involves the presence of more than
50% of outsourcing firms working
for Aks that are either founded or
led by women.
While earlier Aks was only into
women’s fashion, it has now
expanded its horizons and launched
a kids’ collection and a Karwa
Chauth collection, which includes
men’s wear as well.
Its kids’ collection outfits are
made from the reaming fabrics of
the mother outfits, an approach
that helps the brand in upcycling
while simultaneously promoting
sustainability.
Since the expansion of its clothing
range, its revenue has shot up
vividly. The brand has been
recording a year-on-year revenue
growth of 5%.
RIDING ON
TECHNOLOGY
Aks began in a small warehouse of less than a thousand units. The idea behind the venture was to give a new
lease of life to the ethnic wear market by creating unique fusion themes and infusing comfort in order to
satisfy the everyday fashion needs of modern Indian women. Under the aegis of Yuvdhi Apparels and a small
seed capital of `3.5 lakh, Aks was brought to life in May 2014.
Humble beginnings
“I was always drawn towards clothing
brands and their stories. So while pursuing
a fashion designing course in Italy, I studied
the business model of many iconic fashion
brands. Inspired by their success, I decided
to replicate it in Aks,” says Nidhi Yadav,
Founder, Aks Clothings, who, along with
Satpal Yadav, Founder, Aks Clothings,
established the brand in May 2014 with a
seed capital of `3.5 lakh.
But, every business faces some
difficulties and challenges in the initial
phase, and Aks was no exception. “From
a small seed capital which funded a small
warehouse of less than a thousand units to
managing the responsibility of a 7-month-
old baby and winning the supplier’s and
resource’s confidence were some of the
toughest challenges before me when I
wore the shoes of an entrepreneur. During
our initial days, we kept ourselves lean
in structure and resources, relying a lot
on multi-tasking. Over time, this trait
eventually turned into the DNA of our
organisation and we stuck to it,” adds Nidhi.
Team Aks works to deliver fashion
that suits the rapidly changing times and
ensures both high-quality standards and
pocket-friendly rates. Though it began as
a brand catering to the fashion needs of
college-going girls and working women who
wanted to look fashionable and in trend, Aks
soon broadened its target audience with
the introduction of new lines. It now has
apparel that caters to mothers. “We offer
fashionable outfits at affordable prices and
launch a new collection every 15 days so
our customers can stay up-to-date with the
trend,” adds Nidhi.
Talking about challenges during the
pandemic she says that the main challenge
was the production of goods because
demand was increasing and production
was getting slow. It wasn’t easy to increase
production while maintaining social
distance in the workplace. To solve this
problem, Aks expanded its supplier base
and that helped it tackle this issue.
Surging ahead
Aks began with its primary marketing
strategy focused on being available on all
digital platforms. “Retail marketing was not
my priority. We know how powerful digital
marketing platforms are and how quickly
they are growing. Therefore, instead of the
offline market, we jumped into the digital
market and that’s how we’ve managed to
establish a strong footprint. We know what
our customers want and we always try to
satisfy their needs with quality, fashionable
and trendy clothes at affordable prices.
We’ve broadened our target audience as
well and that has helped us greatly in terms
of growth,” the founder states.
Aks adopted the omnichannel approach
quite early on in the day. Today, most
organisations are entering digital platforms
to grow their brand; Aks was established
on digital platforms. “I believe that in
today’s fast-growing world, people are
more into online shopping because it’s
easy and convenient. Aks has built itself
completely on the digital platform and we
have achieved recognition in the market
in a very short period of time because
of our availability, styles and affordable
pricing. We are growing and expanding our
business day-by-day,” shares Nidhi.
The clothing brand has brought many
tech-enabled changes in its production
processes, such as using CAD for pattern
making and 3D for sampling. Its factories,
too, are tech-enabled. They also use
CAD for production, which has reduced
wastage. Since Aks is only available on
digital platforms, technology is a key factor
for the brand. From designing the outfits
to manufacturing them, the company
uses different kinds of technologies and
machinery. They also employ tracking
technology to ensure the safe delivery
of the product, developing it each day to
match the modern demands in the market.
Talking about the future they have
planned for Aks, Nidhi says, “We will go
deeper with popular e-commerce portals
in the country. This time, we will be
focusing on D2C along with the franchise
model. Apart from this, we are working on
a special collection by associating with
celebrities.”
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 143
 MILESTONE
Bewakoof has raised `170 crore
from leading investors like
InvestCorp and Ivy Cap. The brand
has strengthened its sales to more
than 20,000 products per day.
It has a total customer base of 10
million and is adding more than 2
lakh new customers every month
Prabhkiran Singh with a repeat customer rate of 65%.
Bewakoof’s biggest achievement
Co-founder CEO, Bewakoof has been building traction and
engagement on its own channel.
Today, 95% of its sales happen
through its native channel -
bewakoof.com.
Backed by 6.1 million followers
on Social Media, Bewakoof has
touched sales of `300 crore and
a year-on-year revenue growth of
106%.
URBAN, RELATABLE,
ON POINT!
Founded in 2012, fashion brand Bewakoof has always aimed to add light heartedness to life through its self-
expressive products and fun shopping experiences. Loved for its offerings in casual-wear, it takes pride in
being Indian and being relatable to the Indian audience. Having begun as a T-shirt brand, today Bewakoof
has adapted its product range to cater to the growing work-from-home audience through sleepwear, shorts
and joggers.

The corridors of change

Bewakoof.com started out of a dorm room
at IIT Bombay with an initial investment
of `30,000. When it entered the category,
building aspirational brands in India was
the only playbook that existed. Today, the
brand has scaled to sales of `300 crore.
“Though we still feel we have just begun and
big things are yet to be achieved, it has been
a journey of a lifetime so far. In the process
of enabling expressions, we have disrupted
the entire process of brand creation and
management. We have been building a
D2C brand since 2012 and have been using
technology to solve each challenge in front
of us,” says Prabhkiran Singh, Co-founder
CEO, Bewakoof. The brand continues
to focus on providing customers with an
interactive experience that is appropriate,
relevant, meaningful and endearing. “We
make sure to deliver that by taking care
of touchpoints before, during and after
purchase,” adds Singh.
Bewakoof was built on Social Media, and
content marketing continues to be a key
strategy for the brand. Singh remembers
the two biggest challenges he faced back
then. “Our first challenge in the initial
years was getting investor buy-in towards
this segment. The second challenge was
to reduce dependency on third-party
marketplaces. Today, we create and post
content that is relatable and is around
contemporary humour. This has built an
organic following for the brand of 4.4 million
fans on Facebook and 1.5 million fans on
Instagram,” he adds. The COVID-19 crisis
also turned the wheel for Bewakoof, and
the brand ventured into sleepwear and
loungewear, apparel for plus sizes and
fusion wear, while keeping its ethos of
light heartedness intact in its new line. But,
expansion doesn’t just stop there. Bewakoof
also plans to venture into activewear and
innerwear, to be followed by the home
category in the next one to two years.
Delighting the customer
Over a period of time, the focus for
Bewakoof has changed to an end-to-end
customer experience where along with the
in-App shopping experience, the post-
purchase experience has also become
critical. Delivery Turnaround Time (TAT) is
where innovations are happening big time.
“Customers want the product as soon as
possible after making the payment and that’s
where Bewakoof is working to innovate.
We have two fulfilment models, first one
is the inventory model where orders are in
ready-to-ship condition before the order is
received, and the other is the made-to-order
model where the orders are customised as
per the customer’s requirement. To reduce
the delivery timelines for both the fulfilment
types, we are working on a distributed
inventory and auto-replenishment
framework. We have three regional
warehouses in the North, South and West,
and are soon launching the fourth in the
East. This enables us to be agile and closer
to the demand and leverage predictive
modelling/ Machine Learning to improve
inventory efficiency and supply chain costs,”
shares Singh.
The brand also uses customer insights
and recommendations to improve fulfilment
accuracy and reduce customer returns,
which is the biggest pain point in the
e-commerce industry. Bewakoof has also
introduced eco-friendly packaging to reduce
the use of plastic bags and improve the
overall delivery experience. It also has plans
to go on television to reveal its brand story,
besides working on gamification and video
commerce. “We aim to reach a revenue
figure of `2,000 crore within a time frame
of four years; we are working to improve
distribution channels. We just got listed on
Flipkart, Amazon and Myntra, and are seeing
really interesting early numbers,” says Singh.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 145

 MILESTONE
Within three years of its inception,
Beyoung grew to touch revenues
of `55 crore. Today, the company
Shivam Soni is growing at a rate of over 500%
annually.
Founder & CEO, Beyoung
The brand’s customer base has
also been growing exponentially,
recording a growth rate of 250%.
Beyoung broke barriers when it
introduced the official merchandise
for films Gully Boy and Uri.
The brand has recently expanded
its collection and introduced both
formal as well as casual shirts for
men, and will soon launch its range
of kurtis for women.
FINGER ON THE PULSE
Apparel brand Beyoung was founded with the aim of offering customers a range of comfortable and funky
garments that were well-designed and resonated with their ideology. The brand also partnered with cult
films to sell their official merchandise, and saw numbers grow remarkably well. Beyoung now plans to foray
into new categories. It has already launched its range of shirts for men, and is on the anvil of announcing a
range of kurtis for women.
Crystal-clear vision
Since adolescence, Shivam Soni,
Founder & CEO, Beyoung, wanted to be
an entrepreneur who had something
extraordinary to offer to the world. So when
the time was right, he decided to realise his
dream and founded Beyoung. Through the
funky tees and merchandise, Soni wanted
to create a niche for the brand in the market
by targeting both young adults and adults,
typically in the age group between 16 and 45
years. To his pleasant surprise, the clothes
soon resonated with people of all ages and
Soni decided to not confine himself to a
few age groups alone. “We wanted people
to wear our merchandise and feel young.
We succeeded in doing that and now look
forward to even greater opportunities,” he
says.
What worked in Beyoung’s favour were
both quality and style. The brand aimed to
make headway in the market by offering
apparel that was comfortable, cool and well-
designed. “We have always strived for better
and more comfortable products, and our
designers work efficiently to introduce new,
cooler designs. The whole scope is to target
all age groups, from the young to the old,
so that they find the level of comfort they
deserve. We also cater to all sizes because
we want quirky fashion to be enjoyed by all,”
Soni adds.
One of the biggest challenges that the
company faced early on in its journey
was building a reliable team and network.
Soon, the company was faced by another
adversity – keeping business running
efficiently in the time of a pandemic,
with lockdowns implemented across
the country and production & deliveries
halted. “The apparel category has grown
exponentially during the pandemic. The
idea was to expand each category and
explore new ones. The challenge was to
work efficiently on processing because
the lockdown had created many barriers in
acquiring raw material, and in production &
transportation. Our target was to maintain
profitability at 110 per cent, for which we all
worked really hard,” shares Soni.
An ear to the ground
By leveraging the powers of both Social
Media and a robust customer support
team, Beyoung aims to constantly be in
touch with its target audience and cater
to their needs and queries in a timely
manner. “We believe in not only selling
the products to the customers, but also
in creating a bond with them. For this, we
have a prompt customer support team
and we organise frequent contests for our
consumers to shop as well as enjoy the
online journey. Owing to the pandemic, we
worked more aggressively on our online
portal because we realised that the online
market had been booming during this time.
We enhanced our safety guidelines through
contactless delivery, frequent sanitisation
and temperature check of the delivery men.
We also introduced frequent sales and
low prices because people had definitely
begun thinking before spending. We got to
understand our customers better through
Social Media and began working to cater to
their changing requirements,” Soni explains.
What turned the tables for Beyoung was
their partnering with films like Gully Boy and
Uri, which had mass appeal and resonated
with the young audiences, for selling their
official merchandise. The brand also sells
merchandise for Friends, Harry Potter, etc.
After having received its first round of
funding, Beyoung worked aggressively to
grow its team with more workforce, more
targets and more passion. Soni believes that
funding definitely plays a big role in giving
a boost to the D2C ecosystem. Backed by
a strong CRM team and monthly marketing
& production spends touching `4 million,
Beyoung hopes to generate revenue of
over `125 crore by the end of financial year
2022-23, and `300 crore by the end of 2024.
“I believe that the clear way to execute this
is by working hard. Our entire team works
efficiently and presently, we are generating
sales of `3.5 to `4 crore, collectively. We
strive to carry this ahead and increase it
even further,” he says.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 147
 MILESTONE
Clovia forayed into personal care
with the launch of Clovia Botaniqa
early this year, offering intimate
washes and sanitary solutions.
Its proprietary Clovia Curve Fit
TestTM, a quick algorithm that asks
visual questions to understand
customers’ fit and accordingly
recommend the best fit and size,
has helped almost 600k women
Soumya Kant understand the right size for them.
The company has been growing at
Founding Member, Clovia an impressive 100% every quarter
and is currently shipping over
750,000 units monthly. It registered
100%+ run rate growth over FY20
despite an inconsequential Q1 and a
double-digit EBITDA.
The brand plans to expand its
presence to at least two more
international geographies and also
triple its offline store count in the
coming year.
THE RIGHT FIT
Started in 2013, Clovia has disrupted the way lingerie is viewed and sold in India, breaking the chains of that
uncomfortable experience that women often faced when shopping for lingerie from physical stores mostly
run by men. Today, the company designs, manufactures and sells premium fashion lingerie, innerwear,
nightwear and shapewear, ensuring women get the right fit for their size, shape and attire without digging
too deep into their purses.
Bridging gaps
Clovia is all about bringing world-class
products to Indian customers at the right
price. The brand believes in rendering
an elevated shopping experience to its
customers as it intends to redefine the
Indian lingerie market and help them choose
beyond standard cuts, fits, shapes, designs
and colours. “We felt that the evolution of
this category in India had not kept pace
with the fast-changing outerwear fashion.
Upon deeper research, we found that the
prevalent distribution channel restricts the
flow of customer feedback to the brand and
therefore, there was a lack of innovation
and variety. To bridge the existing gap in
the lingerie business, Neha Kant (Founder,
Clovia) and Pankaj Vermani (Founder &
CEO, Clovia) decided to launch Clovia, and I
stepped in to lead multiple business verticals
including setting up the B2B sales channel
for both domestic and international markets,
in-depth market research, gap assessment,
and chalking out product strategy with
the design and production teams,” says
Soumya Kant, Founding Member, Clovia.
Today, the brand has combined fashion
with technology to monitor sales trends and
patterns on its website, App, offline stores
and marketplaces, and manages inventory
basis the consumption patterns and
decisions of its customers, making it a truly
‘democratic’ brand.
Clovia procures its own products with
the finest fabrics, laces and satins, designs
them in-house, and for manufacturing,
takes the help of third-party facilities – a
majority of them working exclusively for
the brand. Kant shares that initially in the
lingerie industry, standard production runs
were of few thousand units and therefore
a brand could not offer more than 100
styles in a year. “We had to launch 100+
styles every month while keeping tight
control on inventory. We had to, therefore,
convince our production partners to work
on these seemingly crazy production plans.
However, we could show them how, by
using technology, we could come up with
optimum production plans. Now we offer
more than 200 styles a month and over 75
per cent of our inventory is less than 30 days
old,” she adds.
Customer, the ambassador
Clovia’s solutions-driven approach has
helped find gaps in customers’ needs and
fill them innovatively. One of the biggest
challenges the brand faced in its initial days
was when customers didn’t understand
bra sizing, especially cup sizes. So, it first
needed to educate women on choosing the
right cup size. “We did extensive research
and developed a test that asks a woman
five questions about her body type and then
recommends the right bra,” says Kant. This
proprietary algorithm – the Clovia Fit Test –
had a very high customer satisfaction score.
This need-gap analysis also led to the
launch of its personal care brand - Clovia
Botaniqa. Carefully curated for the needs
of new moms and young women, the range
offers solutions to problems faced during
and post pregnancy such as hair-fall, tired or
dull skin, stretch marks, dryness, acne, etc.
Clovia has also built a rich user profiling
model where over 150 million data points
across 2.8 million users are processed
every night. This data is used to improve
its product, supply chain, distribution as
well as post-purchase customer services.
“We believe new-age consumers with
evolving sensibilities warrant a new kind of
marketing. We have moved away from brand
ambassador-ship to personal experience
and testimonial-based advertising. We have
signed up with multiple renowned celebrities
from Bollywood and the TV industry who
have used and liked our products and who
share personal experience stories with our
audience,” says Kant.
The growing power of social media and
digitalisation has helped Clovia connect with
its customers and nurture relations through
personalised experiences. “The D2C model
enables brands to speak to their target
audience directly. This direct connection
enables brands to track trends, growth
and feedback in real time. It immensely
helps a brand like us that operates in an
essential category like innerwear where the
audience has very little education about
it. We are able to educate and guide our
young customers and be with them as their
bodies go through different life stages,” she
concludes.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 149
Anurag Saboo Gaurav Pushkar
Co-founder, DaMENSCH Co-founder, DaMENSCH

MILESTONE
Choosing between corn husk and paper-based
packaging has allowed DaMENSCH to save more
than 10 lakh units of single-use plastic which, if
piled up, would measure up to 160 Burj Khalifas.
Currently a `100 crore ARR (Annual Recurring
Revenue) brand, it hopes to achieve more than
thrice that in the next two years.
While the innerwear segment for online
platforms grew 2.5 times prior to COVID,
DaMENSCH claims to have grown six times.
The company has grown to a team size of 130 and
intends on going up to 200. It has also moved to
an office space that houses the entire team.
FROM THE GROUND UP
Untapped and underserved, the men’s innerwear segment was once nothing less than a mammoth task for
a start-up D2C brand to enter. But, DaMENSCH founders saw this as a golden opportunity that would give
them a chance to make a difference through technology-backed innovative products that had never been
seen or heard of before. The brand thus began its journey to create products for modern men that were
distinct in features and soft to the touch.

Calculated risk
A D2C start-up in the men’s apparel
segment, DaMENSCH was conceived with
the aim of introducing innovation and
unparalleled functionality to men’s daily
wear. The intent was to begin with the most
neglected and challenging part of the male
wardrobe – the innerwear. “Innerwear is the
fastest growing apparel category where
growth post COVID has been even faster.
We believe that the loungewear segment
will be the apparel of choice for our target
group of conscious, progressive millennials
and Gen-Z, and we want to be an integral
part of their wardrobe,” say DaMENSCH
Co-founders Anurag Saboo and Gaurav
Pushkar. Innerwear was once a highly
unorganised sector, the duo agrees, but in
the last five years, the market has moved
more towards branded segments. As a
category, about 10 per cent of purchases are
now made online, which is indicative of an
apparent shift in consumer behaviour.
The co-founders believe that a consumer
who earlier shied away from trying
innerwear online now knows that brands like
DaMENSCH offer a try-on guarantee, and the
first one is on the house if he is not happy
with the purchase, or in case of a size issue.
“Close to 95 per cent of our consumers are
men who are choosing the brand because
the modern man is not negligent about his
innerwear and considers it an essential
purchase,” they say.
Today, DaMENSCH is pushing the limits
of textile engineering and solving problems.
“We believe in sustainability and innovation
— which is why we also know that better
products last longer and hence help the
environment. Staying true to our philosophy
of slow fashion, we launched the loungewear
Constant Collection of 500-day T-Shirts
and 500-day shorts, which comes with an
industry-first 500-day warranty,” add Saboo
and Pushkar.
Thinking out of the box
Currently a Rs100 crore ARR brand,
DaMENSCH is looking to achieve more than
thrice that within the next two years, backed
by its technology-enabled omnichannel
strategy. “We are also expanding rapidly
across all departments, be it product,
engineering, marketing or supply chain.
We moved to an office space that allows us
to house our new team, and boasts of an
in-house studio as we gear up on focusing
on our content-commerce strategy in the
times to come,” the co-founders add.
DaMENSCH’s product range of innerwear
includes odour cancelling underwear ‘Deo-
Soft’ and ‘Neo-Skin’ – a thermo-regulating
vest made from a curated composition of
sustainable bamboo fibre, among other
products catering to the comfort of the
modern man. “We plan to connect with
these cohorts through our technological
superiority and contemporary design.
Indeed, all our collections are made
with technical expertise to achieve the
unthinkable. Our contemporary designs are
for modern men who think differently. We
marry designs with today’s forward-thinking
men and our Deo-Soft collection is evidence
of this,” they share.
In pre-COVID times, the men’s apparel
industry was seeing a CAGR of 12-13 per
cent. The digital-native online consumer
ignited this revolution seeking distinct and
innovative products and fabrics, and sought
brands that challenged norms. Innerwear
being an essential service continued its
distribution and growth trajectory, and
as consumers warmed up to the new
work-from-home regime, the innerwear
segment, especially boxers that bring
comfort, functionality and style together,
have become a staple attire. In keeping
with the predicted surge, DaMENSCH has
used its funding to bring in specialists
in leadership roles and to increase the
strength of its design, customer service
and product teams in line with its core
value of customer centricity. It has upped
its marketing spends by 50 per cent, and
continues to reach customers far and wide
not just via website sales but also via its
presence on marketplaces like Amazon,
Myntra, Flipkart and Tata Cliq. “As we
grow we want to ensure our customer
experience continues to improve and that’s
the key thrust in our growth plans,” the co-
founders assert.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 151


Shivani Poddar & Tanvi Malik
Co-founders, FabAlley and Indya
MILESTONE
In terms of operations, FabAlley is
working towards making its supply chain
more agile by in-housing key production
processes, thus enabling a 30-day mind-
to-market production turnaround that is
comparable to global fashion leaders.
The parent company is also nurturing
a new sub-brand under Indya called
Earthen that offers contemporary
daywear in skin-friendly fabrics, and
is looking to introduce new categories
such as home furnishing and décor.
Focused on expanding its D2C footprint
both domestically and internationally,
the brand will soon add more
personalised solutions to its proprietary
web and App products, and increase
its presence with global e-commerce
conglomerates.
Today, with a thriving online business
and 500+ offline retail touchpoints, High
Street Essentials is one of India’s leading
omnichannel fashion houses.
RIGHT DOWN ONE’S
ALLEY
‘Necessity is the mother of invention’ goes the adage that perfectly describes the ideation and launch of
FabAlley and Indya. Under the aegis of the parent company – High Street Essentials – FabAlley sought to
revolutionise the way the urban Indian woman viewed western wear. Even initial hiccups in the journey did
not dampen the team’s spirit and today, the brand is a name to reckon with among Indian women that seek
affordable and stylish clothing that delivers a promise of quality.

