Table of Contents

Category/Sector definition: ........................................................................................................ 4

Start-Ups Selected ...................................................................................................................... 4

• Yumist ............................................................................................................................. 4
• Mr. Needs ........................................................................................................................ 4
• GrocShop ........................................................................................................................ 4
Company 1: Yumist ................................................................................................................... 4

• Date of start (Month/Year).............................................................................................. 4

• Founders Name and Background .................................................................................... 4
• Business Model ............................................................................................................... 5
• Headquarters ................................................................................................................... 5
• Funding and Support, if any............................................................................................ 5
• Shutdown reasons ........................................................................................................... 5
• What are the founders currently doing (Share Linked in Profile, if available) ............... 7
Company 2: MrNeeds ................................................................................................................ 8

• Date of start (Month/Year).............................................................................................. 8

Founders Name and Background ........................................................................................... 8
• Business Model ............................................................................................................... 8
• Headquarters ................................................................................................................... 9
Funding and Support, if any................................................................................................... 9
Shutdown reasons .................................................................................................................. 9
• What are the founders currently doing (Share Linked in Profile, if available) ............. 10
Company 3: GrocShop ............................................................................................................. 11

• Date of start (Month/Year)............................................................................................ 11

• Founders Name and Background .................................................................................. 11
• Business Model ............................................................................................................. 11
• Headquarters ................................................................................................................. 12
• Shutdown reasons ......................................................................................................... 12

CASE STUDY FOR ENTREPRENEURS | GROUP ASSIGNMENT 2

 • What are the founders currently doing (Share Linked in Profile, if available)? ........... 12
Reference ................................................................................................................................. 13

CASE STUDY FOR ENTREPRENEURS | GROUP ASSIGNMENT 3

Category/Sector definition:
Online Retail

Start-Ups Selected
• Yumist

• Mr. Needs

• GrocShop

Company 1: Yumist

• Date of start (Month/Year)

October 2014

• Founders Name and Background

Alok Jain, Co-Founder & CEO (a technology entrepreneur and ex-CMO at Zomato)

Abhimanyu Maheshwari, Co-Founder & COO (a seasoned F&B entrepreneur)

CASE STUDY FOR ENTREPRENEURS | GROUP ASSIGNMENT 4

 • Business Model

Yumist was a company that was venturing into food delivery in 2014. Their initial brand
offering was:

“We make delicious, homely meals available in under 30 minutes through the use of
technology and a sophisticated logistics infrastructure.”

Their main point of differentiation was that instead of focusing on restaurant delivery only,
they wanted to venture into delivering comforting, simple, and home-cooked meals. But, with
the home-cooked meal aspect, they didn’t want to source it from a restaurant. Yumist wanted
to prepare it. The Gurugram-based food tech start-up, provided on-demand comfort, homely,
and delicious meals prepared in their own kitchen in Gurgaon, South Delhi, and Noida. Yumist
competed with Foodpanda and Zomato by offering home-style meals to office workers starting
at just Rs.100. It provided these meals in under 30 minutes and accepted delivery orders via
our Android and iOS apps, as well as its website. Yumist did great to partner with Zomato and
Swiggy for delivering these meals, as well. The start-up aimed to cover the daily meals market,
build a brand in India, and disrupt the market of sub-standard food provided by unorganised
players such as "dabbawallas" and "corporate canteens," among others.

• Headquarters

Gurgaon India

• Funding and Support, if any

For a company that had plans for the next few years in the pipeline, what did not cooperate was
their funding rounds. They had only two of them. Their first Seed round took place in January
2015, which raked in USD 1 million. The second round took place in December of the same
year, which brought in double the amount raised in the first round, i.e., USD 2 million. The
lead investor for this round was Unilazer Ventures.

• Shutdown reasons

In October 2017, Yumist (albeit expectedly) shut down its operations. In a detailed blog posted
on the company’s website, the two founders came clean:

CASE STUDY FOR ENTREPRENEURS | GROUP ASSIGNMENT 5

“We are shutting shop today. We failed to raise the kind of capital that this business required
while staying true to the customer problem. In hindsight, there’s a bunch of internal and
external factors that led us to this dead end. From launching in a second city prematurely, or
committing to a high growth, high burn model just because prospective investors wanted to see
that back in 2015, or taking a tad bit too long to find the right business model, we made our
mistakes. We learnt from these mistakes and recovered fast, but maybe not too fast.”

