Battery compartment on Vande Bharat Express from Rani Kamlapati to Nizamuddin catches fire at 5:40am. All passengers safely evacuated. Congress leader Ajay Singh was on board. Defective batteries suspected.

D2C – Startups’ oxygen

How is D2C helping in raising economy?

● In terms of numbers, the Indian e-commerce market is projected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 19% between 2022-2030, while the D2C share of e-commerce funding in India for the same period is estimated to be 49%, this is according to data sourced from Kantar Internet.
● MMA Global and Publicis’ toolkit says over 80% of D2C ventures are yet to achieve profitability, with the primary reasons being attributed to high customer acquisition costs, operational complexities and unclear returns on investments.
● A statement put out by the two organisations mentions that while many traditional businesses have ventured into D2C, standalone D2C revenue remains modest, comprising less than 5% of overall ecommerce revenue for 50% of respondents.
D2C brands that are disrupting the market

Food Startups:

Chaayos
● It was founded in 2012 by Nitin Saluja and Raghav Verma, Chaayos sells a wide variety of tea and packaged food products.
● It sells tea at its physical stores while other packaged food products are sold via ecommerce marketplaces and physical stores. In June 2022, it secured $53 Mn in its Series C funding round from investors including Elevation Capital, Think Investments, Tiger Global and Alpha Wave Ventures. It has raised $85.5M in funding to date.
Country Delight
● Founded in 2013 by Chakradhar Gade and Nitin Kaushal, Country Delight sources milk and other food products such as ghee, cottage cheese, fruits and vegetables from farmers and delivers them to customers’ doorstep.
● In May 2022, it secured $108 Mn in its Series D funding round from Venturi Partners, Temasek, SWC Global, Trifecta Capital and a slew of other investors. Prior to this, it had also raised $25 Mn in a Series C round led by Elevation Capital. So far, it has raised a total of $133 Mn in funding.
Curefoods
● Founded in 2020 by Ankit Nagori, Curefoods is a cloud kitchen aggregator that houses several brands–EatFit, Sharief Bhai, Aligarh House Biryani and CakeZone, to name a few.
● It manages over 150 cloud kitchens in 15 Indian cities. In 2023, it raised $37 Mn from Binny Bansal’s fund Three State Ventures.
● In addition, Bollywood actress Nora Fatehi invested in Curefoods and, also, became the brand ambassador of its sub-brand CakeZone.
Desi Farms
● Set up in 2016 by Prateek Gupta and Sunil Shahi, D2C startup Desi Farms sells dairy products such as Malai Dahi, whole buffalo milk, Shrikhand, and Amrakhand, among others.
● To eliminate intermediaries, the dairy startup partners with local farmers and procures fresh milk and milk products from them. Later, these products undergo rigorous quality checks at the processing unit, wherein the milk is treated without using chemical preservatives.
● It delivers dairy products to customers without levying any charges and also provides customised subscription services to its users.
Drink Prime
● Founded by Vijender Reddy Muthyala and Manas Ranjan Hota in 2016, DrinkPrime offers subscription-based water purification services to households. The founders started their entrepreneurial journey by building a platform, called Waterwala, to deliver drinking water cans to people.
● Later, the startup pivoted to a new model and began offering subscription-based customisable water purifiers to customers. The company’s RO purifiers deploy Internet of Things (IoT) to offer customised offerings and cater to the water purification needs of families living in different localities.
Personal-care Startups

Bold Care
● Founded in 2020 by Rajat Jadhav, Rahul Krishnan, Harsh Singh, and Mohit Yadav, Bold Care is an end-to-end men’s health and wellness platform that centres around sexual health, hair care and daily nutrition.
● It sells sexual wellness kits, complete hair care packs, and natural supplements to boost immunity, sleep, haircare, and sexual health. Accelerated by Huddle, the health and wellness D2C brand has so far catered to 2.3 Lakh men and sells its products on marketplaces and its own website. The startup has secured $3 Mn in funding to date.
Earth Rhythm
● Founded in October 2020 by Harini Sivakumar, Earth Rhythm is a beauty and personal care brand that sells a host of haircare, skincare and body care products. It also sells zero-waste products including toothbrushes, vanity bags, combs and soap dishes, among others.
● The Delhi NCR-based claims to have 160 stock-keeping units (SKUs) and has served over 150K users to date. It has raised a total of $1.2 Mn in funding from Anicut Capital. It aims to reduce the carbon footprint and at the same time, use sustainable ingredients in making its products.
Foxtale
● Foxtale is an omnichannel beauty and personal care (BPC) brand that sells skincare products such as serums, masks, moisturisers, face washes, sunscreens, among others.
● Founded in 2021 by former venture capitalist Romita Mazumdar, Foxtale primarily sells its products through its own website, online marketplaces as well as offline stores. It claims to have a presence across 1,050 offline retail stores and 50 modern trade chains.
● Backed by marquee names such as Panthera Growth Partners, Matrix Partners India and Kae Capital, Foxtale has raised capital in excess of $18 Mn till date.
Good Health Company (GHC)
● Founded in 2021 by Samarth Sindhi and Saurav Panda, Good Health Company (GHC) is a subsidiary of Raksha Health.
● GHC sells a range of men-focussed wellness and personal care products, including anti-hair thinning kits, hair regrowth, beard care kit, and glowing skin kits, among others.
● It also offers free consultations to customers regarding their skincare, haircare and sexual health problems.So far, it has raised $20.7 Mn funding from a number of investors.
Himalayan Organics
● Himalayan Organics is a D2C nutraceutical startup that was founded in 2018 by Vaibhav Raghuwanshi and Suditi Sharma. The company offers a variety of products across several categories, including beauty, skincare, immunity boosters, and haircare.
● To provide the best service to its customers, Himalayan Organics collaborates with nutritionists and dieticians to offer free consultations.
● The company mainly sources raw materials from the Himalayan region and uses natural ingredients such as fruits, vegetables, herbs, seeds, and nuts to manufacture its products.
Apparel and Footwear Startups