Making the cut

Dominated by well-established foreign
brands, the women’s westernwear segment
in India once lacked a home-grown presence
that could offer the same style and comfort
at an affordable price and suited to the
Indian body type. “What existed in the
market didn’t fit the average girl’s budget
who was becoming increasingly aware of
global fashion but didn’t have the avenues
to shop. A stray conversation on these pain
points with Shivani Poddar (Co-founder,
FabAlley and Indya) led to the birth of High
Street Essentials (HSE) in 2012. We started
out with our fashion-forward western wear
brand FabAlley and in 2016 we launched
Indya that caters to the burgeoning fusion-
wear industry,” shares Tanvi Malik, Co-
founder, FabAlley and Indya.
At the onset, Malik and Poddar faced two
crucial challenges that needed careful and
meticulous planning. While on the one hand
the urban woman took time to warm up to
the idea of a western wear brand that wasn’t
from the West, on the other, acquiring
customers for a digitally native brand came
at a high price. But, the duo worked hard at
researching designs and construction of
garments, and evolved to deliver superior
fits than those available. Eventually, with
exponential growth of the e-commerce
ecosystem, the cost of acquiring customers
also lessened significantly.
Quick to adapt to a dynamic environment
brought on by lockdowns and the pandemic,
the company made some pivots by
introducing fresh categories that were
relevant to customers in their new way of
life. It overhauled its collection and first
launched a line of keyboard-up styles and
comfortable bottoms for work-from-home
days. It then launched protective masks
and loungewear lines for both FabAlley
and Indya. The company has also recently
launched Earthen, a brand under the house
of Indya, for modern Indian daywear that is
comfortable, stylish and crafted from skin-
friendly fabric.
A story a day
New-age customers seek brands and
products that have a narrative, personality,
a strong ethos and values that match theirs.
“Our strategy has always been to make
our customers engage and relate with us
and not just push out products to them.
On Social Media and through newsletters,
we’ve been engaging with our audience
on aspects of their life that move beyond
fashion. From COVID resources and snippets
on well-being, fitness and mental health
to slice-of-life pieces and fun takes on
the new normal, our aim has been to drive
conversations with our customers,” adds
Malik. They also work with credible content
creators - both macro and regional - who
their audiences look up to and engage
with, and strive to create superior imagery
that builds a sense of desire for a product.
The company has also taken a more
personalised approach towards commerce;
on its web-shops, customers get a tailored
experience with an AI-based curated
catalogue and recommendations that are
based on what they’ve liked and shopped for
in the past. “Our Customer Care team makes
regular calls to our customers purely to get
their feedback on their shopping experience
and seek their opinion on our collections
and what they’d like to see from us. We
track their voice on Social Media and ensure
no comment or query goes unanswered,”
shares Malik.
NOIDA-based High Street Essentials
forecasts the demand for the season based
on the performance of styles and surges &
dips that they have historically seen, and
accordingly manages production. HSE has
a centralised warehouse that services all
its online and offline orders. “Our supply
chain is agile enough for us to work on a lean
inventory model and manage replenishment
and production when we see demand surge
for any particular style. We dispatch orders
from our warehouse inventory within 24
hours of receiving the order online,” explains
Malik.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 153

 MILESTONE
Over the last 5 years, FableStreet
has collated more than 200,000
body measurements to build an
in-depth algorithm on sizing. Its
standard sizing is said to be 60%
better than the market.
The low-burn, well-funded business
is now looking at hyper growth of
Ayushi Gudwani 10x in the next 12-18 months.
The brand’s marketing spends have
Founder, FableStreet grown thrice since the pandemic,
and it enjoys both a year-on-year
revenue growth and customer
growth of 5x.
FableStreet recently launched a
jewellery brand called Mikoto, and
is planning expansion both within
existing brands by expanding the
product category, and by launching
new brands altogether.
YOUR OWN
STRONG SUIT
Since its inception in 2016, premium work wear brand FableStreet has been re-defining women’s fashion
at the office, creating pieces of a style and fit that match the sensibilities of the modern-day working
Indian woman. In the five years of its journey, the brand has continuously adapted its collection to meet
the needs of its discerning customers, making them look comfortably stylish in the workplace or when
working from home.
Made to Measure
Till the early 2010s, professional working
women in India were anything but spoilt
for choice when it came to affordable
western garments that suited their
body type. Styles and cuts were largely
constructed to suit the Western frame
and the Indian female populace had to
make do with what was available to them,
at a price they were reluctant to pay. A
working professional herself, FableStreet
Founder Ayushi Gudwani also noted that
there just weren’t enough options available
for premium work wear for women in
India. That is when she decided to launch
FableStreet, in September 2016, with a
vision to address the unmet needs of this
segment. “FableStreet’s products blend
in the elements of quality, fit and style
to offer unique and versatile products
to customers. We started by selling on
our website, where customers could buy
clothes in pre-existing sizes as well as
customise them, from the convenience of
their doorstep,” she recalls.
FableStreet aimed to establish itself
as a non-discount brand, and made
no compromises on the quality of its
products. This meant not only surviving in
a market that had a certain preference for
purchasing heavily discounted products
on marketplaces, but also maintaining
consistency in quality and offering tailored
fits to customers to establish a strong
customer loyalty for the brand over time.
Gudwani claims that one of their key
differentiators has been their adoption of
an R&D-oriented and analytical approach to
sizing via their proprietary sizing algorithm.
“Western apparel in the Indian market
had long been following standard UK and
US sizes, ignoring differences like Indian
women having heavier thighs and rounder
hips. Data for sizing for the Indian market
didn’t exist, and we started our business
with an aim to bridge this gap. In addition,
we have a proprietary tailored fit algorithm
giving bespoke fits to consumers with just
three body measurements,” she adds.
Sizing up
FableStreet’s strength, when it was
established, lay in its ability to provide
comfortable and stylish work wear to
women without making them dig too
deep into their pockets. But, in 2020, the
definition of ‘work wear’ itself turned on its
head amid prolonged lockdowns. “With the
work wear category becoming irrelevant
once the pandemic hit, there was a need to
completely revamp our product offering.
The first step we took in this direction was
to talk to our customers and understand
their changing needs and preferences
while in a WFH (work from home) setup. It
is from these conversations that we drew
insights into our product development
process and also made sure that we were
quick in testing them in the market. We were
continuously thinking on our feet and acted
fast on reorienting our products to keep the
product offering relevant,” Gudwani shares.
The brand operates on a low inventory,
highly scalable model using technology-
enabled manufacturing and supply chain. It
takes a hybrid approach to fulfilment where
it plans the finished goods inventory for
SKUs that are fast moving, and for the rest,
follows a JIT (Just in Time) approach.
FableStreet’s content collaboration
includes women who are not just fashion
and Social Media bloggers, but are also
its customers. This keeps the content
fresh and builds a connect for anyone who
engages with the brand on its Social Media
channels. Gudwani adds, “As a brand, we
want our consumers — the women — to feel
confident and beautiful about who they
are. Our brand communication weaves
around the lives of real, professional women.
Apart from fashion content we also plan
and create content that is inspirational
and relatable for our consumers in their
professional life. Our blog — The Corner
Office — has two sections, FS Lounge and
FS Inspire, which is entirely dedicated to
such topics and conversations. We also do
a series called FS Changemakers, where
we bring out pivotal stories and in-depth
interviews with women leaders across
various professional fields.”
Presently cash-rich, FableStreet will look
at an IPO funding only when the time is right!
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 155
 MILESTONE
Freakins releases approximately
35-40 trendy styles every week,
made with the best possible
materials and fabrics.
Aimed at diversifying its product
categories, this year the brand
plans to foray into a collection
of woven and knitwear tops. Its
Shaan Shah second launch would entail a pre-
teen collection that will cater to
CEO, Freakins India children aged 9-14 years.
Selling through its own website
and with a presence across
marketplaces like Nykaa, Amazon,
Ajio and Myntra, Freakins witnessed
34% revenue growth during the
pandemic.
The brand has had a 125% year-on-
year growth in revenue and a 150%
growth in customer base.
LOOK NO FURTHER
Devoted to artistry and excellence, Freakins envisions itself as a brand that helps every woman express
her unique style. The exclusive women-wear brand designs compelling pieces of clothing that emulate
the global trends of fashion. It continuously carves exquisite fits and styles to cater to the confident
Indian woman, and sustainably so. It also works hand in hand with fashion leaders to accelerate positive
change towards protecting the environment.

Befittingly trendy
Freakins was launched at a time when the
Indian consumer was increasingly inspired
by western trends in apparel but had
limited avenues to purchase them. Shaan
Shah, CEO of Freakins India, sought to
bridge this gap by launching a brand that
recognised the global trends in fashion
and produced pieces that were designed,
manufactured and distributed under one
umbrella. “I was in college when I noticed
Freakins’ potential in the market. After
having spent many years shadowing my
family in the manufacturing business, I had
the technical knowledge and, fortunately,
the resources to breathe life into my vision.
We started with limited designs and stock
to gauge the customers’ reaction which, to
our surprise, was overwhelming. We could
quickly determine the brand’s trajectory
and went ahead with it in full throttle,”
shares Shah. In keeping with the Freakins
aesthetic and thoroughness, all garments
are manufactured within a two-week
timeframe that Shah claims is one of the
fasted turnaround times in the industry
and helps regulate price points while at the
same time, caters to wider accessibility.
Today, the D2C space serves both
opportunity and severe competition to its
tenants. Two of the initial challenges that
Freakins faced as part of this dynamic
ecosystem were amplification and
logistics. “Any new business understands
the painstaking effort to amplify the brand
name and create awareness to encourage
the target audience to engage with it,” says
Shah, adding that this was the time Freakins
delved deeper into the world of digital
marketing and understood its unparalleled
power in the online sphere. Gradually, on
the back of custom-built online marketing
tools, the business got a big push to reach
individuals across all economic groups in
the country, effectively.
The right message, delivered
Freakins’ strategy from the get-go has
been to cater to the customer personally.
It understands that to serve its audience
it must work hard to ensure that every
consumer has access to its fits. The brand
offers limited editions of nine products,
and customers can access three per
month. It also offers six pieces per size
in the designer collection. Today, the
Freakins woman has access to avant-garde
dresses, newer distressed techniques,
re-imagined accessories like a corset in
denim, contemporary fits and state-of-
the-art jeans that speak a new language.
Its mission remains unaltered: to see every
female comfortable in whatever she wears
no matter what.
The brand aims to attend to the needs and
work on the aspirations of every woman.
Freakins encourages implementation of
a positive change via engagement and
collaboration. It engages its customers
from time to time so that they can make
informed and reliable choices, and at the
same time makes its own people champions
and offers them a supportive, dynamic and a
diversified workplace.
Creatively leveraging the power of visual
marketing in today’s internet-powered
world, Freakins has constantly been
sprucing up its brand imagery by paying
close attention to detail in its shoots.
“We have also identified the power of
influencer marketing. Every year we
associate with an influencer that resonates
with the brand philosophy to curate an
independent collection that is designed
with a collaborative approach. This allows
us to tap into a completely new target group
and consequently foster brand awareness,”
explains Shah. From the very beginning,
the brand has had a dedicated team that
communicates with the customer one-on-
one in real time, not only on the website but
also through Instagram Direct Messaging.
It is active on Google Ads and other forms
of advertising to constantly engage with
the target audience. As for social media,
Freakins creates engaging talking points
that allow its audience to interact every
single day. “Today, our online community is
extremely well connected and responsive,
which allows us to gauge real-time feedback
and alter our communication accordingly,”
adds Shah.
Freakins is now building an in-house
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) process
as an integrated management of the main
business for every challenge.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 157


Anuj Mundhra
Chairman and Managing Director, Nandani Creation
Limited (parent company of JaipurKurti.com)
MILESTONE
JaipurKurti.com was one of the
first brands in the D2C space to
introduce the pack-of-two concept
in the ethnic wear category.
In the first year since its inception
in 2012, the company clocked a
turnover of `59 lakh. Today, its
turnover has crossed `46 crore and
it looks to be a `100 crore company
by 2023.
Nandani Creation Limited got listed
on NSE’s SME platform in 2016,
just four years after inception. On
September 2 this year, it migrated to
the Main Board of NSE.
The company is also looking to
raise funding to make it a `500-600
crore revenue-generating platform.
Further, on the retail front, it aspires
to expand globally and open at least
25 brand stores across India by the
end of FY2025.
A STITCH IN TIME
Established in 2012, JaipurKurti.com has become a fashion brand to reckon with. Its massive range of
ethnic apparel has many a taker among Indian women who seek stylish and comfortable pieces of fast
ethnic fashion, backed by an equally progressive fulfilment apparatus that efficiently manages both order
deliveries and returns, ensuring the customers’ end-to-end journey is worthwhile and keeps them coming
back for more.
Upward mobility
The inspiring journey of Anuj Mundhra,
Chairman and Managing Director, Nandani
Creation Limited (parent company of
JaipurKurti.com) is a remarkable tale of
perseverance and farsightedness. Mundhra
began his career working at a saree
showroom in Jaipur, earning a meagre
`1,400 a month that he soon realised wasn’t
enough for sustenance. So he quit his
job and started a business of trading suit
pieces, and as business grew, he opened his
own block and screen printing units.
The turning point, however, came a few
years later, in 2012, on a visit to Delhi, when
he came across billboards of ecommerce
marketplaces Jabong and Snapdeal.
Mundhra envisioned ecommerce as the
future of shopping in India and in the same
year, took the plunge to launch Nandani
Creation and its ecommerce offshoot -
JaipurKurti.com. Neither the paucity of
capital nor the immense struggle to set up
an e-commerce business at a time when
the country was only warming up to the idea
impeded Mundhra’s grit to make his newly
established business a success.
“There were various challenges such as
finance, which was the biggest challenge,
as the business began with limited
financial resources gathered from some
close friends. In the initial years although
competition was far less, the struggle to run
the e-commerce company was immense.
From logistics and bar-coding to preparing
shipping details, everything was a challenge.
In addition, the product return rate was also
quite high since people did not know how to
buy the right size according to the cut and
fit of the kurtis,” Mundhra shares. But he
persevered with the yearning to bring out
the best of ethnic traditions at the heart
of the production process. “We produced
kurtis that came in different designs and
patterns at a quality that was par excellence,
resulting in a beautiful range of products
befitting any woman,” Mundhra adds.
Surging ahead
Technology has been JaipurKurti.com’s
biggest customer supporter and creator.
Using digital platforms, the brand has
been able to provide end-to-end customer
solutions and benefits, right from excellent
customer service to several value-added
incentives. Mundhra believes that if they had
not gone digital, it would have taken them 20
more years to create a name for themselves.
Today, their in-house digital sales team
helps promote the brand and its products
via influencers and celebrities. Fulfilments
and logistics are also managed by its
internal team. Mundhra understands that
the value of fast and secure shipping is a
consideration for both shoppers and sellers,
and a basic building block for growth of
e-commerce. “We have an experienced
team of professionals at every step.
Return is the most important aspect of the
e-commerce industry, and a hassle-free
customer experience is our prime focus. We
are well-backed by 3PL players to smoothly
handle our forward and reverse shipping,”
Mundhra adds.
JaipurKurti.com is now looking to expand
its presence beyond its hub of Rajasthan
(it has three stores in Jaipur and one in
Jhotwara), into other cities of India. In
the process of building its retail empire,
however, it does not want to lose its focus
on customers and always looks to depend
on customer feedback and suggestions to
reorient its approach and designs. “We look
to tap more influencers and gain immense
traction through the brand’s Social Media
base. We will use technology to integrate
retail innovations like digital changing rooms,
virtual store views, and quick & fast delivery
into the basic framework of the brand. We
aim to further bridge the gap between ethnic
and chic, and continue to build on an apparel
range suitable for women of all shapes and
age groups,” shares Mundhra.
With an ever-expanding customer base
and growing sales, Nandani Creation
Limited clocked a revenue of `460,948,197
in the financial year ending March 31, 2021.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 159
 MILESTONE
Understanding and adapting to the
needs of its customers has helped
Libas grow from a `4 crore brand
to a `400 crore label in the seven
years since its digital debut.
Through its robust warehousing
infrastructure and state-of-the-art
warehousing management system,
the brand has touched a fulfilment
capacity of shipping 50k orders
a day, one of the highest for an
Sidhant Keshwani e-commerce fashion brand in India.

Managing Director, Libas By 2025, Libas plans to open 200

more stores across metro and
tier-II cities, while simultaneously
scaling up its online business.
It also plans to venture into the
segments of lifestyle, menswear
and kids’ wear.
The brand has been witnessing
year-on-year revenue and customer
growth of approximately 100% and
80%, respectively.
NO HURDLE TOO BIG
An exemplar of ‘change is the only constant’, ethnic wear brand Libas not only adapted its product line to
meet the needs of Indian women, but also overhauled its approach to selling when it made its e-presence
felt for the first time in 2013 after being an offline-only brand for 28 years. It now plans to exhibit its
versatility and willingness to evolve by expanding into segments of home, men’s and kids’ wear.
As the wind blows
Libas brings to the table a telling account
of how a brand, established in 1985, rose to
the challenge of carving a niche for itself in
the e-commerce space when it launched
its digital footprint in year 2013. “While I
was studying in the UK, e-commerce was
on the rise globally but the concept was
quite new in India, with the fashion segment
almost unexplored. Realising that a huge
gap in the ethnic wear segment in India
existed inspired us to take Libas online,”
shares Sidhant Keshwani, Managing
Director, Libas. Backed by a team of driven
professionals, the brand continuously
adapted its product and range to meet the
changing needs of Indian women looking
for ethnic casual and work wear besides
occasion-wear ensembles. Keshwani adds,
“When we entered the ethnic wear market
it was mostly about separates, wherein
kurtas and bottoms were sold separately,
left for customers to mix and match. Thus,
we launched a new product category called
Kurta Sets, which provided our customers a
pre-styled look to choose from.”
When Libas entered e-commerce in 2013,
the market was at a nascent stage with
limited brands, specifically in the ethnic
segment. However, as e-commerce became
a popular mode of shopping for customers,
the segment also witnessed growth and
has become one of the fastest growing
categories of online commerce in the
last seven years. With evolving consumer
behaviour, Libas is also transforming and
becoming more conscious. Its collections
constantly evolve in line with trends, yet
stay rooted to the Indian heritage and
crafts. “Furthermore, consumers are now
more aware and educated than ever about
their purchasing decisions and conscious
choices. Keeping this in mind, we believe
in creating timeless clothing and thus, in a
way, promote slow fashion. We invest a lot in
product development and design to provide
quality both in terms of fit and fabric,” says
Keshwani.
Automating systems
New Delhi-based Libas’ customer base
has now expanded pan India. But, initially,
due to massive demand, its supply chain
was overwhelmed – a hurdle that the
brand successfully overcame to provide
a seamless shopping experience to
consumers. “Our focus has always been
on investing in product development and
design along with rigorous trend analysis,
which has kept us abreast with the latest
in the market. It has been our constant
endeavour to provide great value to the
customer along with an elegant and upbeat
collection of ethnic and fusion wear
carefully curated in line with emerging
fashion trends both in India and abroad.
We aspire to be a lifestyle brand and have
diversified into multiple fashion categories
over the years such as plus sizes (Libas
Extra Love), and will soon also launch
home, men’s, and kids’ categories,” states
the MD.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, when the
fashion e-commerce market saw massive
growth, Libas resolved to invest in the digital
space to stay close to its customers. This
meant more digital engagement, better
customer service, and even a soon-to-
launch loyalty programme. “With digital
being an industry-wide focus, it’s key to
understand ways to grow business profitably
using the wide variety of digital platforms
available. Therefore, it becomes inevitable
to scale up the business digitally. At Libas,
we made a huge investment in the digital
space to facilitate our customers with a
seamless shopping experience. Our major
focus was on strategies that were aimed at
creating more customer engagement and
providing better customer services,” he
adds. The brand has also made significant
investments in automated warehousing, an
omnichannel ecosystem and state-of-the-
art CRM systems.
Self-funded and growing, Libas now
plans to take business a few notches higher
with the launch if its offline retail presence
clubbed with an ever-growing financial
outlay for its digital endeavours. It will soon
be considering external funding.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 161
Siddharth R Dungarwal
Founder, Snitch

MILESTONE
Available solely via its own website,
Snitch introduces 79 styles daily,
making consumers excited to find
something new every day.
The bootstrapped brand has been
granted the Young Achievers’
Award 2020.
Currently loved by over 2.6 lakh
customers, its returning rate of
#snitching customers is 47.2%.
The number of orders received by
Snitch escalated from 6,923 in Aug
2020 to 36,608 in Aug 2021.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
A detailed anatomy of the transformation of the Indian fashion market during the COVID-19 pandemic
brought to life apparel brand Snitch. Though the unusual name often has a negative connotation, its
founders, through the carefully picked label, sought to steal the show with market disruptors such as plus
sizes and co-ordinated loungewear sets for men. Today, the former accounts for 9-11% of its sales.
Opportunity knocks but once
The idea started to roll during the pandemic
in 2020, when a distinctive duo – one holding
excessive power over manufacturing and
the other with a knack for marketing – united
for fashion. They observed that with the
pandemic inducing the work-from-home
culture in the country, comfort-wear for men
was a category that lacked a reasonably-
priced, fashion-forward brand that could
emulate Western styles and adapt them for
an Indian audience. The immensely young
new-age brand thus began its journey with
the WFH collection that concentrated on
products like joggers, quirky pyjamas and
fun boxers. But, simply making inroads into
the market wasn’t the plan. So, the duo put
its heads together to disrupt the category
with two game changers – plus sizes and co-
ordinated lounge wear sets for men. “There
were brands that had regular sizes and there
were brands that catered to plus sizes, but
none were a one-stop shop. We identified a
gap in the market for plus-size apparels and
tapped into the category. We also take pride
in being the first brand to introduce Coords
(co-ordinated sets) in India, and that was a
great differentiator and attention grabber,”
shares Siddharth R Dungarwal, Founder,
Snitch.
Though the name Snitch holds a negative
connotation, the founders wanted to
transpose the very meaning of the word
for the fashion world. “That is, to snitch on
trends and deliver pep mostly to Gen-X and
Gen-Z, who tend to be money conscious
and eager to be seen as fashionable. Apart
from that, the objective was to consistently
deliver trendy products made of the finest
quality of fabric at appealing prices. Being
a fast fashion brand, the mindset of it
causing environmental hazards followed,
and we adopted sustainable methods of
sourcing and production which helped us in
providing better and more environmentally
conscious products to our consumers,”
adds Dungarwal. Today, the brand offers a
wide range of products to customers, all
available on its website. In fact, it also offers
them the opportunity to order in bulk, and
has a dedicated section for such orders on
its digital portal. With challenges aplenty,
Snitch founders followed their intuition and
kept learning and growing as they moved on.
Dungarwal believes that perhaps giving up
control was key to creating value, and has
helped keep it inspired in the process.
The winning formula
Snitch offers something for every individual
- for some to break through the noise, and
for some to blend in. The only guide they
have confidence in is listening to customers
while simultaneously perceiving their needs
well ahead in time. Since customer service
is at the core of their business, they always
aim to achieve user-friendly optimisation
of content on every platform for a better
shopping experience. “By offering great
deals and interpersonal engagement via
Social Media, e-mails and SMS, as well as
a loyalty programme, we have benefitted
in the form of a better marketing reach,
making it easier to attract new customers.
We also achieve marketing agility through
personal communication. Using techniques
like influencer marketing and personal
experiences that support our brand’s
essence have performed really well for us,”
shares Dungarwal.
Customer-centricity is also the
driving force behind its technological
advancements and adoptions. A pleasant
end-to-end customer experience has often
been a make-or-break for brands, and they
understand its criticality in making the
business a success. Snitch has therefore
developed a cycle wherein it is able to
ship an order within 8-14 hours of it being
placed. Its well-integrated setup with
logistics partners helps ensure delivery
of products within 3-5 days, depending
on region. While being heavily invested
in building a robust supply chain and
design system, Snitch is also eyeing a
digital experience store - a destination
for customers to be impressed by its
wide, creative range of products through
attractive digital appearances. It is also
working to update its catalogue by adding
varieties across the plus-size category,
adding limited-edition collections through
partnerships with designers, and expanding
its presence at marketplaces.
“Though currently bootstrapped, we
are open to adding value to the company
through investors. We are, in fact, open
to any opportunity the future may hold,”
concludes Dungarwal.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 163
 MILESTONE
Soch has created a niche for itself
in both the offline and online retail
space in the country, and has been
witnessing promising revenue
Vinay Chatlani growth year-on-year.
Co-founder and CEO, Soch Not far behind is its customer base
growth, which has been expanding
at an exponential rate.
Having begun its first EBO
operations as far back as 2005,
today, Soch operates over 135 EBOs
across the country.
Simultaneously, the ethnic wear
brand has expanded its product
offering, and now offers 8-9
categories for customers to choose
from.
THE POWER OF
‘SOCH’
Team Soch hit home when it set out to establish an ethnic wear brand that closely followed the needs of
customers for quality, style and constant innovation. Having created a presence in the offline retail space at
the time of its establishment, the brand soon scaled the online market as well, backed by smart technology
and an adept team of designers and marketers. Today, Soch has become a name to reckon with.
Home is where the craft is
Inspired by his father Manu Chatlani, a
veteran in the retail industry and mother,
Shobha Chatlani, the creative advisor
behind the brand, Vinay Chatlani, Co-
founder and CEO, Soch, established the
brand circa 2005. Having first begun as
an in-house label that sold at Favourite
Shop – the promoter family’s MBO chain
that started over 50 years ago – Soch began
its first EBO operations in 2005 at Forum
Mall, Bengaluru (then Bangalore). Today, the
brand operates over 135 EBOs. But, how did
it all begin? Chatlani says, “When I returned
to India after graduation, I saw potential for
the brand to grow as an independent label.
The gap in the mass premium, evening and
occasion wear space was there for the
taking, and remains to be one of the hardest
spaces to operate in. I also had all the
support from family to allow me to test this
idea. I think my conviction of making Soch
a household name only came after our 10th
store. We haven’t looked back since!”
One of the initial challenges that the
founding team at Soch faced was being at
scale to have exclusive merchandise made
for the brand. The issue, however, was
quickly addressed as the brand grew to be
bigger. Chatlani adds that it was the brand’s
network of vendors that stood by it and
helped it scale new heights during tough
times. “Expanding outside Bengaluru and
into large malls pan India took a little while,
too. The things that made our consumers
happy also made us feel welcomed in other
cities. I strongly believe that customer
satisfaction is the goal for any fashion
brand. All other things, including sales,
profits and growth, are simply an outcome
of this,” he says.
From the get-go, Team Soch’s strategy
has been simple – to select a product
mix or sales channel mix that follows the
consumer’s needs. The brand has always
endeavoured to listen to the market, its
vendors and, of course, the very essence
of every D2C brand in the country today –
the consumers. Chatlani claims that one
of their main strengths as a brand is the
ability to constantly evolve the product mix,
be it by region, individual stores or sales
channels.
Know the audience
Customer is the largest factor in any retail
format; it is simply about following the
consumer and being available anywhere
they choose to move. Chatlani says
that at Soch, the biggest change since
the pandemic has been its digital-first
approach. “Learning what customers seek
even within digital platforms has been an
eye opener. Different touchpoints serve as
different need states for our customers.
A true omnichannel approach would be
to allow customers to learn about the
brand, discover and browse, engage with
and finally, transact across touchpoints
with a seamless experience where all
touchpoints speak the same language. We
feel that our technology roadmap is not only
consistent with what consumers want, but
also differentiated to suit the brand and its
business model,” he adds.
Soch has several initiatives like a new
captive site, a store, a consumer App, as
well as innovative uses of both still and
video content in the pipeline. It is currently
working on services for a better consumer
experience and greater convenience,
including a holistic omnichannel platform, a
tightly integrated digital marketing plan that
is in constant touch with the merchandise
offerings and consumers, a single data
lake/ warehouse of all customer-related
data systems, and availability of critical
information/inferences about the customer
at each customer touchpoint — stores,
e-commerce, Social Media and customer
service channels. For Chatlani, being
innovative and constantly looking to outdo
yourself is important in having an ever-
evolving brand. “While best practices are
best practices for a reason, it is important
to use them in a manner that suits your
business and, in some cases, we look to
question these and come up with practices
that may end up being the new best
practices,” he says.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 165
CATEGORY ANALYSIS
FOOTWEAR
India’s footwear market is estimated to reach $15.5 billion by 2022, from $10.6 billion in 2019.
It is expected to grow at 11% over the next five years. It is expected that India’s non-leather
footwear industry will cross US$6 billion mark by 2024.