The reasons are as under –

a. Yumist was not only looking to expand to new cities, but also to increase capacity and
space in its existing ones, making it a high-cash-burn model. The existing cities had a
lot of room for improvement. Adding a new kitchen also put additional strain on the
company. They wanted to expand to impress the investors, but as a result, their margins
dipped which then drove them away. In May 2016, operations in Bengaluru were shut
down due to the absence of a kitchen in the city. This was followed by the inauguration
of a 12000sq ft. kitchen for Delhi NCR. Yumist was still recovering from the losses
incurred due to the shutdown of operations in Bengaluru. This came as a major setback
for Yumist's profits. The major reason they gave for this shut down was the absence of
a dedicated facility for food preparation. Since the operational charges were racking up
and the profits weren't, the company had to close all operations in 2017.
b. Another reason was that 2016 was a bad year for the food technology industry in
general. A lot of similar companies emerged, causing a clog due to competition - there
were 150 food tech start-ups that emerged and major market biggies i.e., Zomato, and
Swiggy. This perplexed investors and consumers, slowing growth. Many businesses,
including iTiffin, EazyMeals, and Zupermeal, went bankrupt. Even giants like Swiggy,
which was experiencing tremendous year-on-year growth, lost money instead of
making profits in 2016. As a result, raising funds became difficult for every food tech
start-up, and only a few survived. Yumist did not make the cut because of its high cash
burn and low cash inflow, regardless of how competent the company was.

CASE STUDY FOR ENTREPRENEURS | GROUP ASSIGNMENT 6

 • What are the founders currently doing (Share Linked in Profile, if
available)

1. Mr. Alok Jain

Currently working as EiR at Swiggy

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alokjain2

2. Mr. - Abhimanyu Maheshwari

He is the founder and currently working for Zing Restaurants' which is a full-stack F&B
company headquartered in Kolkata. Zing owns and operates a bouquet of Restaurant brands,
which includes Rang De Basanti Dhaba, and Asia! Asia! Asia!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhimanyu-maheshwari-5185a610

CASE STUDY FOR ENTREPRENEURS | GROUP ASSIGNMENT 7

Company 2: MrNeeds

• Date of start (Month/Year)

December, 2015

Founders Name and Background

1. Yogesh Garg (Founder)

2. Ravi Wadhwa (Founder)
3. Ravi Verma (Co-Founder)
4. Hitashi Garg (Co-Founder)

• Business Model

MrNeeds, a Noida-based micro-delivery startup, is an app-based subscription service that

delivers daily needs such as milk, bread, eggs and other groceries to customers.
It launched its operations in October 2016.

The business has tried to optimise the supply chain and lower delivery costs while
concentrating on a micro-delivery strategy. By limiting all deliveries to clients who reside in

CASE STUDY FOR ENTREPRENEURS | GROUP ASSIGNMENT 8

high-rise complexes and scheduling all deliveries between 6 and 9 am, it significantly reduced
the cost per delivery.

The Differentiator

Firstly, MrNeeds only caters to residents of apartment buildings and high-rises. They don't
charge any delivery fees and have no minimum delivery value in order to better serve these
consumers while still operating a successful and sustainable business.

Secondly, not many of the market's existing companies have a set delivery period; in fact, some
take a very long time to fulfil orders. Also, most of them have tie ups with local shops which
make them vulnerable to shortages of stocks at these stores.

• Headquarters

New Delhi, India

Funding and Support, if any

For a company that had plans for the next few years in the pipeline, what did not cooperate was
their funding rounds. They had only one of them. This Seed round took place on June 14, 2017,
and it raised USD 500k. The lead investor for this round was Umesh Arora.

Shutdown reasons

MrNeeds was a startup that ran on subscriptions. As a result, given how thrifty Indians
"typically" are, turnover may not have been all that high. So, it's probable that the startup didn't
have enough cash to survive. Also, the startup was successful in raising only USD 500k. Thus,
lack of funds raised and turnover can be the major reasons of the shutdown.

Additionally, well-funded and significant grocery delivery startups like Big Basket and Grofers
presented the firm with fierce competition. These large businesses were in a better position to
draw clients by making alluring offers and doing effective advertising thanks to the enormous
funds they possessed.

CASE STUDY FOR ENTREPRENEURS | GROUP ASSIGNMENT 9

 • What are the founders currently doing (Share Linked in Profile, if
available)

1. Yogesh Garg

He is currently working as a freelancer/ Consultant responsible for driving multiple projects

for contract deployment of solutions for Vendors & MNOs.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/yogesh-garg-
13590734?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_contact_details%3B
9o3ZioXOQWOUZ2XoHpjXcg%3D%3D

2. Ravi Wadhwa

He is currently working as business consultant and provides his services primarily to Startup’s/
International Organisations.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ravi-wadhwa-
7a5b8a4?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_contact_details%3BP
kxd4KOSRKKEnzW0OJSuuA%3D%3D

3. Ravi Verma

He is currently working as Project Manager at SRG Hi-Tech Farms.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ravi-verma-
933a7b51?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_contact_details%3B
3UmCaqxqQ9ylBWYLrFXtKw%3D%3D

4. Hitashi Garg

He is currently working in Cashify as VP (D2C).