Bewakoof
● Founded in 2012 by Prabhkiran Singh and Siddharth Munot, Bewakoof sells a wide variety of clothes, stationery items, footwear and mobile accessories on its website.
● The D2C brand also sells a host of merchandise clothes and accessories in partnership with Marvel, F.R.I.E.N.D.S, Star Wars, Disney, DC and Looney Tunes.
● In August 2021, it secured $8.09 Mn in its Pre-Series B funding round and in December 2022, Aditya Birla Group’s house of brands business TMRW invested INR 200 Cr in the D2C startup Bewakoof.
BlissClub
● Set up in 2020 by Minu Margeret, BlissClub sells a host of women’s activewear including bottom wear, sports bras, tops, tees and co-ords, among others. Under the BlissQueen Royalty Program, the D2C startup offers reward points to its loyal customers.
● In May, the Bengaluru-based D2C startup secured $15 Mn in its Series A funding round. It has raised a total funding of $17.25 Mn to date.
● The startup claims to have grown its sales by 25X over the last year. It aims to attain an annualised revenue of INR 100 Cr by the end of 2022.
Freakins
● Back in 2018, Puneet Sehgal, Sachin Shah and Shaan Shah experimented with the idea of building a desi women-centred denim wear brand. Investing INR 10 Lakh of their capital, the duo first designed and manufactured a few denim wear samples to see if they were headed in the right direction.
● They received overwhelming response, setting the stage for launch of their D2C denim wear brand Freakins in 2019. However, the startup forayed into the men’s category in February 2023 to emerge as a full-fledged Gen-Z denim wear brand.
● The startup raised $4 Mn in July 2023 in a seed funding round led by Matrix Partners India and Blume Ventures.
SoleThreads
● Founded in 2020 by Gaurav Chopra, Sumant Kakaria, Aprajit Kathuria and Vikram Iyer, Solethreads manufactures footwear products.
● The company sells its products through both its own website as well as ecommerce platforms. Solethreads has raised INR 57 Cr in funding to date and is backed by names such as Fireside Ventures, DSG Consumer Partners and Saama Capital. It competes with the likes of Flatheads, Bacca Bucci, Yoho, among others.
Bacca Bucci
● Much before the Gen Z lingo acquired buzzwords such as sneakers or running shoes, the duo of Anuj Nevatia and Natwar Agrawal was quietly working on setting up something of their own in the footwear industry.
● For Nevatia, the decision to focus on footwear was primarily driven by factors such as business seasonality, the organized nature of the market, and the timeless demand for shoes, which laid the groundwork for the inception of Bacca Bucci, a direct-to-consumer (D2C) footwear brand established in 2015.
Appliances

Noise
● Founded in 2014 by Amit Khatri & Gaurav Khatri, Noise is a smart wearable and wireless headphones brand. It sells products on its website and ecommerce marketplaces such as Amazon and Flipkart.
● The bootstrapped startup reported a 8% year-on-year (YoY) rise in net profit to INR 35.5 Cr in the financial year 2021-22 (FY22) against a total income of INR 804.9 Cr during the same period, up over 2.2X.
Revour Consumers
● Revour Consumers was founded in 2019 by Jaideep Singh Gaur and Ranjit Singh and specialises in selling kitchen and home-based electrical appliances.
● The startup partners with various OEMs to produce consumer electronics, including light bulbs, electric kettles, fans, and irons. Revour Consumer clocked a revenue of INR 17.5 Cr FY22 and has so far served more than 30 Lakh customers across the length and breadth of the country.
● The startup has so far raised $1 Mn in funding and counts Oriano Clean Energy as its key investor. Going forward, the D2C brand plans to deepen its focus on consumer electronics and intends to introduce new product lines.
Wonderchef
● Wonderchef, founded in 2009 by Ravi Saxena and celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor, offers cookware, kitchen appliances, bakeware, and other allied culinary tools. It claims to operate 22 exclusive retail outlets and has served over 3 Cr customers so far.
● In 2021, it secured INR 150 Cr in a funding round led by Sixth Sense Ventures. Godrej Family Office, Malpani Group, and other high-net-worth individuals also participated in the funding round.
Editor’s Note
It is this burgeoning ecosystem that the new-age D2C brands aim to capitalise on, on the back of the growing appetite of Indian consumers for innovation and waning loyalty towards traditional players.
Keywords:
#startup#funding#india#d2c

D2C – Startups’ oxygen

How is D2C helping in raising economy?

D2C brands that are disrupting the market

Food Startups:

Chaayos

Country Delight

Curefoods

Desi Farms

Drink Prime

Personal-care Startups

Bold Care

Earth Rhythm

Foxtale

Good Health Company (GHC)

Himalayan Organics

Apparel and Footwear Startups

Bewakoof

BlissClub

Freakins

SoleThreads

Bacca Bucci

Appliances

Noise

Revour Consumers

Wonderchef

Editor’s Note

Keywords:

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