Top thoughts
India is the second largest footwear manufacturer in the world and yet sixty to seventy per cent of its consumption is met
via imports, mainly from China, which means that there is a lot more consumption happening and not enough ‘Made in India’
supply.
The leather, footwear, and accessories sector in India contributes about 2% to the country’s overall GDP and is a major job
provider. This sector is one of the top employment generators in the country and employs 2 Mn workers.
The apparel and footwear category is dominating the D2C fashion market, and is expected to continue the dominance with a
contribution of around 77.1% by 2025.

Brands pivoting a change:

Significant markers
The textile & other footwear market in India is expected to grow annually by 12.9 per cent (CAGR 2020-2023).
The Athletic footwear market in India is expected to grow annually by 14.3 per cent (CAGR 2020-2023).
 REVENUE GROWTH

Remarkable trend:
Flip Flop is the sunrise category in the segment and Solethreads is a
segment leader in this sunrise category and aims at creating flip flops
that are innovative, comfortable and cater to the needs of Indians. This
brand crossed Rs. 1 Cr monthly revenue in just 7 months by selling flip
flops online.

Shine on
Factors that make India so attractive within the footwear category,
especially in the D2C space is the rising shift towards casual footwear
and the consistent growth of a large middle class, which currently has
over 600 Mn people. Added to this is urbanisation, rising household 20%
Brands have
incomes, connected rural consumers and increasing consumer had Exceptional
80%
Brands have had 100%
spending. What’s striking is that the brands are looking to tap the Revenue Growth
Revenue Growth crossing Pre-
Crossing Pre-
emerging opportunities available in Tier-2 and 3 markets. Already a COVID Numbers
COVID Numbers
pandemic-led penetration has been possible via the online channels.

CUSTOMER GROWTH
Trends on watch
INCREASING AFFINITY TOWARDS ATHLEISURE: The altering
consumer lifestyle alongside increasing consciousness towards fitness
is pushing the demand for athleisure footwear to greater altitudes. The
global athleisure footwear market is valued at $114.8 Bn by 2022, growing
at a CAGR of 2.1 per cent during the forecast period 2016 – 2022. This
affinity towards athleisure is creating a big opportunity for new home
grown brands to innovate with their footwear and capture the audience
with something out of the box.

DECREASING DEPENDENCY ON LEATHER: With sustainability and

environmental causes at the heart of every conversation, leather is being 10%
consistently replaced by non-leathers material. The lowering of usage of Brands have
served their
leather creates a big opportunity for brands looking to use varied material existing
90%
Brands have experienced 4-Fold
for making their footwear range. Customer Base
Customer Growth since The
Pandemic
GROWTH OF PRODUCTION UNITS: Due to awareness of global
warming and better scope of designs in non-leather footwear category,
DRIVERS OF GROWTH
India is aggressively changing its preferences from leather to synthetic.
Major production centres for footwear in India have been established
from the existing leather cluster ecosystem in the country. This is getting
boosted via the vast D2C ecosystem.

E-COMMERCE BOLSTERING GROWTH: The Indian e-commerce

industry, especially, has been on an upward growth trajectory. By 2026,
it is expected to reach $200 Bn. This has been a boon for the fashion and
footwear segment. Especially, for the D2C ecosystem, this has helped
democratize the market and without much of a barrier, India’s small
sellers in this segment are breaking the ceiling and growing towards
becoming insurgent footwear brands. 10%
Others
90%
of sales have been generated
through E-Commerce

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 167

 MILESTONE
FAUSTO has one of the largest
branded footwear catalogs on any
marketplace with 2000+ SKUs.
The brand stands for freshness
in catalog – the brand launches a
minimum of 50 new styles every
month.
FAUSTO has pioneered a back-open
style of footwear range in almost all
men’s footwear categories.
FAUSTO piloted its range on
Amazon.in in 2016 and today it
has established itself as a market
leader in the men’s ethnic footwear
Sumit Agarwal (fashionable juttis & mojaris)
category.
Co-founder, FAUSTO FAUSTO plans to touch the
`100 crore mark by 2025 and
the brand is steadily standing at
`20 crore at present.
FAUSTO is present on almost all
the leading marketplaces where
it boasts of one of the largest
footwear catalogs on the likes of
AMAZON, MYNTRA, FLIPKART,
LIMEROAD & own brand store
FAUSTO.IN
RIGHT FOOT FORWARD
FAUSTO, one of the key footwear players in the D2C footwear category, is focused on creating a niche in the
aspirational and fashionable yet value-for-money footwear segment for men. FAUSTO is India’s one of its kind online
personalized store with a group of stylists to recommend you the most stylish footwear as per your needs. We bring
you a huge collection, created around many themes and styles to bring you cult classic fashion. Today FAUSTO stands
for value for money, responsibly created fast fashion footwear catering to all age group and customer segments.

Shoes for a change

Journey of FAUSTO started in the year
2016 - a time when lot of online brands were
either shutting the shop (e.g., BESTYLISH,
FREECULTR, YEPME, Yebhi etc.) or moving
from inventory-based model to marketplace
model (Flipkart, Myntra, JABONG etc.).
With the launch of marketplaces and
improvement in digital infrastructure,
e-commerce was suddenly in the reach
of 130+ crore people with 260+ crore feet
to be covered. This is the opportunity that
FAUSTO was spawned to address. Right
from casual sandals to masculine boots,
from comfy loafers to ergonomic running
shoes, from convenient slip-ons to stylish
sneakers, and more – Fausto has it all in
store for the stylish men. With such a varied
collection of chic shoes for men, the brand
is sure that everyone can spot more than
just a few pairs of footwear that resonate
with their sense of style!
“To start with, the biggest challenge we
faced, was to address a customer’s desire
to touch & feel the product before making a
purchase decision – Having a no-questions-
asked easy returns policy supported by
free returns within the warranty period has
helped us tide over this challenge. After
that our task was to give the customer
confidence to buy from a new brand –
Things like easy return policy, a graded
warranty has helped build that confidence.
Higher Cash on Delivery % / Higher RTO
rates continues to be a challenge impacting
the entire e-commerce industry, we are
currently utilizing AI/ML-based technology
intervention to predict RTO at pin code/
customer level and reduce returns,” Sumit
Agarwal, Co-founder, FAUSTO narrates
the challenges of setting up the brand and
building its connect with customers.
Customer story
FAUSTO as a brand stands for CUSTOMER
DELIGHT & a FAIR & HONEST PRICE
POLICY. “We believe in customer delight
by committing to Quality, Consistency,
Competency & Reliability. We follow a
zero-tolerance policy on any customer
complaints remaining unresolved for
more than one business day. Due to the
bootstrapped nature of business, our
marketing efforts are being spent on social
media, display & search marketing. There
is an internal effort towards marketing
automation and to this end, we are actively
evaluating leading solution providers/
partners who can work with us on outcome-
based creative models,” Sumit adds.
Making fulfilment stronger
Sumit mentions, “In the last few years, a lot
has happened on the logistics front, with
new tech-enabled service providers such
as Delhivery coming in and taking over this
space but, improvement is still desirable in
the last mile. We currently rely on AI/ML-
driven interventions to identify incorrect/
incomplete addresses, fraudulent orders,
and service layers from startups such
as ShipRocket. In addition, to better the
customer experience and ride on impulse,
we target to ship an order within 24 hours
to put the product in the customer’s hands
within 3-5 business days”.
Over the past 4.5 years FAUSTO has
sold close to 700,000+ pairs of footwear.
Assuming an optimistic repeat purchase
of 1.5 pairs / year at least 450,000+
customers have experienced a FAUSTO
pair. Fausto.in was launched in April ‘21 and
has a registered customer base of 70k+
customers with a returning base of 22%.
Further talking about technology
investments, Sumit says, “In 2022 we plan
to pivot from being a D2C only business to
a tech-enabled D2C business with some
significant investments made on this
front. e.g.: we plan to move to a home-
grown e-commerce platform that will offer
greater flexibility and scale. Investment in
a next-gen ERP and a robust OM platform
integrated with leading marketplaces.
And Setting up of virtual experience zones
leveraging Augmented Reality solutions is
also on the cards.”

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 169

 MILESTONE
Monrow’s customer base has
quadrupled since its inception
at a steady pace, and has
become 4x since the second
wave of the pandemic.
The brand has also witnessed
its revenue double year-on-year,
as it touched `15-20 crore in
annual earnings.
Early in 2021, the footwear brand
Veena Ashiya secured a Pre Series-A funding
and since then, has escalated its
Founder, Monrow game.
It hopes to soon be a `100 crore
business within the next 24-36
months.
GOING AGAINST THE
TIDE
Young and eccentric footwear brand Monrow aims to transform the category by walking down an
untrodden path in crafting contemporary, bold products that are not shy of challenging norms and
making their own mark. The brand goes a step further by offering its customers the service of its
in-house shoe stylists who attend to their needs and help answer queries, thus making the entire
experience more enjoyable.
Birth of an idea
“Being born and brought up in a family that
comes from an ancestral wisdom of the
business, the oldest memory I have is of
when I was just seven years old. One fine day,
my teacher asked me what I wanted to be
when I grow up, to which I very confidently
replied, ‘I want to become a businesswoman
and dream of building the largest fashion
empire ever’. This passion has always
remained an object of joy that enables me
to feel comfortable and is the driving force
in my life,” says Veena Ashiya, Founder,
Monrow. What began as a childhood dream
has today metamorphosed into a business
that is scaling new heights every day,
setting benchmarks as it progresses. Having
entered the market at a time when only a
handful of names were known to consumers
and a good share of the pie was ripe for the
taking, Monrow broke barriers by creating
market-leading content.
Monrow offers an array of styles that
include flats, kitten heels, block heels, etc.
It pays utmost attention to its products in
order to make them extremely comfortable,
fashionable and functional. Its Anti-Sneaker
and The Pleasure of Walking collection
are innovative product lines that have
recently been launched and aim to fuse
fashion and comfort to provide the best
relaxing experience for the wearer. “Keeping
this in mind, we came up with our latest
offerings that can actually be your walking
buddy in this fast-paced lifestyle, while
simultaneously providing utmost comfort.
When we stepped into the arena of the
footwear industry in the country, there were
hardly any brands that were known to us
then. But, in recent times, both brands and
consumers have become more concerned
and are cautious about the product and the
offering, and the fashion-centric options
available to them,” adds Ashiya.
The founder believes that though the
advent of the internet and the need to be
part of a digitally connected community
has its benefits, a growing concern has
been the challenge of communicating one’s
originality. With everything available at
the click of a button, it is not a herculean
task for competitors in the field to ape
designs. But, today’s digital age also offers
several other avenues that can be employed
to create market differentiation. A key
aspect, hence, is customer experience, and
Monrow’s customer base has been growing
exponentially, allowing it to surmount the
hurdle. The brand also offers its discerning
customers the service of in-house stylists
who address all their queries and concerns.
Digitalisation, a blessing
Monrow has created a strong online
footprint for itself not only through its own
website - a key focus area of the brand
– but also via tie-ups with marketplaces
like Myntra, Nykaa and Ajio. It now looks to
enhance the customer experience on its
own website by creating an AI-powered
shopping element coupled with a live shop
or a virtual tour of the store and collection.
“The fact that we live in a digital era gives
virality. Digitalisation is a blessing for all of
us not just in terms of marketing per se, but
also in building customer loyalty,” she says.
The design-led fashion company has
a strong database as its core engine. Its
delivery partnerships and aggregator tie-
ups help optimise its AI-powered logistics.
“We are only able to pull this off as we have
a skilled team of business managers who
understand fashion, and fashion designers
who are well-versed with business,” shares
Ashiya. Along with this, its solid association
with e-commerce giants like Amazon,
amongst others, helps it achieve the
delivery process within a 48-hour timeline in
metropolitan cities.
Speaking of the future, Ashiya says,
“The footwear category has bloomed to
the next level in recent years. When we
launched Monrow, we did not have as many
similar brands available in the category
that we function in. During recent times,
the market has been flooded with various
other brands and has expanded much more
than expected within a few years. In the
post-pandemic era, we can see comfortable
home-wear continuing to be a trend.”
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 171
 MILESTONE
PAIO’s marketing strategy has
pivoted from retail expansion
to D2C e-commerce growth.
Its marketing spends have also
increased in the last one year to
build this further.
The brand is presently available
across major marketplaces in
India like Amazon, Nykaa Fashion,
Shweta Nimkar Myntra, Pernia’s Pop-Up Shop,
Ajio, Tata Cliq and Jaypore. It
Founder, PAIO is also present across smaller
marketplaces that have their own
niche audiences.
PAIO is currently witnessing a year-
on-year revenue growth of 50%.
Its customer base has also
increased significantly throughout
both Tier-I and II cities in India,
as well as some international
destinations.
A CHANGE FOR THE
BETTER
Footwear brand PAIO was founded in 2016 with the objective of introducing cruelty-free, sustainable
vegan materials in the manufacturing process. In doing so, however, it unknowingly took up the
herculean task of convincing consumers to make a shift from animal hide-based leather to its
environment-friendly alternatives. Gradually, the discerning Indian consumer warmed up to the idea,
and the bootstrapped, family-funded business has been growing ever since.

Turning the tide

“I have always been fascinated by the
technical construction of footwear.
It is detailed, intricate, and everyone
underestimates the difficulty in crafting
a perfectly fitted but comfortable shoe,”
says Shweta Nimkar, Founder, PAIO. Her
fascination with footwear began when
she was in college and took up ‘footwear
marketing’ as a project. As she studied the
market, some noticeable gaps intrigued
her – most footwear was crafted using
animal hide and there was a serious lack
of sustainable alternatives. Nimkar also
realised that brands still continued to use
the UK and US footwear size metrics nearly
75 years after Independence. “Although it
was a college project, I was intrigued by this
industry. To gain more knowledge about it,
I studied the workings of local craftsmen
and other footwear techniques. Armed with
technical knowledge and the goal of making
a difference, PAIO was born in 2016 as a
vegan (cruelty-free), handcrafted, Made-
in-India footwear company with a focus on
sustainability,” she shares.
One particular challenge that the brand
faced was changing mindsets. Customers
were used to leather footwear and doubted
the durability of vegan or fabric shoes - a
concern that both PAIO and other new-
age brands have successfully managed to
address. From meeting customers who
resisted vegan shoes to purchasing vegan-
only, cruelty-free products, over time, there
has been a drastic change in the Indian
consumer’s behaviourism.
In building the brand, too, Nimkar did not
want to limit the collection to a particular
footwear style. “We consciously and
continuously launched new collections
in heels, wedges, boots, sliders, sandals
and other designs. We collaborated with
designers like Payal Singhal to create
a stunning range of festive footwear
incorporating her classic embroideries on
our shoe styles. We have also partnered
with Deme by Gabriella to create a
beautifully unique collection of loungewear
designs along with high-fashion stilettos,”
she adds.
Thinking out of the box
Customer service is given maximum
importance at PAIO. Each customer
can have a personal interaction with the
brand on multiple levels, from placing the
order to shipment and feedback. This is a
policy that PAIO has maintained since the
beginning, and this has even proven to be
fruitful through the pandemic. It has helped
the brand maintain trust and authenticity
not only with its existing customers but
also with the new ones. “As a policy at
PAIO, we are constantly in touch with our
customers. While there are always cases
of fulfilment issues, I believe it is because
of this customer interaction that we
have successfully managed to keep this
percentage low,” Nimkar shares.
PAIO strives to be a D2C e-commerce,
digital-first brand for all types of footwear
and accessories for men, women and kids. It
aims to craft those using alternative fabrics
and sustainable materials, handmade by
local craftsmen. It constantly experiments
with sustainable fabrics like linen, jute and
khadi, as well as sustainable leathers like
those made from mushroom and pineapple
to create robust and durable footwear.
To survive in the age of growing
competition and small ideas making it big,
brands have to cautiously tread the line
and never stop inventing, disrupting and
recreating. PAIO thus endeavours to keep
the consumer excited and longing for its
fresh styles by continuously innovating on
its collection to make the products more
customer-friendly. The brand has begun
using 3D embroidery in shoes, adding
detachable straps where it can, and even
giving the customer the option of changing
the colour of the heel. On the technology
front, it has actively invested in platforms
that are able to offer a deeper insight and
understanding of the customer base,
allowing the brand to pivot its strategy as
required.
“My focus is purely on taking the brand
closer to sustainability, right from sourcing
the right materials to their technical
construction. We love experimenting with
new materials and testing the boundaries
of footwear design by using innovative
embroidery techniques and detachable
straps on our shoes,” concludes Nimkar.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 173


(L to R) Vikram Iyer, Gaurav Chopra,
Aprajit Kathuria and Sumant Kakaria
Co-founders, Solethreads
MILESTONE
Available across marketplaces such
as Amazon, Myntra and Flipkart,
Solethreads has grown over three-
fold in comparison to pre-COVID
numbers.
Earlier this year, the youth-centric
footwear brand completed its Rs13
crore Series-A round of funding
that saw participation from DSG
Consumer Partners and Saama
Capital.
Driven by a keen understanding
of the market, Solethreads has
been witnessing a year-on-year
revenue growth of 300% while also
expanding its customer base at
30% month on month.
Solethreads is a digital-first
brand and believes in a long-term
omnichannel strategy. It is doing
strategic tie-ups and cracking the
route that best works for it. The
brand’s first tie-up is with Metro
Shoes, with its presence in 120
stores pan-India.
THE SPRING IN ONE’S
STEP
An oft-ignored segment in the footwear category, flip-flops have been trudging on sans innovation.
But, one company sought to turn the tables in its favour and give consumers a product that
understood their needs of comfort and style at a price they would love. Thus was born Solethreads
that led the segment with its design aesthetic and superior functionality. Today, its in-depth
understanding of the market has made it a game changer in the business.

Stirring it up
India, by far, is the second largest footwear
manufacturer in the world, yet more than 60
per cent of its own consumption is met via
imports, mostly from China. The huge gap
between demand and supply has existed
for many a decade, primarily due to a lack of
product innovation and/or understanding
of the consumer’s requirements. The
footwear behemoths have also resorted to
standardised products, without fulfilling any
need-specific demand. “The situation gets
further exacerbated when we talk about
flip-flops. Whilst it has a huge market in the
US, the UAE and Southeast Asia, with places
like the US having dedicated flip-flop brands,
India has not seen this level of disruption
in its market. We therefore endeavour to
create an India-first, comfort-foremost
brand that concentrates on state-of-the-
art innovation, design and manufacturing
to cater to the present and future needs of
Indians,” says Sumant Kakaria, Co-founder,
Solethreads.
The brand has invested heavily in R&D and
in-house manufacturing capabilities that
enable it to provide a superior offering to the
consumer. Kakaria believes that India has
the climate, acceptability and potential to
be one of the largest flip-flop markets in the
world. The high-penetration category enjoys
both quantity and diversity of consumers.
Solethreads already has 30-plus styles
and is constantly making breakthroughs
backed by a technologically-savvy team of
innovators, designers and marketers. “Our
products are superior, yet reasonably priced
and this equivalence is already securing us
prodigious metrics on customer delight,
retention and conversions. Gaurav’s design
experience coupled with the D2C expertise
of Aprajit and Vikram are creating a winning
model for us in every aspect,” adds Kakaria.
The technologies that Solethreads
has developed ensure that people have
constant comfort across the portfolio. While
SUPERFOAM ™ facilitates a spongy-soft
footbed, the TruBounce™ collection with
active cushioning, takes care of the sole and
makes daily walking far more comfortable.
The brand also offers the RECLINER
collection – a range of flip flops with a super-
soft footbed made from a yoga mat – and
the all-terrain flip flop range EVERLAST for
active walking on any type of surface.
An overhaul
Bootstrapped until its recent fundraise,
Solethreads is investing in creating brand
imagery, conducting research and preparing
to further wow the customer through this
new brand direction. “However, we were and
continue to be judicious and disciplined in
every single activity we undertake. The in-
house team are specialists in performance
marketing, and we have achieved optimum
returns on investment. Now that we have
raised funds, we are looking to build the
brand,” shares Kakaria.
Technology has also been a key
investment area for the brand. Through
its own warehousing facility and digitised
inventory management, it continues to serve
the customer day-in, day-out, ensuring the
experience is as delightful as the product
itself. “Fulfilment is critical for an awesome
consumer experience. We’ve always
understood this as well as the benefits
of efficient warehouse management
and fulfilment, because this is integral to
business growth and customer satisfaction.
We have therefore ensured our system
integrations and automation of processes
aid efficient warehouse management and
fulfilment,” says the Co-founder.
Solethreads has partnered with
technology solution providers Glaucus
Supply Chain Solutions, Paxcom India - A
Paymentus Company, ENSO Business
Consulting and Vinculum Group. It has also
enabled its B2B partners to order directly on
the brand’s B2B portal, facilitating ease of
procurement and empowering them to make
decisions that best suit their business, while
keeping the brand’s Capex needs minimal. Its
B2B portal - SolethreadsCart.com - allows
trade partners to view the catalogue, place
orders and track them in real-time.
Solethreads is working on pioneering
concepts that will place it on the global
map. “It would be opportune to mention
that one should just wait and watch. Our
technologies, our products and our best-
in-class practices are being tweaked so
as to create an entirely new benchmark of
customer delight,” concludes Kakaria.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 175

CATEGORY ANALYSIS
ACCESSORIES
The market value of accessories across India was approximately `280 billion before the
pandemic and estimated to reach `850 billion in 2023. The segment market, until recently,
was mostly unorganised, but with the rapid rate at which fashion trends have evolved, the
sector has transitioned into an organised one.