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hitashigarg?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_v
iew_base_contact_details%3BvBzUmFauS0yJcGHcDz95BA%3D%3D

CASE STUDY FOR ENTREPRENEURS | GROUP ASSIGNMENT 10

Company 3: GrocShop

• Date of start (Month/Year)

May, 2014

• Founders Name and Background

1. Ayush Garg (Founder)

2. Rahul Kumar (Founder)

• Business Model

GorcShop was an online hybrid retail platform entirely dedicated to ensuring shopping for
grocery brands and daily necessities. The Customers can purchase in the convenience of their
homes, businesses, or while travelling, and items will be delivered in a timely manner.

GrocShop was chosen for Microsoft's BizSpark startup programme, which offers companies
free software, assistance, and exposure for three years.

GrocShop was one of the 16 firms chosen for the Google Launchpad programme in May 2015.

The Differentiator

The Customers can purchase in the convenience of their homes, businesses, or while travelling,
and items will be delivered in a timely manner.

CASE STUDY FOR ENTREPRENEURS | GROUP ASSIGNMENT 11

GrocShop was chosen for Microsoft's BizSpark startup programme, which offers companies
free software, assistance, and exposure for three years.

GrocShop was one of the 16 firms chosen for the Google Launchpad programme in May 2015.

Even the company changed to an asset-light model, which resulted in the termination of 45
employees. Additionally, it began using Grab and Roadrunner for logistics.

• Headquarters

Mumbai, India

• Shutdown reasons

The business was unable to support its declining profitability and costly logistical and client
acquisition expenditures.

Operational business outsourcing resulted in significant expenditures.

The company experienced a severe liquidity shortage as a result of declining cash flow and the
absence of new funding.

Grocshop entered the market later than other businesses, who already had established clientele
and presented fierce competition.

• What are the founders currently doing (Share Linked in Profile, if

available)?

1. Ayush Garg

Currently he is a Chief Consultant at SckaleUp.

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How is the selected category/sector growing in India?
India has seen a growth in the use of smartphones and the internet in recent years. Due in large
part to the "Digital India" effort, there were 830 million internet connections worldwide in
2021. The expansion of India's online retail industry has been aided by the country's rapid
growth in internet users and smartphone use, as well as rising incomes. The e-commerce
industry in India has changed how business is conducted there and opened up a variety of
market niches, including business-to-business (B2B), direct-to-consumer (D2C), consumer-to-
consumer (C2C), and consumer-to-business (C2B) (C2B). Significant markets like D2C and
B2B have grown tremendously in recent years. By FY27, the D2C market in India is anticipated
to grow to $60 billion. The total online retail market is anticipated to expand by 21.5% in 2022
to reach US$ 74.8 billion, and will total US$ 350 billion by 2030.

Table Source: IBEF.org

From US$ 3.95 billion in FY21 to US$ 26.93 billion in 2027, the Indian online grocery market
is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 33%. India's consumer digital economy is predicted to
increase from US$ 537.5 billion in 2020 to US$ 1 trillion by 2030, thanks in large part to the
rapid uptake of online services like e-commerce in the nation.

By 2025, Grant Thornton projects that India's e-commerce will be valued US$ 188 billion.

India overtook Canada to become the eighth-largest e-commerce market in 2020 with a $50
billion revenue, trailing only France.

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Reference
• https://tech.hindustantimes.com/tech/news/food-tech-startup-yumist-shuts-down-
blames-dead-end-to-high-burn-business-model-story-
BdrVENMb1Tq3rXNKq4GcSL.html
• https://techstory.in/yumist-shuts-down-276021-2/
• https://hellomeets.com/blog/failed-startups-of-india/
• https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/grocshop
• https://yourstory.com/2017/07/mrneeds-app-subscription-service-delivery-essentials-
milk-bread
• MrNeeds: Online micro-delivery startup MrNeeds raises close to $500k in pre-series A
Funding - The Economic Times (indiatimes.com)
• Grocery delivery startup Mr. Needs raises pre series funding – Indian CEO
• Exclusive: Noida-based micro-delivery startup MrNeeds shuts down (entrackr.com)
• https://www.ibef.org/industry/ecommerce

CASE STUDY FOR ENTREPRENEURS | GROUP ASSIGNMENT 14