Top thoughts
The accessories category is expected to cross `1,000 billion by 2025, driven by a rise of smartphone ecosystems and internet
adoption in India.
While it was predominantly offline prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the twin effect of the shift to online and the country
opening up, there has been a massive boost in online purchasing.
Significant growth has been recorded not only in metros, but also in tier-II and III cities.

Brands pivoting a change:

Significant markers
The Indian sports & fitness goods market exhibited moderate growth during 2015-2020, and is expected to grow at a CAGR
of 8.6% during 2021-2026.
The handbags market in India is poised to grow by $207.51 million during 2021-2025, progressing at a CAGR of almost 5%.
The luxury handbags market, too, was valued at $62.30 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.3% until 2028.
Unlike earlier, this segment is no longer viewed as a category to complement apparel but is a mainstream category in itself.
Remarkable trend
A sub-category of accessories, jewellery has seen a growing movement to
de-gender fashion. Indian consumers are now more willing to take risks and REVENUE GROWTH
sport items that traditionally belonged to other genders. The lines between
what belongs to who are not only being blurred in fashion magazines, but also in
real life. The trend has fuelled innovation among D2C jewellery brands in India,
inspiring them to invest more in creative designs that defy the age-old norms of
genders.

The last mile

Fitness companies are bridging the gap in the lack of standardisation in
the market and also working to increase accessibility. They are increasingly
penetrating smaller markets and remote sectors of the country where there
is significant growth in the number of health-conscious consumers who want
to partake in fitness, but are uninspired due to the unavailability of even basic
gear. D2C brands in the segment are thus not only manufacturing good-quality 50%
brands have
products at reasonable prices, but are also expanding their distribution and witnessed a revenue
50%
have grown significantly,
reach. This is a significant driver for the fitness accessories category. growth of more than
yet under the 100% marker
100% in the past year

Trends on watch
THE FITNESS REVOLUTION: Fitness accessories grew remarkably during
CUSTOMER GROWTH
the COVID-19 pandemic as people, confined to their homes and caught amidst
a pandemic, were realising the growing importance of keeping fit. With gyms
shut, there was bound to be a surge in demand for home fitness accessories
such as yoga mats. Still at a nascent stage, the market hasn’t even ‘begun’ in
India compared to global counterparts. The pandemic may have acted as its
catalyst, but many in the segment believe that the best is yet to come.

BEING INDIAN: A melting pot of cultures, colours and art, India has much
to offer to both the domestic and global audience. Indian fashion accessory
manufacturers, be it jewellery or handbags, are thus increasingly incorporating
the country’s tribal art, crafts and fabrics in their designs and products. Fusing
the traditional with the modern, today’s urban generation does not only own one
or two bags, but wishes to have one for every occasion and every need. This,
indeed, has been a revelation and showcases the potential of this category. 100%
brands have seen a growth in their
customer base year-on-year
DIGITAL INNOVATION: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning are
increasingly being employed to communicate with the right target audience. It
DRIVERS OF GROWTH
helps brands gain valuable insights not only for better product development but
also in understanding changing consumer preferences. Simultaneously, brands
are investing in supply chain abilities and reducing delivery times.

PARTICIPATIVE ENGAGEMENT: The use of Social Media to create a

community for like-minded customers and involve content creators who align
with company goals to improve customer engagement are the focus of D2C
brands today. Creating a 360-degree touchpoint to allow customers to interact
with the brand and its ethos at any given point has become crucial. Thus, brands
are driving not only engagement with themselves, but also among their family of
consumers to have them more involved in the process.
25%
CONSCIOUS SOURCING: Fashion accessory brands are maintaining a policy brands credit
their solutions- High service standards and
to be transparent about how they ethically source raw materials and believe that
driven approach
50% innovation in supply chain
it is important to speak about these polices and give back to society in the best brands have credited have driven growth for
for growth
Social Media as a
way possible. Having identified a big gap in the arena, they entered the market significant driver of
25%
brands
with proudly Indian, cruelty-free products. growth

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 177

 MILESTONE
Boldfit manages warehouses in
over 12 states in India.
Pallav Bihani It has the capacity to make
products available to customers
Founder & CEO, Boldfit in just over a day in top metros,
and within two days in most other
cities.
The brand has piqued the interest
of investors and may soon
announce its first fundraise.
With business having grown 10x
since the first wave of COVID,
Boldfit projects a revenue of over
`80 crore in 2021.
AN ACCESSORY TO
FITNESS
The lack of standardisation, affordability and accessibility in the category of fitness accessories led
to the founding of Boldfit. Its winning formula has since led to the establishment of its range of health
supplements, and the two-year-old bootstrapped business is celebrating its millionth order this month. It
continues to build a community of health-conscious people in the remotest corners of the country.
Learnings of an experience
His struggle with weight gain and being
constantly body shamed during the
impressionable years of youth had Boldfit
Founder & CEO Pallav Bihani determined to
get in shape. The breaking point, however,
came in 2013 when he incurred a slipped
disc and was bed ridden for several months.
His resolve was now stronger than ever
before. But starting one’s fitness journey
in India, understanding and purchasing the
right products, is a wild goose chase. “When
I started Boldfit, I wanted to standardise
fitness products, make them affordable and
accessible,” he says.
In the early days, Bihani reminisces,
manufacturers wouldn’t respond and even
MOQs would be too large for the brand.
Reaching out to newer customers was
always difficult with limited budgets. “But, all
that’s in the past now and our products have
done all the talking. We’ve worked hard on
curating the right products that deliver. The
word has spread!” he exclaims.
Boldfit has been bootstrapped throughout
in a crowded D2C scene, which was initially
very challenging. Slowly, through the
perseverance and iron will of Bihani, Boldfit
became a name to reckon with in the fitness
community. “At Boldfit, we have two major
lines of products – fitness accessories and
health supplements – which have been
strategically decided upon to provide the
most holistic health and fitness experience
to our customers. We started off with
fitness equipment such as Yoga mats,
bands, shakers, etc., and the response was
terrific. People loved us, they loved our
products, and we were slowly building a
community. We are extremely proud of this
range that is optimised for performance,”
shares Bihani.
Boldfit gradually diversified into health
supplements, and now has a fabulous
portfolio in both categories. The health
supplements are formulated by some of the
country’s finest nutritionists and are made
at world-class facilities conforming to WHO-
GMP standards. This diversification was
also driven by the lack of standardisation in
the market coupled with an already existent
customer base of its fitness accessories.
A weighty category
Boldfit customers are all part of one big
family and the brand listens to them intently.
It regularly engages the customers with
exercise programmes, work-outs and advice
on diet. “The customers are our best friends
and our greatest critics. We get so many
ideas on how to improve our products from
our customers. They’re the backbone of this
company,” says Bihani.
The brand has also invested heavily in its
supply chain abilities and delivers within a
day to major Indian metros, and within two
days to almost all other cities in India to
enhance the customer’s buying experience.
“At Boldfit, we had major omnichannel plans
since the beginning and as of now, we have
two flagship stores in Bengaluru. But, owing
to the pandemic, we were forced to keep the
retail expansion on hold and focus on growing
our D2C e-commerce channels,” he shares.
Boldfit does not believe in making false
promises to customers, and tries to be as
transparent as possible with them. There
are no heavy-weight claims or excessively
flashy packaging. It understands what the
customers want and aims to market its
products accordingly. It will soon launch its
Ayurveda range under ‘BoldVeda’ and take it
international.
Healthcare and fitness is one of the
fastest growing categories in the country.
In fact, it’s only in the last 5-10 years that
people here have become so conscious
about health and fitness. The pandemic has
also acted as a catalyst of growth for this
category and has made people more aware
about the importance of fitness. “We believe
the best is yet to come and the fitness scene
in India is only warming up right now. I see
Boldfit becoming one of India’s premier
fitness brands and expand its reach not
only in the online domain but in the offline
segments as well. We want to cater to even
more people and expand horizons, not only
for us as a brand but also for fitness as a
lifestyle,” concludes Bihani.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 179

Pankaj Garg
Founder & CEO, DailyObjects
MILESTONE
DailyObjects has invested heavily
in its own logistics facilities to
take more control of the quality of
packaging and a faster turnaround
time. It has made technology
investments of as much as `5
million in its fulfilment centre, Apps
and online store.
The brand is projected to grow
3x in its key categories, fuelled
by its state-of-the-art facility
in Gurugram and investment in
strategic acquisition channels like
Android and iOS Apps.
The business is self-sustained at
the moment and is a profitable
company, ready to fund its growth
to a level where it is equipped to
manage the next 100x customers.
DailyObjects enjoys a year-on-
year revenue growth of 50% and
doubling of its customer base.
FASHIONABLY HANDY
DailyObjects envisioned itself as a brand that delivered carefully crafted accessories to the urban Indian
populace. And in realising that vision, it became a game changer in the space. Today, as the brand continues
to ensure its quality and value-driven products cater to the design sensibilities of millennials, it aims to fuel
its growth and expand its product line by listening intently to customers and knowing them better.
Tapping the untapped
DailyObjects was born out of the need
for aesthetically pleasing and quality
fashion accessories, a category that had
been vacant in India, but Pankaj Garg, the
Founder & CEO of DailyObjects, recognised
its potential. Today, delivering this quality
to its customers is the crux of its success,
says Garg. “Making in India with Indian
artisans also helped us give much better
quality at an affordable price point,” he
adds. The brand caters to millennials who
are not just seeking value for money, but
want to get unique products and a good
service experience. By building a carefully-
crafted product line that’s delightful and
functional at once, DailyObjects believes
in inspiring its customers for everyday
possibilities, offering them daily-use
accessories which potentially become an
avenue of self-expression. “Users were
hesitant to pay upfront for a product they
could not touch or feel before buying, so
we ensured that our return & refund was
the best as per industry standards. Positive
reviews by media and product critics also
helped us establish our authority in the
segment,” claims Garg.
DailyObjects has created a line of personal
accessories that are a culmination of the
global standards of quality and a touch of
India. Its product line is trendy and urban,
and each item is crafted with finesse and
attention to detail. “Our ability to refresh the
collection with the changing time, taste and
need of our customers is our USP and an
idea generator for us,” says Garg.
As a contemporary, home-grown Indian
brand, it believes in constantly adapting
to the modern needs of consumers and
frequently adding new product lines and
designs. The brand also feels responsible
towards consciously integrating popular art
that is responsive to its social, cultural and
technological surroundings in its designs,
ultimately providing customers the best
online shopping experience. “Our future
launches and collections are based on
our design-oriented vision and driven by
customer feedback and happiness,” adds
Garg.
Building an experience
With a boom in usage of the internet and
smartphones, and surge in demand driven
by the urban pop culture, the market size
for accessories has gone up significantly.
“Circa 2010, D2C e-commerce brands were
only available in foreign markets, while
India had only a handful of e-commerce
players. Now, D2C is the next big thing,
evidenced by the rise of several innovative
brands in categories like personal
grooming, cosmetics, apparel and lifestyle
accessories,” says Garg.
High service standards and innovation
in supply chain has been the key learning
for DailyObjects during the last couple of
years. It implemented multi-layer quality
and hygiene checks as well as launched
face masks and home-office accessories
to service customers when they needed all
these solutions.
Driven by design, the brand believes that
its products speak through the content
it creates for Social Media. It constantly
communicates with its audience, keeping
them engaged through a high top-of-the-
mind recall. Instagram has been especially
beneficial to building its presence among
millennial internet users. “With its visual
presentation capability, Instagram has
been our growth driver for recent years,”
says Garg, adding that the accessories
category is expected to cross `1,000 billion
by 2025, driven by the rise in smartphone
ecosystems and internet adoption in India.
Available across e-commerce
marketplaces such as Nykaa, Amazon,
Myntra and Flipkart, brand DailyObjects also
enjoys a significant number of sales through
its own website and Social Media channels.
It has also constantly invested in marketing.
Its pre-COVID spends were close to `20
lakh a month, and during the lockdown and
post unlocking, marketing spends touched
`10 lakh and `30 lakh a month, respectively.
DailyObjects lives by the philosophy that
each day is a new opportunity for new
journeys, new discoveries!
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 181

Youhan Noria
Chief Business Officer, Estele &
Priyanka Jawahar
Chief Operating Officer, Estele
MILESTONE
Estele was one of the first Indian
brands to retail out of multi-
brand outlets in the 1990s.
Having incorporated
e-commerce into its workings,
the brand continues to partner
with distributors through its 700
points of sale. It now plans to
take this number to over 3000 in
the next 3 years.
The efforts of its team have been
hugely successful and the brand
has grown 100x in the online
space in the last 12 months, with
plans of a 10-20x growth from
these numbers in the next 12
months.
Estele also works with the top
FMCG firms in India for co-
branding efforts and has reached
30 million households in the last
4 years due to these efforts.
JEWELLERY WITH A
DIFFERENCE
Estele was established in 1989 with a mission to enable a buying experience that aped the West, at a
time when India considered only two categories of jewellery - real and junk. The market was hardly a few
hundred crores back then with no real brands. Later, in 2019, and in continuing with its legacy, Estele
entered the e-commerce space and worked to democratise the category while adopting sustainability and
empowerment of women.
Getting on the bandwagon
Back in 1989, jewellery brand Estele made
inroads into the business with the vision
to provide Indian consumers a chance to
purchase Western-looking ornaments. The
industry had hardly been penetrated at the
time and Estele played a key role in bringing
reputability to it. Estele was rebranded
in 2019 with Priyanka Jawahar, Chief
Operating Officer, Estele and Youhan Noria,
Chief Business Officer, Estele, leaving
their corporate jobs and joining the legacy
team headed by Gusti Noria, and getting
on board the LCGC group as a partner to
give a fresh start to become a D2C brand
via the offline channel by opening COCO
stores. “The inspiration to join was to enable
democratisation of the fashion jewellery
space while adopting sustainability and
women employment & empowerment. We
wanted to create an impact enterprise that
would have women in majority, with our
products designed, manufactured and sold
by them,” shares Noria.
The lockdown was a fantastic adventure
for Estele with tremendous challenges -
capital or the lack of it, not knowing the
E of E-commerce, and no partners in
the online space. “The lockdown in 2020
was the inflexion point where we had a
choice to pivot online or perish as we
had no revenues for six months but kept
our commitments to our partners and
employees. We took a decision to start
small, without any backup plan, only the
burning desire to succeed. Our learning
from this episode was that innovation is
the key to not only surviving but thriving,
and we have created a process to try
and cannibalise our own innovations and
create multiple fail safes,” explains Noria.
Today, Estele offers both a warranty
and guarantee for its products for every
price point due to manufacturing being
done in-house, leading to economies of
scale. It has incorporated lean teams and
increased productivity of team members
to enable price competitiveness. Its focus
on manufacturing enables it to offer over
40k SKUs to customers. Soon, it will
launch different products in a phased
manner.
Leveraging the omnichannel
Estele’s core focus has always been the
customer. It believes that repeat purchases
are the building blocks to the success of
a brand. It offers value to customers and
does not artificially hike prices only to offer
a heavy discount later. “We’d rather make a
sustainable sale and follow an ethical pricing
structure,” adds Noria. The brand has also
targeted micro-influencers for marketing
campaigns that have paid great dividends,
and in the performance marketing space,
works with agencies for their experience
and know-how.
Their ultimate goal is an omnichannel
offering to enable customers to pick the
ideal channel for themselves. He says,
“We intend to invest in tools such as
smartphone applications, omnichannel-
based sales software, and other tools to
help streamline and accelerate growth
in the next 12 months. We at Estele have
believed in long-term partnerships and
decade-long relationships, as well as new
partnerships with marketplaces such as
Amazon, Flipkart, AJIO and Myntra. We
work with our omnichannel partners to
increase physical touchpoints with the
relevant safety measures, and drop-ship/
direct fulfilment of online partnerships.
These new channels of delivery have
enabled us to open to even foreign
markets, both online and offline.”
Its plan for the future is global sales in
an omnichannel capacity by building up a
larger partner base and technology. Estele
intends to invest in a new supply chain
facility for increased demand. “On most
marketplaces we see the same product in
fashion jewellery sold by different sellers
at different price points, which ruins
customer trust and experience due to
outsourced supply chains. We intend to
get some financial partners on-board to
start the blitz scale we intend to achieve in
the next few years along with new product
lines,” concludes Noria.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 183
Steven Jhangiani Hansika Jethnani
CEO and Co-founder, Funky Maharani Co-founder, Funky Maharani

MILESTONE
Less-than-a-year-old jewellery brand
Funky Maharani is fully self-funded
and turns out marketing spends of
approximately `1 lakh a month.
It sells through its own website, but is also
present across marketplaces like Nykaa
Fashion, LBB and Myntra.
Though still nascent, Funky Maharani has
seen a month-on-month growth in revenue
thus far.
Its customer base has also been growing
steadily, and the brand has been able to
tap into not just the Indian market, but also
resonates with Indians and other South
Asians across the globe.
READY TO WEAR
ANYWHERE
Funky Maharani exists to reimagine tradition, creating statement pieces of jewellery that redefine traditional
silhouettes. By marrying the conventional with the contemporary, it produces wearable pieces of art that
scintillate the sensibilities of the modern-day consumer who wants to break the age-old norms of fashion. ‘Why
not?’ is the question that Funky Maharani splendidly answers with each of its well-crafted adornments.
Recreating the mundane
Funky Maharani was founded with the
objective of eliminating the divide
between Indian and Western jewellery and
accessories, taking traditional-looking
pieces and modernising them by making
them motif-based. The carefully-chosen
motifs were universally recognised, and
brought quirkiness and attitude to the
table. On one of his trips between India and
Singapore, Steven Jhangiani, CEO and Co-
founder, Funky Maharani, when watching
an actor on screen in the traditional maang
tikka, realised that this particular piece of
jewellery was never paired with western
wear. “I thought this might be a gap. When I
returned to India, I had a chat with Hansika
Jethnani (Co-founder, Funky Maharani) and
the idea resonated with her. We then quickly
got down to designing the first collection,”
he shares. Within five minutes of the
conversation, the duo decided on a name
for the brand and bought the domain! Within
the same week, they began brainstorming
other motifs that could translate into
reimagined maang tikkas, and found a
freelance accessory designer to work with.
That’s where the journey of Funky Maharani
really accelerated. Since both co-founders
did not have qualifications or the know-how
on anything to do with designing jewellery,
finding the right person that could translate
their vision to reality was vital to bringing
Funky Maharani to life.
Though the brand entered the industry
during the COVID pandemic when lockdowns
and work-from-home setups kept people
from dressing up much, it saw business
gradually pick up between the first and
second waves. “Despite COVID, we pushed
ahead. I was in Singapore, Hansika was in
Mumbai, our designer was in Ahmedabad,
our craftsmen in Surat and our packaging
was to be done from Delhi. I always like
to joke that we put up this business over
WhatsApp, which actually is quite what
happened,” Jhangiani fondly recollects.
But, reaching customers during a lockdown
was also challenging. To make its presence
felt, Funky Maharani participated in pop-up
events in Mumbai and Goa, and received a
good reception. It has been making headway
since. “At the end of the day, we are selling
not only unusual jewellery, we are also
challenging people’s notions about tradition
and how it can be incorporated in modern
life. Getting people to buy into the idea
of wearing a maang tikka with a western
outfit to a luncheon, for instance, requires
a mindset shift. What has been heartening
to see is their response to our products.
Personally, I love it when people see our
stuff and they say - I can’t believe nobody
thought about this before!” adds Jhangiani.
Steady as she goes
Funky Maharani’s environmentally friendly
pieces are made from 80 per cent recycled
brass. They are handcrafted in small batches
of 20 at a time, minimising wastage and
ensuring customers get a rare piece each
time they buy jewellery from the brand.
Through Social Media, it has kept close
to its customers and in the future, hopes
to conduct more in-person events to keep
them engaged, or to stock at outlets where
people can feel and fall in love with its
products. “As a brand we are still finding
our feet. Marketing for us has been very
Instagram-driven, but we’ve also been
fortunate to have had some love from
influencers. One of the biggest moments
for us was when Maitreyi Ramakrishnan,
from Netflix’s ‘Never Have I Ever’, wore
two of our jhumkas during promotions
for season 2. It was really a moment that
made us feel like we had accomplished
something big. Being seen on people
like Maitreyi, with a large following, is
very important to us. Ultimately, it’s how
more people will come to know about us,”
Jhangiani adds.
From maang tikkas that feature whimsical
skulls, birds in flight, dainty roses to the
intricately designed mandala, Funky
Maharani exists to reimagine traditional
thought and believes that fashion is all about
versatility, inclusivity and craft. Effortlessly
cool and contemporary, its accessories can
be worn by people across the spectrum.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 185

Ashish Vijay
Co-founder and Chief Financial Officer, Miorah
MILESTONE
Miorah offers 2000+ pieces
of jewellery to its audience,
including necklaces, bangles,
bracelets, maang-tikas, toe
rings, rings, earrings, anklets,
etc.
The company is now going global
with its customised website
and products on various online
portals.
Miorah plans to launch another
unique range of jewellery that
is already being researched.
Some designs have already been
finalised.
With funding gaining presence
and value in the D2C market,
Miorah plans an IPO (Initial Public
Offering) in the future.
CONVENTIONAL YET
CONTEMPORARY
Miorah began its journey with a simple thought – bringing the work of local craftsmen and artisans to the
fore so people could connect with traditional Indian crafts that matched their modern sensibilities. Today,
Miorah’s tribal jewellery that began with pieces every woman desired, knows no gender or geographic
bounds. The company manufactures traditional unisex and gender-specific jewellery that is available in
both local and domestic markets.

The first step

Setting a delicate foot into the tribal
jewellery space, Miorah was first envisioned
by Ashish Vijay, Co-founder and Chief
Financial Officer, Miorah in a childhood
dream. As his fascination for tribal jewellery
grew over the years and the market sat
significantly untapped, the brand was
born with the noble intent to bring to
the customer’s doorstep the traditional
jewellery crafts of India but with a modern
twist, making them more wearable for the
urban populace. “We had travelled to a few
states of the Northeast and got a chance
to see tribal people there. All of us were
amazed by the way they were dressed and
their love for their culture. The colours,
designs and blends were so attractive
and enthralling! For months then, we read
about these tribes and their culture. The
fascination stayed in our minds and as we
expanded our domain, we decided to launch
an exclusive range of tribal jewellery,” he
shares.
Setting up a business, though, came with
its set of challenges. “To be honest, initially,
everything seemed like a challenge.
We wanted our range of jewellery to
be our USP. What makes it unique is
the inspiration behind it; we entered
the market with some really innovative
choices. When you decide to enter a
market that isn’t common, you start slow.
Tribal jewellery of any region, if you closely
observe, is quite unisex. It does not belong
to any gender or demographic. This was
actually the biggest challenge. We had to
burn the midnight oil to make sure that the
designs that we took to the public were
modern, and styled without harming their
authenticity or craft,” says Vijay. While
the brand began with a limited collection
of jewellery for women, the response it
received inspired it to delve into the men’s
jewellery segment as well. “Gradually, as our
range became popular and the quality was
appreciated, we built a strong business. We
still experiment with our designs and range
to offer today’s world the feel of tradition,
royalty and style, all at once,” he adds.
All ears for the customer
The inspiration to bring unique jewellery to
its customers has been driven by Miorah’s
philosophy of never leaving the customer
unheard. This customer-centric approach
has been adopted by every team at Miorah,
including customer care, social media
management and marketing. “Our teams
always respond to everything that has our
brand name in it. Even if it is a complaint,
it is addressed soon. We had to be firm to
build a solution that would help our audience
stand the test of time. During the pandemic
business was a little low, but our customers
could always place and receive their orders.
Although deliveries were delayed due to
state restrictions and for a while we weren’t
functional, once the lockdown was lifted, we
left the past behind and started afresh. The
pandemic brought all of us closer,” shares
Vijay. Revenue streams have also been
steady at Miorah, barring the minor dip seen
due to the COVID-19 crisis.
The brand uses some of the most
advanced tools to design and carve out the
exquisite pieces. Miorah’s independent unit
that takes care of logistics and fulfilment
has every order packed manually and
verified twice before being dispatched.
Its experts have built a strong market
presence in years and claim to have never
disappointed any of the customers with
their service. Today, with a mindset that
targets both growth and innovation, Miorah
is looking to bring on-the-screen solutions
that would make customer interaction
even more pleasant. Its technology
investments are mostly targeted towards
website development with the aim of taking
business to a global stage.
“With market expansion and an innovative
marketing strategy, we are able to expand
our customer base. These customers
have been our brand ambassadors in their
circles and have helped us expand our
business wider. We are glad to be serving
several million people around the globe and
are looking forward to more interesting
solutions,” concludes Vijay.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 187


Anshuman Singh
Creative Founder, Paul Adams
MILESTONE
Paul Adams sells its products
digitally in India, and internationally
the brand is present in six stores in
Dubai and Madrid.
The brand has witnessed a year-
on-year revenue growth of 8-10 per
cent between October 2019 and
February 2020.
The rate of growth of its customer
base has also been impressive,
marking a 50 per cent surge year-
on-year.
Based on changing customer
needs, Paul Adams has now
diversified its offerings to include
not just luxury bags but also
backpacks, laptop bags, travel kits
and wallets.
ART FOR ART’S SAKE
Soon to launch its own App, luxury handbag manufacturer Paul Adams follows the ‘art meets craft’ approach
that has helped it carve a niche for itself in the market. Made from ethically-sourced leather, each bag is a
culmination of the contemporary art & style of native artists, made to order and finished to perfection, to be
shipped to both a national and international audience of discerning shoppers.
The ideation
Every great idea stems from an observation
that becomes its driving force. So goes the
story of Paul Adams, a home-grown luxury
handbag brand that was conceptualised
by Anshuman Singh, its Creative Founder.
Singh had always been a great follower
and lover of art, and often bought art from
street artists to support their livelihoods.
But what unsettled him was that these
immensely talented artists were not getting
their due. “It was then that I hit upon the
idea of merging art with fashion. This was
the genesis of Paul Adams where we hire
street artists and use their paintings on
our bags while compensating them with
the price they deserve for their work. Our
artists are the heart, soul and story tellers of
Paul Adams and help us create exceptional
works of original art that we present to our
customers. I want India’s canvas to move
from the walls and travel the world, with the
belief that it will add to the story of one’s
life, every day!” he says. Since inception,
Paul Adams has aimed to give its customers
a product they would be proud to carry
and call conscious luxury. No two pieces
manufactured by the brand are alike; hence,
every customer is offered a unique product.
Singh did face several challenges in
business, but overcame them to establish
a stronger brand and customer base. The
first step, he believes, is investing time
and effort in creating a unique identity for
your start-up. “No start-up launches with a
product that is a 100% market fit. Therefore,
the product must be adapted very quickly to
market needs. Sometimes, even pivots are
necessary,” he says, adding that building a
trustworthy brand is also crucial to a start-
up’s survival. “Henry Ford’s most famous
adage perfectly describes the problem
start-ups face when offering an innovative
product to the market. Addressing market
education applies to B2B as well as to
B2C start-ups. In general, most potential
customers are satisfied with the existing set
of products and hence need to be educated
about the benefits and unique features of
new offerings,” Singh advocates.
An end-to-end journey
At Paul Adams, the team believes that a
customer’s satisfaction must not only be
measured at each individual touchpoint
but through the entire journey. Singh
believes that touchpoints are only individual
transactions through which customers
interact with parts of the business and
its offerings. “Companies try to ensure
maximum customer satisfaction during
such interactions when they connect with
their products, customer service, sales
staff, or marketing materials. But, the sole
focus on individual touchpoints misses the
bigger — and more important— picture: the
customer’s end-to-end experience. One
must be able to visualise the customer’s
holistic experience and only by being
empathetic can organisations meaningfully
improve customer satisfaction and
company performance,” he explains.
And, with the massive surge in use of
the internet for purchases, this need to
be ever-present in the customer’s mind
and ensure their end-to-end journey is
a pleasant experience has become the
underlying ethos of brand Paul Adams. Singh
adds, “Given the fact that the pandemic has
dominated the way people do business, we
have realised the importance of digitisation,
technology and being present online more
than ever before. That said, technology is
a means to an end and hence along with
product innovation, we continue to focus
on improving customer satisfaction and
making their overall experience with us
more delightful.”
Paul Adams works with reliable and
established logistic partners who have a
robust tie-up with local delivery agents,
as the last leg of timely delivery matters
the most to them and their business. They
also pay special attention to packaging
that is done meticulously and with multiple
layers to ensure that there is no damage in
transit. Having carved a niche for itself in
the conscious luxury segment, Paul Adams
maintains a policy of transparency about its
ethically sourced raw materials and believes
that it is important to speak about these
policies and give back to the society in the
best way possible.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 189

Pradeep Krishnakumar
Co-founder & COO, Zouk and
Disha Singh
Founder & CEO, Zouk
MILESTONE
Zouk currently serves over
60,000 customers across
India. Its Instagram handle has
also crossed the benchmark
of 100,000 followers.
The brand is also eyeing an
expansion into the offline
market with a larger bouquet
of products in the lifestyle and
fashion space.
With its products available
across several marketplaces,
some even bestsellers, the
brand’s revenue has grown
four-fold year-on-year.
Its spend on marketing has
also surged significantly since
debuting online.
INDIA IN A BAG
Zouk entered the online market for bags and accessories with the aim to incorporate colourful Indian handicrafts
into daily life. It sought to give consumers a reason to diverge from Western-looking accessories to handbags and
wallets that were PeTA-approved and cruelty-free, and were an ode to ethnic Indian crafts and motifs, defining the
very essence of the country’s rich traditions. The brand has already made quite a splash online.
All ears
Batch-mates at IIM Ahmedabad, Disha
Singh, Founder & CEO, Zouk and Pradeep
Krishnakumar, Co-founder & COO, Zouk,
hailed from middle-class families without
an iota of business in their blood. Or so they
thought! On her visit to Kutch, Gujarat, for
an IIM-A course, Singh had the chance to
visit the local handicrafts market with her
bunch of friends. Observant and keen, Singh
noticed that though her friends loved the
traditional colourful crafts on display, they
avoided buying any. Curious, she asked them
what it was that kept them from purchasing
the items and the unequivocal response was
that they simply weren’t functional. Inspired,
the duo envisioned a brand that would
make the traditional crafts of India more
utilitarian, and what better way to do so than
create handbags and wallets for women
that would even match their ethnic outfits.
“The bags & accessories category in India
is more than a billion-dollar market as per
Euromonitor. The bags market, specifically,
has multiple brands offering products that
are more Western looking. We saw that as
a big gap and hence entered the market
with our proudly Indian and 100% PeTA-
approved, cruelty-free products,” Singh
shares.
Though the lifestyle and fashion space
was completely new for both Singh and
Krishnakumar, over the years of running
the business they have understood product
design, manufacturing and marketing, and
doubling down on what has worked well.
They believe that more Indian consumers
are going to pick Indian products. “We
have learnt the traits of the business from
our education and our extensive work
experience across consulting, banking,
venture capital and other start-ups. We are
currently focused on bags and accessories
for women. In this space, most players offer
Western-looking products, majorly made
of animal-based leather. We have brought
in products that are not only made in India
but also have an Indian look & feel. Our
customers love the fact that our products
are made of traditional Indian handicraft
fabric like Ikat and portray the rich Indian
heritage via printed motifs,” adds Singh.
Follow the follower
Though the category was predominantly
offline prior to the pandemic, with the twin
effect of the shift to online and the country
opening up, there has been a massive
boost in online purchasing for bags and
accessories. In the process, Social Media
has been a power tool building awareness
about the brand to the new-age consumer.
Instagram, especially, has been a large
driver of brand awareness for Zouk. “A lot of
influencers and celebrities also support us,
given they like what the brand stands for and
the products it makes. All this has helped
increase presence organically. We also use
paid advertising online to further push the
brand to the right audience,” shares Singh.
At Zouk, the customer is everything.
They help the team come up with the next
product idea and share relevant feedback
& suggestions on possible improvements.
Their word-of-mouth publicity has helped
the brand grow to the current scale in a
profitable manner. Singh says, “Our strategy
with customers is to listen and learn. Our
Customer Experience team speaks to 70 per
cent of all our customers to listen to what
they have to say. We, in fact, learn more
from customers that share bad reviews than
those who share good ones. That helps us
improve constantly.”
Logistics and fulfilment also play a key
role in keeping the customer happy and
looking after their requirements. Zouk
strives to ensure that the products reach
the customer on time, an aspect that has
become more a necessity than a specialty.
“We still have to improve here, but we
have made considerable investments in
infrastructure and the team to become
better. Technology plays a key role in giving
customers a superior experience,” the
Founder believes.
Zouk is backed by marquee investors
Stellaris Venture Partners, Titan Capital,
and the founders of Mamaearth, WOW Skin
Science and Beardo. Currently focused on
scaling India, the brand may also step into
the international market in the future in a bid
to create a large, enduring business.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 191
CATEGORY ANALYSIS
CONSUMER DURABLES
The online consumer electronics market is estimated to reach $30.6 Bn by 2025. The
consumer durables segment is one of the largest & the fastest growing retail segments in
India. Overall, the appliances and consumer electronics industry is expected to double to
reach `1.48 lakh crore (US$ 21.18 billion) by 2025.

Top thoughts
The headset market revenue is expected to touch US$ 77 million by 2027, progressing at a CAGR of 4.7%. Majority of the
branded headphones sell online now and this has happened over the last 3-4 years only,
Smart wearables is emerging as one of the most promising categories within this segment.
According to a report by Care Ratings, consumer electronics and appliances manufacturers are set to increase their
production by 5-8% in FY22, after witnessing a contraction in demand in FY21.

Brands pivoting a change:

Significant markers
Mass availability and affordability of communication equipment i.e. cell phones, fitness bands, smart watches, etc.
Cheaper and ever decreasing cost of using mobile data.
Increasing connectivity among electronic equipment (through Alexa, Siri, etc.)
Increasing awareness in the middle/upper-middle class about the need to remain fit.
COVID-19 pandemic has also increased the adoption of fitness tech in last 2 years.
 REVENUE GROWTH

Remarkable trend:
boAt is now the No. 1 audio brand in India under the ear wear category.
Being one of the first D2C enterprises in India, the brand understood that
there is a need to create a direct connection with the consumer for a
better understanding of the consumer’s buying behaviour, which lacked
in this category before they stepped into it. boAt also leads the consumer
electronics D2C brands category by generating `704 crore in revenue In
FY20.

Change is now
Tech cycles have reduced to quarters from years in the headphone
category. It’s a category where brands have to stay exciting throughout 30%
Brands have
and be ultra-fast with product development. The brands that build had Exceptional
70%
Brands have had 10X Revenue
internal structures to ensure this will win big time. This category is one Revenue Growth
Growth crossing Pre-COVID
Touching Pre-
of the fastest sub-categories within the consumer durables segment, COVID Numbers
Numbers
expected to grow by 30-40% within the next couple of years.

CUSTOMER GROWTH
Trends on watch
AUTOMATION & SMART OFFERINGS: Consumers in the post-
pandemic world are likely to invest in automated, technologically
superior products to ease their lives. Convenience-led product
categories will see a spike as people aim to become more self-reliant.
Additionally, consumers will want the products they buy to reflect the
latest developments in the area of technology, making it more hygienic,
convenient and efficient. Consumer behaviour is now pro-automation
and that will push the envelope further for growth of this sector.

INNOVATION ON DEMAND: The most important thought starter for

this segment is innovation. Customers need to experience a difference 10%
with the brands they choose. It is important to understand their Brands have
served their
convenience and then offer them something ‘made in India’ laced with Existing
90%
Brands have witnessed almost
cutting-edge technology and innovation. Customer Base
50% Customer Growth M-O-M

HOME-GROWN PRODUCTS WILL GAIN SPOTLIGHT: With the

Indian government pushing the idea of ‘Make In India’, D2C brands with
DRIVERS OF GROWTH
this consciousness are bound to win more hearts. However, the key is to
offer innovative products at an affordable price tag. With the pandemic
affecting the pocket size of majority of customers, the spends are
measured now and customer is looking to buy superior products within
this category on a pocket-friendly range.

OMNICHANNEL ECOSYSTEM DRIVING SALES: In the new normal,

retail within the digital space is getting a makeover with multiple
touchpoints. Convenient shopping, from anywhere is the new mantra.
Unlike before, when consumers used to avoid buying high-ticket
purchases or consumer durables and electronics online, today they are
more adept and conditioned to make an online purchase. In fact, to avoid 10%
visiting crowded spaces, they are looking to shop online and that creates Others
a huge opportunity for brands within this segment. 90%
Sales have been generated
through Digital Channels

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 193

 MILESTONE
Rajesh Chopra Brand Bluei has been witnessing
a year-on-year revenue growth
Director and MD, Bluei of 15-20% since the time of
inception.
Its customer base has also been
expanding gradually, growing at
a rate of 6-10% year-on-year.
Today, Bluei has a vast network
of more than 2,000 dealers and
800+ distributors pan India.
The brand has also successfully
expanded its reach beyond
Haryana, into Maharashtra,
Delhi-NCR, Punjab, Andhra
Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Kerala
and West Bengal. Soon, it will
expand further in the eastern
region.
FROM THE GET-GO
Founded in 2011, Bluei faced many a challenge when it first entered the D2C ecosystem. From building a name for
itself while valuing relationships with customers over sales, the brand gradually overcame every obstacle that
came in its way. Ten years later, Bluei has expanded its reach to seven more Indian states through a trustworthy
network of distributors & dealers and the zeal to continue learning as the world changes and technology evolves
every single day.
A step back in time
Entrepreneurship has been a family
trait for the Chopras for generations now,
and Bluei is a product of a third-generation
zeal for business. The brainchild of
Rajesh Chopra, Director and MD, Bluei, the
brand was founded in 2011. But things had
begun differently for him and the family.
“It all began with ‘Chopra TV Corner’ back
in 1988 in Ratia, Haryana. Electronics, in
a small city, managed to win customers.
The store quickly earned a good name
and attracted a lot of attention. It became
the perfect stepping stone for our second
venture – Chopra Electronics – which was
established in 1999. With the learnings from
having started from scratch, we founded
Bluei in 2011,” shares Chopra. Today, the
company serves three major segments of
electronics - mobile accessories, security
systems and car accessories. It has a
network of over 2,000 dealers and more
than 800 distributors pan India, while the
team continues to expand its presence
each and every day. A gadget lover himself,
the day-to-day innovations in technology
keep Chopra inspired to develop new
products to meet the requirements of the
discerning customers.
In the initial days, as Bluei began setting
foot in the D2C space, it was faced by a
major obstacle – making its presence
felt and be talked about in the consumer
community. Its founder has always believed
that building an audience is always more
valuable than direct sales and so, being a
favoured brand among consumers was the
first challenge it needed to face head on.
And head on it did! “To solve the problem,
we did co-marketing, following all traditional
ways of marketing back then. We also hired
a highly experienced and talented workforce
in our marketing team to make things easier.
However, a second challenge that we soon
faced was generating leads. So, we got in
touch with experts in the field and abided by
their advice to create a strategy that would
help solve the problem. To generate leads
for our business, we needed to first optimise
our existing website for conversions. We
understood that a website was the most
essential tool for turning prospects to
consumers,” adds Chopra.
Reaching remote corners
Today, as e-commerce continues to
reshape the retail ecosystem, the growth
of online shopping is forcing store owners
to rethink the way they do business and
adapt to the changing paradigm of the retail
landscape. The significant impacts of digital
transformation in retail are noticed in supply
chain management as well. Bluei offers a
seamless omnichannel experience where
customers can order from anywhere. “From
a logistics point of view, we have a dynamic
and agile warehousing strategy that helps
achieve a quicker and seamless last-mile
fulfilment. In my opinion, a distributed
warehousing can play a critical role in
streamlining the logistics functioning of
retailers,” says Chopra. Its digital marketing
strategy also includes a variety of plans
for landing page, lead magnets, content
marketing and SEO to attract and engage
visitors. It analyses target customer markets
and develops strategies that get a business’s
offerings in front of the right audience.
The MD believes that it’s also equally
important for companies to consistently
monitor current market trends and
product success to remain relevant and
profitable. When companies identify the
opportunity to shift their product lines for
increased marketability, adds Chopra, they
often commit to a process called product
diversification. “We, at Bluei, understand
the requirement and importance of product
diversification in helping expand the current
market of a product and help companies
grow the presence of a brand. We follow
a concentric diversification strategy that
involves adding similar products to the
existing business. Over the years, Bluei
has continuously added a new component
to an existing product line, such as new
technology, additional sibling products or
growing the existing product availability to
reach new markets,” he explains.
Bluei innovates on mobile accessories
and security products. The company has a
manufacturing plant and assembling unit in
India.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 195
 MILESTONE
Digitally native brand boAt is one of
the leading wearables brand in the
country, present in more than 5,000

Aman Gupta outlets.

As per the latest IDC Report (Q2
Co-founder, boAt 2021), it leads the Indian audio-wear
market with a share of 45.5% .
The brand has retained its position
in the ‘Top 5 Wearable brands’
globally as per IDC’s Worldwide
Device Tracker, 2021 Q2.
Over the past year, it has launched
Aavante 4000DA and Aavante
1700D which comes with Dolby
Atmos and Dolby Digital sound.
THE SOUND OF
SUCCESS
Home-grown audio wearables brand boAt has been making headway since inception. Having begun
as a mobile accessories company in 2016, it made headlines when it roped in big wigs from the fields
of film, sport and music. Its earnest endeavour of being a brand that resonates with millennials in
both style and pricing has helped it scale new heights and establish a robust digital presence that
drives more than 80% of its sales today.

Breaching the mould

Their foray into the category of consumer
durables in 2016 helped the founders of
boAt observe the market with a keen eye.
Soon, they realised there existed a gap in
terms of quality and price among available
products – global, expensive brands versus
their cheaper, inferior counterparts. The
founders understood that millennials were
increasingly on a lookout for products
that were durable, quirky and available at
an affordable price. “None of the product
offerings resonated with the needs of the
Indian consumer. This is when we came up
with the idea of bringing cool, fashionable
and durable products to the Indian audio
market. Our community of ‘boAtheads’
accepted us with open arms and have been
vocal about the brand since day one. We,
too, are constantly looking for opportunities
to bring the best of technologies for our
consumers and bringing an Indian brand
on the radar of the audio industry globally,”
says Aman Gupta, Co-founder, boAt.
At the time of its inception, boAt was a
team of few ambitious people wanting to
disrupt the industry. As a bootstrapped
start-up at the time, working capital for
operations was an issue. “Getting the right
talent in the team was also a challenge we
faced initially. Back in 2016, people were not
very keen on working for start-ups due to
the lack of stability and financial growth. To
add to that, we were a start-up fighting with
global brands that had infinite budgets. In
order to conquer the category, we created
the brand online and focused on ROI-driven
strategies. We have come a long way since,
and take pride in the community we have
built over time and how consumers are the
core of our products!” shares Gupta.
Doing it right
boAt has been working closely with
international tech giants such as Qualcomm
and Dolby to provide top-of-the-line
hardware as well as software optimisations
in their audio range. The consumer-centric
brand takes pride in being perceptive of
customer needs and fulfilling them, be
it via audio devices, smart wearables or
even personal grooming products. Once
its pricing and quality resonated with its
target audience, the millennials, there
was no stopping boAt. TWS was a major
disruption that the brand brought into the
Indian market. “We have a young, dynamic
team that stays up to date with trends.
Their constant efforts help us move with
our customers in terms of product offerings
and specifications. We don’t necessarily
want to be the first brand to launch a
certain technology, but we do want to be
the first brand to launch it right,” exclaims
Gupta.
The smart wearables brand has
successfully leveraged the power of the
internet by penetrating digital platforms
to not only pronounce itself but also keep
in touch with its customers. The sales for
boAt are 80 per cent online and 20 per cent
offline, which means most of the times it is
dealing with the consumer directly. Gupta
believes this gives them an edge when it
comes to understanding the consumer,
their needs and their product preferences.
A timely customer feedback leads them
to fulfil the wants of the consumer in a
streamlined way, ensuring smooth and on-
time fulfilment across all pin codes.
From its latest personal grooming
brand MISFIT to its women-oriented
range T-Rebel, boAt is constantly crafting
products that touch the right chord
with customers. The pandemic also
paved the way for D2C brands to explore
opportunities; consumers were looking
for premium-quality, durable products at a
decent price range. boAt saw the pandemic
as an opportunity to resonate with its
audience by introducing the new product
categories. “At a time where consumers
are making aware and informed decisions,
boAt sees a lot of scope as consumers have
always accepted us and shown tremendous
trust in us by making us a market leader.
Through the constant efforts of the
R&D team, we look forward to exploring
opportunities in this ever-growing market
of India,” says Gupta.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 197

 MILESTONE
Sandeep Aggarwal and Candes has already raised

Vipin Aggarwal $3 million from various marquee

family offices of New Delhi and
is a few months away from an
Co-founders, Candes institutional growth fund. It
plans to raise $20 million.
The company is also on track to
earn a revenue of `200 crore this
year. It already clocks `10 crore
in monthly sales.
Since the onset of the pandemic,
its marketing spends have grown
from `10 lakh to `30 lakh.
Candes recently brought
on board Bollywood actor
Arjun Kapoor to be its brand
ambassador.
TAKING ON GIANTS
Stepping into a category dominated by multi-national companies backed by expertise in technology
and robust sales & distribution networks could not have been easy for Candes. But, the latter’s
founders were determined to bring to the Indian consumer home-grown appliances that were on-par
with international quality and design. They aimed to disrupt the category by pricing their products
reasonably and building an efficient fulfilment nexus.

Being indigenous
When Candes Co-founders Sandeep
Aggarwal and Vipin Aggarwal decided
to build a brand that gave customers a
choice to purchase home appliances
that were well-designed and on-par with
international standards, they had already
learnt the strings of the business through
their experience of having worked as sales
managers, software consultants, and even
heading other established setups through
their career. The duo thus founded Candes
with the aim of providing a complete range
of electrical home & kitchen appliances
at affordable prices. “With prolonged
experience in the industry, it was not tough
to expand in terms of diversification of
range of products. With a team of experts
and being a strong OEM with a good network
of contract suppliers, the task of capturing
the marketplace gradually smoothened over
time,” they share.
With the objective of providing all
electrical home & kitchen appliances in
one place, the company began its journey
in 2010 with ceiling fans and geysers.
The encouraging response they received
to the two products inspired them to
diversify further and in 2015, they launched
stabilisers, immersion rods, room heaters,
gas stoves, LEDs, toasters, mixers &
grinders, irons, and smart gadgets.
Today, fulfilment is a key ingredient to the
success of a D2C brand in the online sphere.
Making the customer’s end-to-end journey
a pleasant experience is as important, if not
more, than the quality and durability of the
product itself. One of the initial challenges
that Candes faced as it began to make its
presence felt in the online D2C space was
building a robust distribution network that
would be on an equal footing with the mega
companies that had already been in the
business since times immemorial. Besides
matching their quality and being available
to consumers across marketplaces, the
brand created a blueprint for a distribution
and fulfilment network that would enhance
the experience of the customer. Being a
strong OEM backed with a good network
of contract manufacturers, fulfilment has
never been a hurdle to attain, the founder
duo claims.
Roping in the best
Candes has constantly been innovating not
only on its products and range but also its
marketing strategies. With Bollywood actor
Arjun Kapoor as its brand ambassador, it
hopes to bode well with its target audience
and possibly reach even more consumers.
It has also introduced a range of semi-
automatic washing machines that use
cutting-edge, rust-resistant technology, and
are available in three variants.
“We believe the world is digital. We are
targeting the online audience through digital
sales and advertising. The offline audience
is tapped through our strong network of
distributors. We have also come up with
Candes Shoppe - a one-of-its-kind initiative
to give the distribution network an equal
opportunity of earning at par with online
sellers,” the founders share.
The customer has been at the heart of
Candes’s business values. The brand has
constantly sought to understand their
demands and needs, while also taking into
consideration economic and environmental
factors that may have altered their choices.
“We brought the prices down to suit their
pockets considering the pandemic and pay-
cuts, and increased the range of products to
enable them to order more from the comfort
of their home,” they add.
Armed with a USP of affordable and
innovative products, Candes has recently
launched the IoT Fan and is coming up
with its full-fledged range of IoT products
at pocket-friendly prices. It also aims to
reach 500 million households over the next
year. “The vision for Candes is to achieve
and exceed benchmarks in quality and
best practices. Our motto has always been
‘Customer Delight through Innovation’,” they
say.
Incessantly investing in the R&D space,
Candes is constantly striving to offer the
customer good-quality products. It is also
fulfilling demand by ensuring it always has
items in stock, especially keeping with an
ever-expanding customer base through its
digital reach. In the future, the brand looks
to aggressively expand both product and
reach, setting foot into more markets with a
wider portfolio to offer.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 199

 MILESTONE
In the last two months, since
August 31, DIZO India has seen
its customer base grow to over
400,000.
Committed to making the customer
experience enjoyable post sale,
Abhilash Panda DIZO has set up over 320 service
centres in 310+ cities across the
CEO, DIZO India country.
The brand has already launched
12 products within few months
of coming into the market. Its
top-selling gadgets are the DIZO
Watch 2, DIZO GoPods D and DIZO
Wireless.
The self-funded company spends
4-7% of its budget on marketing.
‘TECHING’ ON THE
WORLD
When DIZO decided to enter the consumer technology space, it analysed the market and
concluded that the next big revolution was going to be in AIoT. In the last few years, the focus on
smarter personal technology and gadgets has been even more pronounced and so, DIZO zeroed in
on four categories that it wanted to focus on – smart entertainment, smart home, smart care and
smart accessories.
The beginning
A few like-minded industry veterans
sitting together at a roundtable began
talking about evolving consumer needs,
the relentless march of technology, and
the future. These experts had years of
combined experience and an unmatched
understanding about the market. The
common thread – they were all passionate
about what they did, believed in consumer-
centricity, and were committed to
bringing the best technology solutions
to consumers. The group of technocrats
wanted to build a brand which was meant
to belong to the world, for the people
of the world. And thus was born DIZO, a
brand that intended to offer a discerning
young generation of tech enthusiasts
differentiated technology aligned to their
needs, to complement their individuality,
empower them, and become an extension
of their personality. “The very inspiration of
our existence is the urge to fulfil the ever-
evolving demands of our consumers and
address their needs. The focus is to provide
the latest, most innovative and high-quality
AIoT products with trendy designs at a
competitive price,” says Abhilash Panda,
CEO, DIZO India. The young brand claims
to have received good response from
consumers and is truly overwhelmed.
DIZO was launched earlier this year, in
May. The team was initially apprehensive
of launching the brand during a pandemic,
but decided to take the plunge nonetheless.
“It was a huge decision that could impact
the very existence and even growth of
the brand. But, I guess, we made the right
decision,” says Panda. He believes that what
gives them a competitive edge over other
players in the segment is the pricing of the
products without compromising on their
premium quality, and them being developed
and designed by a good R&D team. “We
have worked hard to get the best quality at
affordable prices, coupled with great after-
sales services,” says the CEO.
Overcoming obstacles
One of the first challenges the DIZO team
faced was maintaining the right balance
between its online and offline presence. “We
are riding on the digital revolution that has
technically offset the need to be seen and
heard on offline platforms, at least for the
near future. But, offline is equally important.
Therefore, we are focused on our online
visibility and so we signed up with Flipkart to
make our products accessible to everyone
across the country. Having said this, we are
appropriately available across key physical
retail outlets as well. So, the omnichannel
route has been our choice right from the
start,” explains Panda.
Next in line was after-sales service, a
challenge that team DIZO recognised even
before its debut. Critical to business, the
team had a plan in place to set up a robust
after-sales network that would help it
gain another edge over other players in
the market. With a 320-strong network of
service centres, DIZO is simultaneously
working with consumer support agencies
and also has a community for its
consumers, DIZO Squad, where they can
share information and make complaints &
suggestions to the team.
DIZO hopes to resonate as a brand that
is different, genuine, cool, humorous and
surprising. It wants to encourage people
to try different paths of life and care about
overlooked topics. It advocates this as
being possible when people imbibe the
right technology that lets them do more.
It believes technology is an extension of
oneself.
For the future, the brand has a huge
portfolio of products planned across
varied categories, including smart
entertainment, smart home, smart care
and accessories. It will lay more focus on
smart entertainment this year, especially
audio wearables. While its aim is to top the
TWS category within the next two years,
the long-term goal is to be the most loved
brand in the country and be among the
cream of AIoT products. “DIZO is a brand
for everyone and anyone interested in
technology and looking for personalised
and unique experiences. Call us innovative
or not, our aim is to always try our best to
bring premium products and features to
the mass market,” concludes Panda.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 201
Ayush Banka Paras Batra
Co-founder & CTO, Leaf Studios Co-founder & CMO, Leaf Studios

MILESTONE
Leaf has earned a revenue growth of four times
in the last 12 months.
Its customer base has also surged to thrice the
level it was at a year ago.
It is the first headphones brand to launch
an Android App that personalises the audio
experience for the user. This patented
technology makes the sound experience better
by adjusting the sound basis the customer’s
preference.
The profitable bootstrapped business has not
needed external investments thus far.
BINGING ON
ACOUSTICS
Indigenous D2C brand Leaf entered the market with its funky, well-designed headphones & earphones
and a simple agenda – to build a community of binge-watchers who needed the gadget! Their focus on this
particular target group helped them clearly understand and design product features that would be a priority
for users. Leaf thus sought to create comfortable headphones with a long battery life and superbly clear
audio quality so customers would never miss a dialogue!

Clarity of thought
Ayush Banka, Co-founder & CTO, Leaf
Studios and Paras Batra, Co-founder &
CMO, Leaf Studios met during graduation.
Besides a common friends’ circle, the duo
also shared interests – music, movies and
television shows. “Being the techies that
we are, we kept searching for a high-quality
wireless earphone that we could afford,
but failed to find one. No one was offering
value-for-money wireless headphones at
the time in India. So, in 2017, we built one
for ourselves and absolutely loved it. We
thought of putting it on Amazon only for fun,
but it took off well. That’s when we realised
there were more people like us, those
looking for an affordable set of headphones
with good sound mechanics,” shares Banka.
The duo resolved to focus only on one
segment of the category at a time instead
of diversifying across more product
ranges. Counter-intuitively, despite being a
headphones brand, it does not have music
lovers as its focus customer segment.
“We are a headphones brand for those
who binge-watch movies and shows. This
clarity and focus have helped us become
a specialist in this category. I have always
believed that the future belongs to specialist
brands, not generalist brands,” adds Banka.
Based on the needs and requirements
of this particular target group, Leaf was
successfully able to create a differentiated
product that was extremely comfortable
to wear, had a longer battery life and was
powered by superb sound quality, while
keeping the price point affordable and the
design chic. “We have not and neither do we
intend to expand to categories like chargers,
cables and trimmers,” the co-founder says.
Not being from the industry and
inexperienced in building a consistent,
reliable supply chain was a struggle for the
founders at the outset. Over time, however,
they overcame the obstacle and now take
pride in having amassed a top-notch team,
connecting to experienced people in the
network, and learning from their experiences
of working in the Chinese manufacturing
ecosystem. As the supply chain improved,
Leaf products became more reliable and
more word-of-mouth marketing began.
A different take
D2C is often regarded as only a direct-to-
customer sales channel, but Leaf founders
believe it’s more about establishing direct-
to-customer relationships. “We try to stay
close to our customers in ways that are
welcomed by them. Instead of just talking
about headphones all the time, we focus on
adding value to their lives beyond that as
well. We have a community and customer
base of binge-viewers and in our Social
Media activities and e-mailers, we send
them genre-wise recommendations and
also conduct crowd-sourced reviews for
OTT releases – a connect they appreciate,”
explains Banka. Leaf also regularly carries
out contests and engagement activities
that keep users connected to the brand. It
employs digital tools and platforms such
as email, SMS, Social Media and web push
notifications to deliver this value, and uses
marketing automation tool Wigzo to reach
out to its community. Its communication
strategy hasn’t changed much due to the
pandemic, but its impact surely has. When
the pandemic happened, more and more
people became OTT subscribers, which also
pushed the binge-viewing behaviour. That
has had a positive effect on the brand.
Leaf has based all its marketing efforts
on two key objectives – getting into the
consideration set of the binge viewer who
plans to buy a headphone and gaining
mindshare of the viewer by providing
him/ her value. It achieves the former by
being at the right place at the right time
and being visible. The latter is achieved by
giving the customer recommendations and
reviews to ensure they stay connected and
make Leaf a top-of-the-mind recall during
their next possible headphone purchase.
Its partnership with some of the leading
logistics providers also helps build trust
among consumers about on-time deliveries.
“We will continue to focus on being the go-
to headphones brand for binge viewers and
making our Leaf App more user-friendly,”
says Banka. He adds that an IPO is also
definitely on the cards a few years down the
line.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 203

Gaurav Khatri Amit Khatri
Co-founder, Noise Co-founder, Noise

MILESTONE
Since its inception in 2018, Noise has introduced
over three dozen products in its wearable and
hear-able portfolios.
While continuously strengthening its online
presence, the brand is now looking to reach out
to more consumers through offline channels.
Noise’s brand ambassadors – cricketer Rishabh
Pant and Bollywood actor Taapsee Pannu - have
played a pivotal role in forming a strong connect
with its community of ‘Noisemakers’.
Driven by innovation in technology, the founders
are now working to create gadgets that are more
accurate in monitoring an individual’s health and
fitness journey.
NOISE SO GOOD!
Before stepping into the arena of smart audio gadgets and wearables, Noise dealt in mobile accessories –
smartphone cases and covers. Gradually, the home-grown lifestyle brand made inroads into the category
of smart wearables and hasn’t looked back since. Today, the brand is making heads turn by not only offering
state-of-the-art gadgets to the discerning Indian consumer, but also striving to make their overall experience
a pleasant journey that will keep them coming back.

Opportunity for the taking

Brothers Gaurav Khatri and Amit Khatri,
Co-founders, Noise, founded the brand in
2018 to offer tailor-made gadgets that met
the customers’ needs of style, quality and
price. At the time, the market was cluttered
with several brands that had consumers
paying a fortune for the quality offered.
The brothers saw this as an opportunity to
disrupt the segment through a product that
was on a par with international standards
but priced reasonably. Having already been
in the business of smartphone accessories,
they decided to take the plunge into smart
wearables and audio gear. Since then,
based on constant customer insight and
data, the brand has introduced over three
dozen products in the category.
Initially, one of the biggest challenges
faced by Noise was building an innovative,
distinct proposition, the duo recalls. “Noise
not only wanted to create products that
responded actively to the customer’s
needs, but also offered a truly seamless,
tech-driven experience. We overcame
this challenge by putting together an R&D
team that played a key role in setting the
foundation stone to most products in
Noise’s portfolio today,” they say.
A key strategy adopted by the team
at Noise is the simple act of putting its
customers first. Noise aims to understand
their needs and respond promptly with its
advanced and unique product offerings.
The power of understanding what the
customers want came in particularly
handy during the ongoing pandemic. “As
customers realised the significance of
health and wellness in their lives, Noise
came up with a wide portfolio of health
and wellness-centric products. The brand
continues to push itself to do better, simply
by listening and understanding the needs of
its customers,” say the founders. It caters
to its audience with frequent product
launches and a wider range of durables.
Customers know best
At the outset, Noise began by being
aggressive on digital marketing, which
included advertisements across various
digital channels. However, last year, its
founders realised the power of brand
marketing as a holistic approach. Currently,
it is following a 360-degree marketing
model aimed to build the brand’s salience,
with sales to follow through. “Noise’s brand
ambassadors have also played a pivotal
role in ensuring that the brand stays ahead.
Renowned personalities like cricketer
Rishabh Pant and Bollywood actor Taapsee
Pannu allow for a strong connect with
Noisemakers and the team at Noise alike.
They have played a significant role in taking
Noise’s marketing strategy ahead and
ensuring a connection with the customers
in line with Noise’s core values of listening
to one’s ‘Dil ka Shor’,” the founders add.
Besides being customer-centric,
innovation is also one of the founding
principles of the brand. “For us, both go
hand-in-hand. Our focus is making products
more intuitive for our communities. Our
USP is elevating user experience by not just
focusing on delivering commodities but
making lives simpler for millennials keen on
a connected lifestyle,” says the duo.
Noise has witnessed exponential growth
in the past 30 months and is thriving to
sustain the momentum. The brand is
committed to offering innovative products
and will soon be launching some industry-
first gadgets in the TWS and smartwatches
categories, which have grown massively
over the last couple of years owing to
the increased awareness among people
caught amidst a pandemic to stay fit and
healthy. “Our focus has been on health
and fitness as that is the need of the hour.
We are coming up with gadgets with a
lot more accuracy in terms of monitoring
an individual’s health and fitness journey.
We have always focused on making our
products an integral part of a consumer’s
journey and help them live a healthy &
safe lifestyle. Overall, we want to make the
best of technology available to everyone,”
they say. Additionally, Noise is focusing
on expanding its offline footprint to be
present at the nearest retail outlet and
easily accessible to customers. “This will
help us solidify our relationship with Indian
consumers,” the founders believe.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 205

 MILESTONE
With current revenue at `150 crore,
OneFitPlus hopes to earn `200
crore in revenues by March 2022. Its
customer base is also growing 2.5
times year-on-year.
The bootstrapped brand is also
Mohit Mathur eyeing an international expansion,
for which it would look to raise
Founder & CEO, OneFitPlus funding.
Regional fulfilment is another key
area of growth for OneFitPlus, and
it has plans for widening its existing
warehouse network.
Focused on quality over quantity,
OneFitPlus manufactures
treadmills, spin bikes, other indoor
bikes, as well as fitness accessories
such as shakers.
A HEALTHY
DIFFERENCE
Invested in making fitness thrilling and exciting so that users enjoy exercising, fitness equipment and service
brand OneFitPlus has disrupted the market through differentiated offerings that give it an edge over other
players in the highly-competitive space. Its smart, connected products coupled with a will to build a fitness
community and engaging the consumer while making sessions more interactive are its winning formulae.
Meeting needs
OneFitPlus Founder & CEO Mohit Mathur’s
experience of selling imported cardio
equipment in the domestic market during
his stint at Amazon sowed the seed for
the establishment of the brand. Backed
by his strong e-commerce exposure at
the marketplace, Mathur hoped to make a
comprehensive strategy for his business by
building a vertically integrated platform that
combined software, service and hardware.
“Technology can be emulated, so there is
a need to evolve continuously, innovate
and think ahead of competition. Offering
a differentiated experience is key when
technological advantage is not permanent,”
he says.
The category is a tough one to crack,
with immense competition from existing
manufacturers of cardio equipment. To a
new entrant’s advantage, however, have
been the growing consciousness among
people to be fit and healthy, and an even
greater need to be able to achieve their
goals within the safe confines of their home
due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Other contributing factors, according
to Mathur, are mass availability and
affordability of communication equipment
such as cell phones, fitness bands and
smart watches; an ever-decreasing cost of
using mobile data; increasing connectivity
among electronic equipment; as well as
growing awareness in the middle and upper-
middle class about the need to remain fit.
Mathur says that what has also helped
them make a mark is their investment
in offering differentiated products and
services at a time when no one paid
attention to it. OneFitPlus achieves this
through its pan-India installation network
and making fitness more connected and
interactive. It has built India-suitable
products by using mobile phone penetration
to reduce the acquisition cost of customers
- unlike the US and Europe, where you pay
`1.5 lakh for the ecosystem, OneFitPlus
achieves it in `30k.
Technology has also facilitated the brand’s
growth. It was Mathur’s foresightedness
that helped envision fitness as a more
connected industry across the world. The
use of technology is thus evident not only
in the equipment itself, allowing customers
to smartly connect their digital devices
and track progress any time of the day, but
also in establishing a virtual community
of health aficionados where encouraging
two-way dialogue benefits everyone. The
customer gets a chance to be more invested
in the brand with constructive feedback
and suggestions, and the brand is more
invested in the customers’ progress by
listening to them and meeting their needs.
OneFitPlus has introduced a leader-board
concept in live work-outs to increase the
competitive spirit among customers and
make exercising more enjoyable. Fitwarz,
which has gamified fitness, is another first
from the company.
Vital links
No new venture is bereft of challenges and
uncertainties, and OneFitPlus had several
obstacles to overcome to carve a niche for
itself in the market and make a difference
in its customers’ lives. “The key challenges
we faced when stepping into the category,
besides strong competition from existing
players, were establishing credibility in the
market being one of the early players in
home fitness, gaining suppliers’ trust and
managing cash flow,” adds Mathur.
OneFitPlus broke the shackles of
convention by concentrating its energies
on the customer. “We have created a strong
feedback loop across all customer-facing
functions and touchpoints, and leverage
technology to remain in touch with
customers, tweaking our offerings based
on this feedback, be it product features or
services,” shares Mathur.
In its end-to-end growth planning
and execution, it mainly employs digital
marketing and analytics. Social Media,
search engines and web technologies
are used to create and expand different
stages of the customer journey, from
awareness and engagement to adoption
and retention. This focus on customer
experience, Mathur believes, has allowed
OneFitPlus to build the brand to scale.
He concludes, “Connected home fitness
will grow consistently owing to COVID-
induced restrictions and changing
workplace rules. The increasing adoption
of connected home fitness activities will
also enable people to have fun and be
social.”
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 207
 MILESTONE
Besides being present on leading
e-commerce platforms like Flipkart
and Amazon, U&i also has more
than 4,000 dealers associated with
it in the offline market.
The brand has witnessed three-fold
Meet Vij revenue growth over last year.
CEO, U&i Its customer base has also
expanded exponentially, especially
post lockdown, when it saw a 40%
surge.
With its vision of scaling up the
ladder to become India’s most
famous lifestyle and portable
electronics brand, U&i has
surpassed the largest exporter
from China.
BEING FUTURE-READY
Founded in 2019, U&i had begun as a company manufacturing mobile covers. After having made a name for
itself in the segment, the founder decided it was time to enter the category of consumer durables. The market
was ripe with opportunity for indigenous brands that were challenging big-budget international companies.
Consumers needed good quality products at pocket-friendly prices, but weren’t yet spoilt for choice.
Spotting an opportunity
Hailing from a traditional business
household, Meet Vij, CEO, U&i, had keenly
been observing the market of consumer
durables in India. Having already been
present in the space of mobile accessories,
Vij was certain that there existed a gap
between what customers desired and what
was available to them. He wanted to offer
them a differentiated product that did not
compromise on quality but was available
at much less the price than other brands in
the market. Viewing the potential growth
of the sector, he founded U&i in 2019. “For
us, the primary focus is the customer, and
we are dedicated to offering the best of
quality with constant improvements and
inventions. In fact, innovation is always at
the forefront of a product-driven business,
but what gives U&i an edge is its USP of
offering value for money to its customers.
The market was extremely crowded
when we entered the space, but what
helped us emerge as one of the most loved
brands was our pricing dynamic backed
by key specifications and trendy designs,”
says Vij.
Pricing the products appropriately while
ensuring quality was adhered to was a
big challenge for the brand. “One of the
major roadblocks that we faced initially
was to put forth the best quality keeping in
mind pricing. We understood the market’s
challenge of providing value-for-money
mobile accessories with an assured
brand name and key specifications our
consumers were looking at. Leading a
team that was dedicated to research and
development to enhance growth helped
us overcome the obstacle. Once we had
created a strong product, communicating
the right messaging to our potential
customers and making them the most
important facet of our brand helped us
win customers and then retain them,
making our base stronger every year,” adds
Vij. In fact, in keeping with the growing
need for new, unique products, U&i has
increased its investment in research and
development by five per cent.
In step with the times
U&i’s customer-first approach is evident
in everything the brand offers. Sharing
an example, Vij says, “Few years back, the
concept of a portable charger was alien to
most of us, but over time we speculated
the rise in mobile phones being used not
only for the basic purpose of calling but
also for the luxury of having information
right on your palm-top. Identifying such a
shift in requirements is our core strategy;
diversifying these into various products to
choose from is an experience we offer to
our customers.”
Another important touchpoint the brand
maintains to stay close to its customers
is feedback. This helps them reinvent not
only the product but also their service,
from the point of the order being placed
to its final delivery. All customer feedback
is duly noted and worked on. It is currently
handling fulfilment internally and has
associated with a logistics partner as well.
Both facets have an extremely digitised
approach that enhances accuracy and
helps the brand in seamless functioning.
In terms of outsourced logistics, reliable
and professional partners are helping U&i
create a solutions-oriented service.
Vij says that as a brand, they have
always backed themselves with extensive
research and data analysis. Being a brand
that offers technology, they have faith
on the difference it can bring to the user
experience. With the fast-paced life of
today, there seems to be a decrease in
patience among people; regular updates,
from being introduced to a customer to
delivery & feedback, everything can be
monitored by customers and that gives
them an assurance.
Endorsed by Bollywood actors Shahid
Kapoor and John Abraham, U&i believes
that it is very important for brand
ambassadors to have faith in the product
and services offered. From a customer’s
standpoint, it is also important to hold a
trustworthy stature. Talking about the
future, he adds, “We look at expanding our
product category and reach a customer
base with a two-fold increase. Keeping
them as priority, we also aim at offering
multiple variations of one product category
to have a much more personalised
approach for our customers.”
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 209
CATEGORY ANALYSIS
BEVERAGE
The total organised Indian food & beverage industry is projected to grow by 2.5x to
`10,00,000 crore by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 16% year-on-year. In fact, the beverage
industry of India is a great contributor to the economy, generating US$ 6.5 billion every year.

Top thoughts
The non-alcoholic beer category has seen a significant rise in India and we estimate that in the next 3 to 4 years, it will become
a full-fledged mainstream beverage category.
The coffee category has grown about 15% CAGR including older categories. In fact, the sub-categories are growing really fast.
For instance, during COVID, at-home consumption of coffee went up as people were unable to step out to cafes and wanted
the same experience and style of coffee at home. And by 2025, coffee consumption is projected to grow by 2x.
71% of customers in India are looking to improve their eating and drinking habits post COVID.

Brands pivoting a change:

Significant markers
Ayurvedic beverage market is going to be an intersection of the $10 billion beverages market and $1 billion
nutraceuticals market. Globally, Ayurveda is a $5 billion market while Yoga is a $100 billion economy. Ayurveda
essentially needs to address this gap through various form factors including beverages.
Healthy drinks is the fastest-growing subset of the beverages market. It is likely to reach `15,000 crore by 2023.
 REVENUE GROWTH

Remarkable trend:
The consumption of energy drinks in India is projected at 20-22 million
cans. About 65 per cent of the drinkers are in the 13 and 35 year-old age
group, with males being approximately 65 per cent of the overall market.
It has seen around 2.5x revenue growth so far year-on-year.

The brewing numbers

The herbal teas market was valued at US$ 3289.67 million in 2020 and
is projected to reach USD 4877.80 million by 2028, growing at a CAGR
of 4.89% from 2021 to 2028. This market has gained momentum in
recent times because of the increase in awareness of nutritional food
consumption and healthcare. 30%
Brands have had
100% Revenue
70%
Brands have had 2.5X Revenue
Growth crossing
Growth crossing Pre-COVID
Trends on watch Pre-COVID
Numbers
Numbers
GROWTH OF LOW-CALORIE DRINKS: With FSSAI aiming to cut down
on salt, sugar and oil consumption in the diet by 30% by 2022, calorie
reduction is fast becoming one of the most prominent markers for
CUSTOMER GROWTH
beverage brands as customers are now looking at health as a spectrum
when choosing beverages. Hence, there has been a sudden rise of low-
calorie drink makers, organic and health tea brands, healthy juice brands,
etc.

ROLE OF E-COMMERCE WILL PUSH INDUSTRY TO GROW:

COVID-19 pandemic has changed the whole dimension of food business.
Customers are now wary of stepping out and are more comfortable
ordering in. Not just restaurants, but beverage brands, too, have entered
the delivery space making it easy for the customer to enjoy their favourite
drink, in just a click from the comfort of their home.

VARIETY & PURPOSE ON THE MIND: With the pandemic pushing 100%
people to mostly stay indoors, consumers seek different beverage Brands have served 200% more
Customers in the Last 1 Year
attributes at different times of the day, depending on their state of mind.
Keeping today’s busy and time-pressed lifestyles in mind, beverage
brands have an opportunity to cater to breakfast and meal occasions if
DRIVERS OF GROWTH
they are able to help people achieve their health/nutrition goals, coupled
with convenience.

GROWING DEMAND FOR FLAVOURED WATERS: Keeping in mind

health concerns, consumers today are seeking fizz and taste sans
artificial sweeteners and flavours. This is slowly pushing ahead new-age
Indian brands to take centre stage by using natural fruit flavours to offer
the consumer something meaningful and tasty in a bottle.

SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING: With growing awareness towards the

environment, brands are trying their hand at conscious packaging.
They are partnering with recycling units or packaging experts to make 10%
Others
sustainable packaging a reality for their products. Less harmful trash and
reduced wastage is big time on their mind! 90%
of Sales have been generated
through Social Media & Digital
Marketing

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 211

 MILESTONE
Ankur Goyal andMe has over 2.5 lakh
trusted women customers.
Founder, andMe
In 2019, Matrix Partners
and Sauce VC teamed up to
invest $1 million (about
`7 crore) on andMe.
andMe today is sold across
leading online channels like
Amazon and offline channels
like Nature’s Basket. The
products are exclusively
retailed from the brand’s
official website andme.in.
All andMe products are
plant-based with no
preservatives, added sugar,
or any sort of artificial
chemicals.
HEALTH FOCUSED
Digital brand aggregator GlobalBees has just acquired Bengaluru-based andMe. As a Femtech brand, andMe
understands that a woman’s body has different nutritional needs because of her unique hormonal cycles. They
acknowledge that women are busy and have multiple roles to play, leaving them with little time for themselves.
The brand blends Ayurveda and modern science to manufacture ‘bio active lifestyle beverages’ for women.
The company targets solving lifestyle challenges and discomforts associated with menstruation, beauty, fat
metabolism, and Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), among others.

Pouring innovation
Merhaki Foods and Nutrition, andMe’s parent
company, was founded by IIT and Stanford
graduate Ankur Goyal in September 2017.
Ankur understood the need gap in the
market prevailing in nutrition and the
availability of the right herbal supplements
for women. His passion for innovation in the
food and beverage industry took him from
Nestle to Paper Boat to almost buying a food
company in Brazil while he was at Stanford
Graduate School of Business. andMe is
a culmination of his vision, experience,
and love. “The response from the market
has been overwhelming and satisfying.
We’ve received a lot of warmth from our
consumers who have experienced instant
relief after consuming the PMS drink. We are
determined to solve many such challenges
for women in the most convenient, healthy,
and tasty formats. Our journey so far has
proven our belief that women are looking for
products created especially for them,” Ankur
Goyal, Founder, andMe mentions.
“When we started doing research for the
brand, we understood that more than 30
per cent Indian women suffer from nutrition
deficiency and most women do not like
popping pills unless they are prescribed so
for an ailment or disease. However, nutrition
deficiencies affect a woman very differently
as compared to a man and they end up
suffering from far-fetched problems over
time,” informs Ankur.
Creating a difference
With the Wellness category expanding
across length and breadth, wellness for
women is a separate cause that brands like
andMe endorse and look to solve with 100%
natural drinks. No side effects, no harmful
products, and a result-oriented approach
make these drinks an easy, on-the-go
supplement.
“Initially, finding a niche for our product
line was a concern. Knowing about the
problems that we could solve using our
innovation was not easy. When on the one
hand we had the first-mover advantage in
the category, on the other hand, we didn’t
know what problems we were solving.
It was difficult to gauge the intensity of
the issue or the actual requirement in full
detail. Women are much more open to us
right now and are actually writing in to ask
for drinks for several other ailments and
problems, which we do not serve at the
moment. Definitely, women are getting
conscious about their wellness and are
starting to understand the need to look after
themselves and are choosing products like
andMe, in order to holistically address the
root cause of common problems like PCOS,”
Ankur mentions.
He highlights that offline trade, initially
was not helping them because in the
absence of another similar product, they did
not have a reference point for selling andMe.
“On the other hand, even when we wanted
to spread awareness about our products
by stationing a sales representative in
stores, the women would feel tabooed to
talk about their personal problems and
then choose a drink that may help them.
Quite paradoxically, online trade helped us
flourish as women frequenting social media,
had the time to discover our products and
understand them in detail. Social media,
to a great extent, is helping companies like
ours touch a broader spectrum of aware
women,” Ankur explains when talking about
awareness and carving a niche.
Customer reach
Ankur mentions that more than 50 per cent
of andMe’s sales come from the online space
and tier 2 & 3 cities are responding positively
to the brand. The discovery of newer brands
mostly happens online today and women
spend more time navigating through online
portals and Ads to find their choicest best.
“Women in the age group of 24 to 40 years
are showing more inclination towards our
product range. Initially, our understanding
was that the affluent category will show
more response towards our products. But
eventually, we realised that women from
smaller cities are also extremely keen about
andMe and majorly the products make sense
to people who are more conscious about
themselves and their lifestyle. Today, andMe
is a familiar name for many and with the
wellness category expanding its horizon, we
are sure that we will get positive response
from other pockets of India, too, in the
coming days,” Ankur adds.
With Indians being sensitive about
pricing, initially setting the price for
andMe products was a tricky situation.
However, the products fit into the gap
between medicines and unhealthy
supplements, so given the vast free space,
the pricing for andMe products worked
in the brand’s favour and assured them a
good following.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 213

 MILESTONE
Auric sells its products only online
but pan India. The sales are equally
distributed across Tier 1, 2 and 3
cities.
Coconut water-based Ayurvedic
drinks and Ayurveda-inspired
Deepak Agarwal hot beverages are product lines
of Auric. Their highest selling
Founder, Auric products include drinks for glowing
skin and sexual wellness, and
Moringa Masala Tea.
They introduced Moringa Masala
Tea, Turmeric Gourmet Coffee &
Ashwagandha Hot Chocolate.
Auric plans to disrupt the $5 billion
Ayurveda market, taking it by storm
with its products and innovative
approaches.
CONSCIOUS & ROOTED
Founded by Deepak Agarwal, Ayurvedic wellness start-up Auric operates in the mass-premium segment at the
crossroads of consumer goods and supplements. The brand has been growing 300% year on year. They have
been introducing new products and investing in marketing strategies to scale up business and market share. With
COVID-19 having brought focus on natural living, wellness and nutrition, the tailwinds around health and ancient
wisdom have become stronger. This makes Auric get a firm hold on its market base, with its offerings.

The launch
During a sports tournament, the founder
of Auric had a backbone fracture. This led
him to 3 years of physiotherapy which did
not help him. It was difficult for him to even
bend his back without painful Sciatica. That’s
when he turned towards Yoga. Five years
of practising Yoga made him realise that
Yoga actually works. He thought that if Yoga
worked, Ayurveda would also work. This is
how he got started on his journey towards
the ancient wisdom.
So he began learning about Ayurveda,
trying out different recipes and also started
convincing his friends and family to adopt
Ayurveda. The moment of truth came during
this time. People around him were not very
receptive to Ayurveda for multiple reasons.
Ayurveda is difficult and inconvenient.
Sourcing herbs and researching formulations
takes time and energy. Ayurveda is a dark
science - friends didn’t know if it was a
proven science or not. The strangest of all
reasons was that Ayurveda made people’s
personality linked with certain political and
religious connotations.
This is when he decided to leave Unilever
and dedicate himself to this beautiful
wisdom of Ayurveda which needs to be
made simpler, convenient and aspirational.
A wisdom which has existed for the
betterment of lifestyle for masses long
before politics and religion became a normal.
‘An Ayurveda for millennials. An Ayurveda
that speaks in the language of modern
consumers’. If turmeric latte makes one
adopt Ayurveda more than the look & feel
of Haldi Doodh, then Ayurveda needs to be
adapted for the current generation. Because
it is these 20–40-year-olds who will carry
the legacy of Ayurveda into the future, which
otherwise will get lost in the books of history.
Growth story
Except for a few days of supply chain
disruptions, Auric has managed to do well
and grow well in spite of the pandemic.
“Wellness, natural living and going back to
one’s roots are some of the strong drivers
for Ayurveda to become a daily lifestyle for
India going forward. Also, just as Yoga has
been adopted by the West, Ayurveda can
position India as a source of knowledge and
the capital of wellness and ancient wisdom,”
Deepak Agarwal, Founder, Auric mentions.
He further adds, “Auric is essentially a
novel and aspirational Direct To Consumer
(D2C) brand creating innovative and
convenient lifestyle products by blending
Ayurveda with benefits of modern sciences.
It aims to break the lucrative $5 billion
worth Ayurveda & Supplements industry
by championing a scintillating array of
world-class consumer products. Auric
operates in the mass-premium segment
at the crossroads of consumer goods and
supplements. It has a unique range of
Ayurveda-inspired, coconut-water-based
drinks for healthy skin, balanced weight and
stronger hair, among others. The company
has also launched Ayurveda-based hot
beverages such as— Moringa Masala Tea,
Turmeric Coffee & Ashwagandha Hot
Chocolate. Auric has been a fast growing
brand in the Ayurveda category for more
than two years now.”
There are broadly three themes where
Auric is trying to build its own presence:
- Premiumisation: Aspirational shift from
Haldi Doodh to turmeric latte
- Convenience: From ready-to-make to
ready-to-drink (Aloe Amla Juice vs Aloe Amla
Drink)
- Newness: Same benefits but different
formats (Glowing Skin Drink and Glowing Skin
Tablet)
Future focused
The company recently received a Pre-
Series A funding round of US$2 million led
by Cactus Venture Partners and Venture
Catalysts, India’s first and largest integrated
incubator and accelerator. The funding
round also witnessed participation from
other eminent investors such as 9Unicorns,
Karthik Bhat via AngelList and Capital-A
(Manjushree Ventures). Overall, Auric has
been well funded in the last few years with
over $3m and plans to use the funds to grow
Ayurveda through product and market-led
innovations.
“Since our inception three years ago,
we have been steadfast in our mission to
introduce Ayurveda in the daily lifestyle
of millennials. We are wholeheartedly
committed to the idea of empowering the
country’s millennials with ancient wisdom
that works for them. This timely fundraise
will indeed prove instrumental in bringing us
one step closer to reconnecting the mind,
body, and soul of people around us,” Deepak
sums up.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 215

 MILESTONE
Devanshi Chitlangia & Chaika started with 2 hot teas: Bombay
Cutting inspired by the cutting chai of
Aradhita Agarwal Chowpatty Beach, Mumbai and then Kolkata
Kadak, inspired by the share-market chai of
Co-Founders, Chaika their hometown Kolkata.
Chaika has now expanded their product
range from instant hot teas to instant iced-
teas that are also 3-1 premixes dissolving
in cold water. With convenience becoming
more and more important, they see huge
potential for growth.
The brand stands out for its quirky,
colourful packaging, which they have
intentionally used to disrupt the category.
The brand’s USP is that they cater to the
regional preferences of masala chai in India.
Chaika tested their product with over 10,000
customers, over 25 corporate offices, and
got accepted by clubs such as The Royal
Calcutta Golf Club and hotels such as Hyatt
Regency Kolkata.
READY TO DRINK
Chaika is a sentiment, it stands for the whole universe of emotion and tradition related to ‘chai’. The
Founders of Chaika believes that the instant tea category is the next step in the evolution of tea, making
tea convenient. With this thought in mind, they have made tea cool, convenient and accessible. Chaika is
known for its premix collections, which makes brewing a cup of tea just like your ‘ghar ki chai’ a stirringly
quick endeavour!

Pioneering a concept
“The idea for Chaika developed when we
were working in Singapore. We craved
masala chai but didn’t know how to make it.
Even when we tried, we failed! Moreover,
the process took 15-20 minutes - we just
didn’t have the time in the morning! This
thought made us leave our finance jobs to
take the entrepreneurship route,” Devanshi
Chitlangia, Co-Founder, Chaika comments.
Devanshi and Aradhita are part of families
that have been in the tea business for over
70 years and they have both worked there to
get a first-hand experience of the industry.
Aradhita is also a certified Tea Taster.
Aradhita Agarwal, Co-Founder, Chaika
adds, “We realised other professionals,
students, travellers and corporate office
staff must be facing the same issue. We
also realised that people were switching
over from masala chai, the beverage
they grew up with, to green tea or coffee
merely for the sake of convenience! This
is what made us want to launch masala
teas into a more convenient format! There
were times when we faced challenges but
we innovated, stayed put and continued
pushing the brand. When COVID-19 hit us, it
was initially very hard as a bulk of our sales
were from wedding planners, travellers,
hotels and clubs. Being a start-up, it was
difficult to sustain our fixed expenses while
in lockdown. We held on, we pivoted, we
started marketing ourselves as the perfect
COVID solution, and got the ‘essential
service’ tag.”
Innovating along the path
Devanshi further adds, “We started selling
bulk packs of 100 sachets and one-kg packs
for vending machines to corporations. We
realised that offices were short staffed
and would no longer be comfortable
with calling the dhaba wala to give tea
to their employees. We even sold a lot to
households. This enabled Chaika, even as
a start-up, to not bleed money during the
lockdown months.” Aradhita highlights,
“Being women entrepreneurs we faced
challenges where we were often told to
get our fathers/ brothers and husbands
along by vendors. Building credibility in the
manufacturing space was a challenge for us
and we had to overcome the same. As we
started growing, we faced teething issues
with inventory, logistics and manpower.
We continued looking for ways to serve our
customers better and help enhance their
online shopping experience.”
After seeing the initial success of
their flavours, the brand diversified and
launched Dhaba Tea- a stronger masala
chai with a ginger flavour. Keeping in mind
the vegan population, they also launched
platform chai - the famous nimbu cha
found at train stations. They also saw
a huge growth in diabetics and health
conscious individuals and launched Diet
tea, which has no added sugar. When
summer came, they launched 3-1 iced
teas. These iced teas are inspired by local
flavours of India.
Future gazing
Registering a 200% customer and revenue
growth, Chaika is not actively looking
for funding opportunities, as the brand
believes that more than right funding a
great investor is what they need to escalate
their operations so that they can continue
offering their customers something
different with each flavour. “We personally
call customers and reply to them on
Instagram to keep in touch with them. We
want to hear their feedback and see how
we can enhance their experience. We are
a new D2C brand and are facing teething
issues and are always looking for ways to
provide better products and services to our
customers. Our customers are our biggest
teachers,” Devanshi sums up.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 217

 MILESTONE
Due to the pandemic, Coolber’s
focus shifted a lot from an offline
company to an omnichannel
company which is present
everywhere.

Pankaj Aswani
Coolberg is basically trying to
fit in the daily lifestyle of its
Founder & CEO, Coolberg consumers and build a strong
brand recall. All its marketing
efforts are built towards
spreading awareness about
this category and getting the
consumer to taste the products.
Coolberg family is already 300+
members strong and expanding
fast.
The brand now sells not only
in India but in several other
countries as well, like Africa,
Maldives, Bhutan, Nepal, etc.
CREATING A NICHE
Coolberg was born as an idea and to serve a need gap that the founder saw growing in India. It was a big gap
and the market for non-alcoholic beverages was just about vacant. With an aim to capture this market and
give the consumer a new taste, Coolberg was born with a range of flavours, namely malt, cranberry, peach,
strawberry, mint and ginger.
Entering the market
Non-alcoholic beer category is booming
currently across the globe. There has
been a significant rise in India as well
and according to Coolberg’s estimate,
in the next 3 to 4 years, it will become
a full-fledged mainstream beverage
category. Globally, the non-alcoholic beer
category was valued at US$ 17.5 billion in
2020. Coolberg offers all new refreshing
variants, which are blended with barley
malt and authentic flavours. They did not
just create one or two flavours, but a total
6 flavours, which are loved by many. The
brand has already sold its products to more
than 10 million consumers. The products
are loved by people of all age groups and
are consumed in celebrations and get-
togethers and are becoming a part of daily
lifestyle.
“We are strong believers of innovation
which is the only constant over time.
Indians are open to new options now more
than even before. This is the right time to
start upon any new innovative category. I
have been a teetotaller and do not consume
alcohol but like to party a lot with my
friends. Many of my friends used to drink
beer and other liquor options, but I used
to quietly order an energy drink or apple
juice. The secret was that both the options
looked like beer in the glass and friends
didn’t pressurise me to have alcohol further.
I saved myself on many occasions. A bigger
problem was that there were not many
options available for non-drinkers and I
definitely didn’t want to order fancy-looking
mocktails served with an umbrella and a
nice twisted straw.
In early 2016, Yashika and I went on an
overseas trip and came across the option
of non-alcoholic beer. I ordered it and
fell in love with it instantly. This was the
eureka moment when a bell rang in the
minds of both and we decided to launch
non-alcoholic beers in India some 12,000
kms away from home,” says Pankaj Aswani,
Founder & CEO at Coolberg.
Crossing over challenges
“Our inspiration has been our belief in
the Indian consumption story and the
opportunities it holds. Our initial challenge
was to educate customers about this
category and why we call it a beer and why it
doesn’t have alcohol. We are still educating
our customers on a daily basis. There is
a long way to go. We have been focusing
strongly on serving the best taste to the
consumers as eventually, the customer is
the king. Our R&D team has a lot of options
in the pipeline which we will be unveiling
over time. We are constantly researching
new trends and what people are picking
fast. Our D2C journey picked up during the
pandemic itself. We had a large customer
base which could not access the products
from the retail store shelves and were
looking forward to buying Coolberg online.
Interacting with customers directly gave a
lot of insights to our understanding on what
exactly they were looking for and how they
feel about the category,” Pankaj adds.
Tightening the grip
“We had to do a lot of R&D for our logistics
packaging since we deal in fragile glass
bottles. It took us a good amount of time to
come up with packaging that was logistics
friendly and at the same time, looked
cool. Now we have fairly streamlined our
operations and aim to serve the customers
at the earliest possible time. Our products
are universal in nature and therefore we
call it a drink for all. Our biggest USP is
the taste of the product and we are super
proud of that. Innovation is the core of
what we do and will do in the future. We
are technologically quite advanced and we
are utilizing most of the best services and
solutions available in the market around
order management, task management,
customer service, reporting, etc,” Pankaj
further adds.
He sums up, “We are expanding our
coverage across the country and have plans
to take Coolberg to one lakh outlets in a
short time. We are optimising our team size
and identifying the right areas of the market
to achieve the same.”
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 219
 MILESTONE
Krittivas Dalmia Kaffa Cerrado was started
8 years ago. When they
Co-Founder, Kaffa Cerrado started, they were one of the
first new-age roasteries at
the time.
The brand, since inception,
has been working to fill the
gap of non-availability of
freshly roasted international
coffees. This stands as the
brand’s USP, even today.
They maintain microscopic
coffee records using
the best technology on
the planet to offer you
consistent and great coffee.
The biggest brand ideology
for Kaffa Cerrado is, “You
should have coffee the way
you like to have it” and that is
why they are always learning
and experimenting.
THE RIGHT CUPPA
Kaffa Cerrado explores the widest variety of coffees and brings to you a diverse range from the best growing
regions in India and across the world. Their selection also includes coffees from the highlands of Indonesia,
Kenya, the peaks in Peru, and even the volcanic soils of Costa Rica. There’s something for every palate.They
roast the beans as per order requirements. Once they are roasted in small batches, the beans are stored
until the orders are shipped. The story of each flavour is laced with meticulous treatment.

The beginning
“I studied in New York and had some
exposure to coffee, albeit as a student.
When I moved back, I was looking for a good
cup which was not available and hence we
started this. Good tasting coffee was the
only motivation that has kept us going. It’s
been 8 years and we’ve tried various models
and ways of growing. I think we want to
continue to experiment with what works
best for us to take us to the next level while
being consistent in our product offering.
Zero exposure to the product or industry,
I think starting from scratch makes you
find your own way. We want our products
to speak for themselves. Creating a brand
is a long-term process; as more and more
people try the product, we get more
confidence to promote and develop lifetime
consumers,” Krittivas Dalmia, Co-Founder,
Kaffa Cerrado mentions.
Kaffa Cerrado has innovated around
making their product available to the
consumers through various channels. “I
think that is where we have tried to diversify.
We also always have a rotating selection of
new coffees – where we explore new coffees
from new countries and within India. This
is something that we keep doing to have
something new for our clients. We are now
exploring other variants. Consumer is the
biggest factor. The idea is for the product
to speak for itself because unless the
consumer likes the product – no amount of
engagement is going to bring them back.
And once you like the product, even a little
engagement can serve as a reminder. We
have moved to a lot of online advertising
and engagement – and lesser in physical
spaces,” Krittivas adds.
Creating an experience
The Kaffa Cerrado roastery is in Okhla, New
Delhi, which is an exploratory space for you
to come and try their coffees! They offer
their complete selection of coffees where
you have the choice to pick any coffee you
wish to try in the method of brewing you
prefer and have it as per your experience.
While tasting in the cafe area - you can peek
into the roastery to see the processing live.
“Roasting is an art as much as it is a
science. We understand the growing
conditions and the varieties of coffee before
deciding what kind of a roast profile would
be suitable for the coffee. The farmers
and growers are the true artisans who
nurture and produce the crop. We translate
their effort into your cup. We use a “green
roaster” to have minimum impact on the
environment when we roast our coffees.
We make a conscious effort to save water
and to convert the by-products of coffee
like grounds and chaff - into good quality
manure. We yearn to make a social impact
and give back to society,” Krittivas informs.
Marketing it right
“We’re looking at digital marketing to reach
the right audience. For the scale we are
at currently, we use the bigger delivery
partners across our delivery areas.
However, I think some partners are able
to better cater to certain geographies
and we are in the process of getting
consumer feedback as to what works
best for them to be able to customise the
solution geographically. I think you have
to keep innovating or have something new
to keep your consumer engaged. While
it’s important, the core is consistency
and quality of the product. I think staying
true to your brand and what you stand for
keeps your initial consumers with you,”
Krittivas highlights.
Kaffa Cerrado is moving online to
some extent and discovering tools
required that could be more beneficial
for the brand or the consumer in
helping them get the products. So,
they’re constantly exploring new
technologies which could enable their
core proposition of providing freshly
roasted coffees from around the world.
“We are definitely looking to grow more
in the D2C space with new products and
that will be the focus for the coming year.
We had also put some projects on hold
during the pandemic but are looking at
restarting those in terms of physical
spaces. We will integrate them in a
way to enhance our product and brand
experience,”Krittivas sums up.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 221

 MILESTONE
Gaurav Khemka Currently, Polka Pop is
available in 4 flavours –
Founder & CEO, Polka Pop Peach, Orange, Cranberry
& Lemon-Lime. The brand
is planning to introduce a
couple of more flavours this
year and hopes to diversify
into other beverage products
in the coming years.
The brand follows an
omnichannel approach and
focuses on both offline
and online channels. The
products are also exclusively
retailed through polkapop.in.
It plans to scale up its
production and sales and be
able to deliver anywhere in
India within 3 days.
It also aims to be available
across all modern retail
stores across the country.
MAKING SOMETHING
NEW
Polka Pop is India’s first 100% naturally flavoured sparkling water company that was established in 2020. The
brand prides itself in saying that the products have been conceptualised, formulated and manufactured all in
India! Keeping the planet in mind is one of Polka Pop’s core values. That’s why, as a conscious choice, the brand
uses transparent PET plastic to bottle Polka Pop. For the fun-loving health-conscious customer, Polka Pop is a
fizzy, flavourful, refreshing drink that can hydrate you without any sugar, sweeteners or calories.

Launching with a pop Innovation is key

“I was introduced to this category of
flavoured sparkling water when I was in the
US doing my MBA. I immediately associated
it to the likes of carbonated drinks available
in India which were unhealthy to drink.
However, on further investigation, I realised
that I could have a refreshing carbonated
drink without the calories, sugar or any
other health implications. I compared what
was available on the shelves in India and
noticed a massive gap in the market. With
changing consumer preferences, I realised
that we needed a go-to drink that didn’t
contain any harmful ingredients,” Gaurav
Khemka, Founder & CEO, Polka Pop explains
when talking about the inspiration behind
the brand.
Polka Pop is one of the few (or only)
beverages that doesn’t use sugar or
sweeteners of any kind in its beverages.
This is a first for the packaged beverages
industry as people have this notion that the
Indian palette is sweet and that they would
not appreciate a drink that didn’t have the
sweet note. “But the issue is that we have
cultivated that sweet note because of years
of drinking only sweet drinks. We’ve noticed
people really appreciating Polka Pop for
not having any sweeteners because then,
the flavour of Polka Pop can work its magic
on the customers. That being said, it is a
new category for the Indian market and not
everyone might appreciate it immediately
and that’s okay. We’re in this for the long
run and to fundamentally change the way
people perceive carbonated drinks,” Gaurav
adds.
Acquiring loyalty
Gaurav says that the brand is still in the
process of building that strong customer
base. One of the challenges that they still
face is introducing people to this concept
& category called ‘flavoured sparkling
water’. The challenge was and still is to
make the consumers understand why
sparkling water is a better alternative to
other carbonated drinks, a fun substitute
to water, a great mixer and something that
could become a part of their daily lifestyle.
“The customer calls are the scariest
and most meaningful part of our week
because that’s where we learn the most.
We like to stay honest and care about
the things that are important to our
customers – an important one being
sustainability. We speak a lot about how
our customers can integrate Polka Pop
into their daily lifestyle, what recipes they
could create and always keep our lines
of communication open. We run Ads on
Instagram and Facebook to help improve
discoverability. The most important
technology we use is a customer CRM
that allows us to track our conversations
with our customers because that’s where
we are able to understand them better,”
Guarav highlights.
Gaurav admits that in the consumer goods
space, while innovation is key, customer
experience, service and satisfaction
are paramount. That’s why, Polka Pop
focuses a lot on improving its products and
maintaining quality and flavour. “However,
we spend a lot of our time in creating a
customer experience that allows us to
build a relationship with the customer.
We dispatch orders within 24-36 hours
and respond to each query and comment
across social media channels. In terms of
D2C logistics, we tackle our e-commerce
fulfilment through courier aggregators and
are in the process of tying up with fulfilment
partners for warehousing requirements in
other cities,” Gaurav highlights.
“I think this current wave of the pandemic
and the new attention to IPO and funding
is bringing a lot of focus on brands made
in India for Indians. It has helped build an
inherent trust in the D2C ecosystem which is
essential for new brands like ours to survive.
We have the potential to define what people
are going to use on their skin, eat and this, I
believe, is a very important responsibility for
teams like ours trying to make a dent in this
space. We want Polka Pop to become that
go-to household name every time someone
wants to drink a refreshing beverage. That
is our vision for Polka Pop. That apart, we
would also like to launch an array of food &
beverage products to cater to our conscious
customer,” Gaurav sums up.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 223


Bharat Sethi
Founder & CEO, Rage Coffee
MILESTONE
Rage Coffee is known for its user-
generated and community-level
marketing. They use social media
to push their user-generated
marketing content such as video
Ads and recipes, to name a few.
They have a community of over
250k customers directly coming on
their platform. The brand calls them
Ragers or Ragers’ community.
Rage is infusing six plant-based
vitamins into its products to
provide a holistic coffee drinking
experience with no bitterness, no
bloating and a guaranteed caffeine
kick.
The brand has recently raised
$5 million in Series A funding from
Sixth Sense Ventures.
Rage clocks in a 250% year-on-year
revenue growth.
BEANS OF INNOVATION
At an altitude of 3,500 ft, Rage Coffee beans are sourced from some of the most renowned plantations in
Harar, Ethiopia and Chikmagalur & Coorg in India. The brand’s proprietary formulations and crystallisation
technology yields a bold and powerful coffee that is ready to help you seize the day. Rage Coffee’s blend of
supplements sourced from plant extracts and natural compounds have been scientifically formulated to
work synergistically with your coffee.

Inception story Making the core steady

“I was working on a different project when
I identified that there were several gaps
in the coffee market in India. The market
was underserved, underpenetrated online,
and was devoid of innovation. There were
also challenges in terms of ingredients,
supply chain, manufacturing techniques,
and distribution. I understood the need to
create an aspirational brand around such an
emotional subject as coffee which people
could connect to in their daily lives. The idea
was to create a coffee brand that would
essentially upgrade the experience of an
average consumer by 5-10x even if he/she
could spend only `100. That’s when it struck
me and Rage Coffee was born in 2018,”
Bharat Sethi, Founder & CEO, Rage Coffee
mentions when talking about the brand’s
inception story.
Overcoming challenges
There were many challenges when Rage
entered the market. The requirement for
working capital was one of them. Next,
since the brand was not keen on importing
any of the products or outsource any
of their production, manufacturing
processes in India were a challenge.
“Moreover, we are in the business of IP
protection because we build proprietary
products and so we wanted to protect
production techniques. Then, packaging
was a big challenge since we wanted to
really innovate on that front and we did not
have volumes. Beyond that, in the market,
the acceptance of insurgent brands was
still very low. Hence, we had to use very
interesting marketing techniques to
create the demand for products online
and trickle it down to the offline market.
The entire retail presence was another
challenging and costly affair,” Bharat adds.
From the first day, or even before they
started, the brand’s focus on customer
happiness and customer acceptance
has been primary. So, even before they
launched commercially in January 2018,
they were engaged in a soft launch for
three months. This was precisely to
understand the customers on the basis of
what scores they were giving to the coffee
they were drinking, and why they were
having that particular coffee.
Now the brand also works with
influencers to connect with customers
to understand their coffee experience.
They also look at data very closely - the
repeat cohorts, whether consumers are
buying coffee in a 15-day cycle or a 30-day
cycle, and many other aspects. They
have created review systems or feedback
processes - all these are to analyse
customers’ demands.
Considering the pandemic, Rage Coffee
did not make a lot of tweaks. But what
happened during the lockdown was that
a lot of customers, who were away for
months, were coming back.
The brand stuck to its core of caffeine
innovation. They have been innovating
around caffeine as an active ingredient
for all of their products. Most importantly,
diversification has happened looking at
what the consumers had asked for and
what they feel have been the gaps in the
market. They reimagined a distinctive
sub-category and they kind of own it.
Apart from production, the brand also
holds a lot of experience in fulfilment and
logistics. They have a very senior team, with
vast experience in the segment, looking
at logistics and fulfilment. Beyond that,
it’s technology. “We work with the right
partners - we have the right processes when
it comes to on-time delivery and shipping
timelines. Our warehousing leverages
new-age technologies. Innovation is the
core and without it, anything that we do
- be it product development, marketing,
omnichannel distribution model, etc.
- would not make much sense. This
eventually helps in scaling our brand value.
We are able to optimise our production
cycle using technology and the usage of
tech in businesses like ours directly impacts
the cost. The tech-backed processes help
in making it cost-efficient, improving the
bottom-line besides enhancing customer
experience,” Bharat adds.
On the distribution front, Rage currently
has about 700 points of sale, which will
increase to 3000 by the end of this year.

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 225

 MILESTONE
Kausshal Dugarr Teabox was the first
to convince the Indian
Founder, Teabox tea producers to sell
premium-make specialty
single-estate teas to
Indian consumers.
It has the fastest website
in the D2C space and
pays 100% attention to
fulfilment as freshness is
key to every order.
Teabox delivers to 121
countries across the
globe, Gibraltar being the
latest addition to the list.
The brand has witnessed
2x customer growth
YoY, but the best part is
retention is around 68%.
SETTING THE TREND
The traditional tea route is a long one, beginning in the garden and involving multiple middlemen. It takes
between 6-8 months for teas, once produced, to reach the consumer. No one seems to have stopped to ask
why, or attempt a more efficient system. Teabox, a pioneer in the category, was the first one to challenge
this 200-year-old tea retail tradition.

Starting fresh
“I was working as a corporate finance
analyst in Singapore before deciding
to come back to India in the year 2010.
My desire was to set up a business and
tea seemed to be the ideal option. The
decision was influenced by family heritage.
The first thing that I observed was the
need for change in this 200-year-old tea
industry. My intention was to leverage
technology and thereby eliminate the
inefficiencies. Tea in India is sold through
an elaborate system of 5 -7 intermediaries,
beginning with the auctioneer and ending
with the retailer. Hence, by the time teas
reach consumers in destination markets,
almost 12-24 weeks have lapsed causing
the tea to lose its freshness and quality.
It’s my early childhood memories of tea
gardens that kept me going with a clear
vision to put Indian teas on the global map,”
informs Kausshal Dugarr, Founder, Teabox
when talking about the brand’s journey.
Customer focused
Teabox wants to take their consumers
on a journey of discovery whereby they
also get to learn more about the estate
apart from buying their favourite teas.
Further, they offer an innovative tea
finder service, which is backed by smart
AI and it helps a new customer or a tea
lover discover newer flavours or tea types
depending on their taste profiles, mood
and many other factors. “Disrupting a
200-year-old industry requires a good
deal of innovation. While our intention
has always been to bring the industry to
modern times, our desire is to do so in the
most sustainable way possible. We want
to preserve and nurture the rich heritage
of our sources, the traditional knowledge
involved in the craft of making fine Indian
teas and most importantly, return the value
back to the source. And while our unique
cold storage facility. is great, our ability to
provide ‘experiential’ tea-drinking, a shift
from the commoditization of tea, is a USP
that makes us a trendsetter,” Kausshal
adds.
By leveraging technology, they are able
to deliver a diverse array of teas, mainly in
the ‘Speciality’ space, to a wider audience
in the country, which when they started
off lacked awareness of such variety in
Indian teas. They have been set on reviving
drinking tea as an art form, an experience,
which has been commodified for too long
by mass-produced companies that benefit
neither the cup nor the planet. Teabox has
been working on promoting loose-leaf teas
to push the experience of drinking fresh
tea- a departure from viewing tea as a
commoditized beverage to an experiential
drink.
Growth on the cards
With the fast pace of profitable growth
over the past few years, Teabox is in a
position to decide its next course of
action. Kausshal says, “Both funding and
IPOs will continue to rule the roost, but in
our case, we believe and have proven that
best-run D2C businesses can continue to
grow exponentially through their own cash
flows. Moving forward, we simply want
our tea-loving community to grow, and
to create a holistic platform, a one-stop
sustainable solution where every need of a
tea drinker is met. From making available
fresh loose leaf to accessories, we want
to elevate the tea drinking experience
for a regular tea drinker. We realise that
it is a two-way street, reciprocity is as
important as our effort to develop our
own supply chain competency by having
our own distribution centres in different
parts of the world, ensuring transparency
and authenticity. And, of course, create
awareness of the rich world of fresh Indian
teas.”

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 227

 MILESTONE
TeaFit has reimagined beverages
from ground up. Why does a
beverage on a shelf need to be
sweet? Is it possible to make
flavourful, refreshing beverages
that customers would reach for
again and again. The answer, TeaFit
says, is a big yes!
The brand wants to make Ayurveda
taste great. Every bottle of Teafit is
brewed with a blend of 15 Ayurvedic
herbs that are extracted using
its proprietary tech resulting in
maximum bioavailability and zero
Jyoti Bharadwaj bitterness. This is the backbone
innovation of TeaFit. These herbs,
Founder & CEO, Battlestar Food Technologies Pvt. Ltd. on their own, are extremely
unpleasant to taste which is why it’s
(TeaFit) harder to build habits around them.
The brand has witnessed 300%
customer growth month on month.
TeaFit retails online through
Amazon, Flipkart, Big Basket,
Qtrove, Cora, Swiggy, Wellversed,
Cred, Nykaa Udaan and Nature’s
Basket apart from its own website.
HIGH ON HEALTH
TeaFit is India’s first unsweetened functional beverage brand. The first disruption they bring to the industry is their
intention. They are a brand with meaning that is committed to developing no-sugar, healthy and refreshing beverages
for everyone. TeaFit has not tried to mimic the sweetness of sugar through an alternative and dangerous sweetener;
it has kept it unsweetened.
Story from the start
TeaFit is on a mission to clean the beverage
category and provide Indian consumers
access to world-class, unsweetened
beverages. “The post-pandemic focus on
health and scrutiny on sugar has been a
shot in the arm for us, as customers move
away from sugary beverages and actively
search for better options. We have a repeat
purchase rate of over 70 per cent. As India’s
first unsweetened Ayurvedic beverage
brand, we are proud to see that other larger
brands are beginning to see potential in this
space and are working to reduce sugar in
their beverages,” Jyoti Bharadwaj, Founder
& CEO, Battlestar Food Technologies Pvt.
Ltd. (TeaFit) mentions.
“Ours was a diabetic household – both
my parents were diabetics for as long as I
can remember. The beverage category is
something we were completely unexposed
to. Then in 2015, I was in Japan for a few
months. The stunning range of tea and
Japanese herbs-based zero-sugar drinks
were an absolute revelation. Japanese
households bought these by the gallon and
swore by their benefits. This is the origin
story. We started our journey in 2019 – as
a founder my most important role was in
building the team that would build this
idea into a world-class range of products.
We had a team in place for four months –
leading researchers in Ayurveda, pharma
companies, Indo-Japanese product
development team and German filing
technologists. It took us 18 months and
over 300 iterations to get the product and
the SOP right,” Jyoti adds.
The fresh brew
“We are very intentional about what goes
inside TeaFit and what is kept out. Our
beverages are real brewed and not made
from extracts and premixes. The tea
leaves are single-origin from plantations
of Assam and Kerala. Brewing at scale is
not a technology readily available in India
so we had to build our own brewing tech
for brewing tens of thousands of litres in a
single batch,” Jyoti mentions.
She highlights, “As a bootstrapped
start-up, our biggest challenge was
marketing as we didn’t have the big bucks
to spend on massive campaigns. We turned
to our customers for word-of-mouth
reviews and referrals, and other frugal
marketing innovations to get the word
out. We worked and continue to work with
influencers (not paid) who truly believe that
TeaFit would be a good fit for them – that
includes leading tennis players, badminton
academies and other wellness influencers.
We were also fortunate to receive great
press and backing from leading retail
chains. In India, nothing builds brand
credibility more than being seen at a
reputed store. Luckily for us, a lot of these
retail stores invited us purely based on the
merit of the product and the passion of the
people behind it. This helped our discovery
and D2C conversion in a big way. Over 25
per cent of our D2C customers have tried
us at a retail store and then repeatedly
bought directly from us.”
Customer centric
“This is the core of our existence – our
customers, especially the early customers.
We stay in touch with them through our
WhatsApp groups, Instagram and other
social channels. We are regularly reaching
out to them for suggestions, ideas on what
they would like to see next and so on. We
strongly believe that there is no rule book
to finding your customer and marketing to
them. So there is no secret sauce here –
you have to do the basics right, repeatedly,”
Jyoti admits.
TeaFit is a company that was born of the
need for innovation and it’s in their DNA.
They are in no hurry to get to the market
and beat weekly metrics of growth. They are
content to spend 24 months on innovation
to arrive at the right product. They are the
changemakers and if you see a product
from the house of TeaFit, you should know
that it’s like nothing else. The brand’s entire
offering is tech enabled – the Ayurvedic
herbs that are such an integral part of TeaFit
are extracted using their own proprietary
tech. They are committed to developing
new formulas from nature with improved
functionalities and great taste.
THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 229
 MILESTONE
Poonam Jain Tearaja started with 5 varieties of
tea and month on month, based
Co-founder, Tearaja and on customer feedback, after
generating some sales and traction,
Manish Jain they decided to add more products
to their catalogue.
Founder, Tearaja
In the backdrop of the pandemic and
keeping safety a priority, Tearaja
changed their entire packaging,
so as to ensure that the tea went
through fewer hands and reached
customers directly in a safe way.
The brand has registered 2X
revenue growth and 3X customer
growth year-on-year.
So far a bootstrapped company,
Tearaja plans to raise some funds in
the next 6-12 months.
Investment in tech is big on the
cards for the brand and they have
already increased their portfolio to
twice the size.
STRONG BREW
Tearaja has already sold over 100 million cups of tea worldwide. But, growth for the company rests on innovation
and an eye for perfection. They have constantly innovated their products & services with the learning and
experience gained from their customers since day one. They have enhanced the customer experience with
new products, which have made a huge change in the lives of customers. Its founding duo is always looking for
opportunities and pushing the perimeter to make a difference with the brand.

Starting off
Manish Jain, Founder of Tearaja has
been a member of the Indian Billiards and
Snooker teams. In 2014, he took a break
from the sport to look into his business
more closely. A national silver medalist,
Manish has represented India in world
championships, Asian championships,
etc. But eventually he realised that the
sport was actually not turning out to be a
promising arena. He got married and then
had a daughter, and these events gave
him some time to ponder over his life and
professional space. This is when Manish
decided to join the family business and
immediately realised that nothing had
changed and the business was just not
ready to attract the new generation. With a
thought of renewing the business, Manish
took over it.
Revitalizing for growth
“At Tearaja we were constantly following
the traditional mechanism of selling. But
that was not something which I wanted to
do. Honestly, we didn’t even have money
to invest in a website. But somehow we
managed to do that and I knew that we
had to get our digital footprint to be strong
and were probably the first sellers on
Amazon, from India, in the tea category.
Interestingly, we got our first order within
just one or two days after the launch. The
first online sale was a big realisation for
us, because I never thought that people
would actually buy tea online. As per my
understanding, I always believed that the
consumer would want to smell and sample
tea before buying it. But Amazon changed
my views on retail and selling a commodity
like tea online. They taught us ‘how to
build a brand, how to change packaging,
how to deliver faster’, among other things.
Amazon has been a blessing, giving us a
necessary push just when we needed it.
We did about 10 orders in the first month.
Currently, we are doing about 4000 orders
a month,” says Manish.
Customer insights
“I believe that the customer is our best
teacher, because what they want or the
specificities of their cart actually define
our business plan and allow us to spot
our mistakes and accordingly tweak our
offering as per the customer needs. To
offer our customers a seamless shopping
experience, we sell offline through our
own store in Kolkata and online we are
selling through our own website, Amazon,
and Flipkart, even Amazon US. We follow a
strategic mechanism for digital promotions
as the digital space is vast like an ocean - if
you want, you can spend your entire money
there and not get anything and sometimes
you just spend a penny and you get a lot out
of it. We try to maintain a low burn rate. We
do not want to go overboard with spending
and want to balance it with the input or
conversions we gain. Following a very
sustainable way of doing business, we plan
to use the digital space to our credit and
put a check the moment we realise that our
spending is increasing without giving us
any return. To be precise, we get about 20
per cent new customers through our digital
campaigns and 80 per cent of them come
organically,” Poonam Jain, Co-founder,
Tearaja mentions.
Eyeing competition
Manish adds, “Technology is something
you constantly need to upgrade. Even
now, our technology is getting upgraded
almost every day to better our content
or the knowledge we are offering our
customers on our platforms. Whether it’s
online or offline doesn’t make a difference.
Constant evolution is the key. You have to
keep evolving. There’s no such technology
or any website that you can say okay, now
I’ve made my website and now I can relax.
It’s not like that. It’s never like that. Even
though we are always evolving and ever
ready to tweak our branding, packaging
and the likes to stay relevant, we are not
too keen on offline expansion. We want
to focus on online; the online space is
growing, and it’s a growing trend. But we do
have plans of having some boutique stores
across India, probably having a tasting
room or something where you can actually
sip and taste our product.”

THE INDIA D2C YEARBOOK 2021 | 231

 MILESTONE
VAHDAM® India is taking India’s
finest teas, superfoods and spices
to 2 million consumers across 130
countries.
The brand offers 100 signature
blends spread over 200 SKUs
including Loose-Leaf Teas,
Pyramid-Shaped Tea Bags, Gifts,
Samplers & Assortments, Turmeric
Teas, Herbal Teas, Matcha, Iced
Teas, Teawares & Drinkwares.

Bala Sarda VAHDAM® India is a socially

conscious brand and deeply
Founder, VAHDAM® India committed to people and planet.
It is a certified carbon-neutral
and plastic-neutral brand, and
redirects 1% of its revenue towards
the education of its tea growers’
children via its flagship social
initiative - TEAch Me®
The brand invests heavily in R&D
of blends, skilfully curated by its
in-house master blenders. They
use only 100% pure and natural
ingredients in the blends.
THE FINEST BREW
Founder Bala Sarda started VAHDAM® India in 2015, at the age of 23, to take India’s finest teas and superfoods
to consumers across the globe, direct from the source. VAHDAM® India is the reverse anagram of the founder’s
father’s first name, MADHAV. The brand’s purpose is to redefine the way the world experiences tea and other
native Indian foods. The conventional supply of these foods in India is impaired by the involvement of multiple
middlemen like auctioneers, retailers and suppliers, which the brand looks to evolve with its efforts.

Brand Story
India is a magical land of ingredients. All
of these products have strong wellness
connotations which have been accepted by
people globally. Tea is one of the healthiest
beverages after water. India grows 25 per
cent of the world’s tea production and in
addition, herbs, spices and superfoods
like Turmeric, Moringa, Ashwagandha,
Tulsi and Giloy. Turmeric is one of the most
trending and high growth superfoods.
India produces 80% of the world’s turmeric
production. All of these products come
from India, but no home-grown Indian
brand was actually taking it global. That is
how VAHDAM® India was born. The uniquely
positioned brand has captured a white
space in the market. In addition to a great
product it has also differentiated itself with
its unique brand story.
VAHDAM® India is basically solving three
problems and disrupting on:
1) Taking India’s finest teas and
superfoods to the world under a
sustainable, home-grown brand.
2) Making available a fresher, higher
quality product to the customers direct
from source, devoid of any middlemen.
3) Offering an origin-based product with
a rich legacy of 85 years in tea and
building a high trust factor. They’re
selling what India is best known for -
teas and spices.
Moreover, there was an opportunity to
take this to the world through the internet
at much less the cost, and VAHDAM® India
built distribution and a new-age brand.
“The category has seen exponential
growth especially after COVID. It has
been a boon for digitally native wellness
brands and for e-commerce adoption
globally. And, of course, online also gives
you many new options and a much wider
variety of products. There have been
tailwinds especially for essential groceries.
Tea is an essential part of daily lives and
consumption of tea has gone up massively.
It is one of the healthiest beverages one
can consume and there has been a huge
shift in the consumption of wellness
products. Organic, natural and pure foods,
locally produced, processed and packed,
will play a central part in the post-COVID
world, in my opinion,” Bala Sarda, Founder,
VAHDAM® India informs.
Building the brand
“Building trust and credibility amongst
consumers in established/global markets
is a tough task for a young Indian brand.
Building a deeper distribution for your
products is a critical success factor. And
continuing to evolve as a brand with an
ever-evolving consumer is also critical
to success. For us, our brand purpose is
‘Native Indian Wellness Reimagined for the
Modern Consumer’. We want to take Indian
products with wellness connotations, and
put them in the everyday life of modern
consumers through delightful experiences
and in that respect, there are a bunch of
categories we might end up entering. We
started with teas and have ventured into
superfoods,” Bala adds.
In terms of marketing, Digital Media is
the new-age form which is very efficient.
“Our approach globally is digital first.
Our marketing mix consists of ATL,
BTL activities and sampling, but the
primary focus is digital since there is no
spillage. Distribution is extremely critical,
and fulfilment and logistics indeed an
important pillar for a brand like ours. We
have a network of 16 warehouses across
the globe where we’ve partnered with
the best logistics companies and work
with some of the best freight forwarding
companies and express delivery
companies including Fedex and DHL,” he
mentions.
Future ready
“The pandemic has accelerated our growth,
given the shift towards high quality and
trusted wellness products, and larger
adoption of e-commerce globally. We are
excited to be on this journey of building one
of the most loved consumer brands in the
US and global markets. With the current
fundraising, we plan to continue deepening
our distribution in key markets, both online
and offline. We will also look at entering
new categories, new markets, investing
heavily in R&D and further strengthening
our management team,” Bala sums up.

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