Startup

How D2C brands from Tamil Nadu have created a niche in the industry

Published

3 months ago

July 30, 2024

admin

Building in India is going to be extremely exciting in the next 20 years, said Nalini Parthiban, Co-founder & CEO of D2C brand Sweet Karam Coffee, at the third edition of Tamil Nadu Story 2024 in Chennai.

Speaking at a panel discussion on ‘Category-builders: D2C-ing from TN’, Parthiban said, while there were brands such as Haldirams and Bikaji in the north of the country, there was no unified brand from the south in the FMCG space. This gap led to the launch of Sweet Karam Coffee, which sells homemade traditional Indian sweets and snacks.

“As a brand, I think D2C (direct-to-consumer) has enabled us to think not just pan-India, but pan-global. And the proof of the results is in the various experiments that we did over the last one year, and we now have almost 70% of our base outside Chennai and Tamil Nadu,” she said, adding that the brand has grown about 5X in the last six months and ships about 40,000 orders a month.

Kiru Maikapillai, Founder, The Divine Foods, said D2C brands can operate from anywhere in the country.

“Once you have a strong supply chain, proper logistics, and a killer product, then you can do D2C from any part of the country, whether you’re from rural part of Kerala, from Mumbai, or from Delhi,” he said.

“Focus on the product, the location doesn’t matter,” he added.

The Divine Foods offers a range of superfoods and health products such as turmeric, moringa, millets, honey, and skincare.

Omni-channel strategy

Pritesh Asher, Co-founder and CEO, Juicy Chemistry, a beauty and personal care brand, believes adopting an omni-channel strategy is the way to go for D2C brands.

“You need to be closer to the customer,” he said, elaborating on how navigation has become more complex than it used to be and how one has to find ways of growing sustainably.

“It’s not only D2C today, it is omni-channel D2C. Your brand gets discovered online, but it gets built offline,” concurred Parthiban.

Clean choices

The three brands, Sweet Karam Coffee, Juicy Chemistry, and The Divine Foods, have built products in the conscious ingredients space.

Malakapillai said that, with the ‘Label Padega India’ movement, people have started reading the label on the backside to know about the ingredients used in the product.

“I believe this is going to be a very new normal … making conscious choices,” he said.

“This entire no palm oil revolution in snacking is actually picking up and people tend to call us healthy snacking. Although we don’t use it explicitly, people perceive us as (being in the) healthy snacking space and they feel it’s safe to give it to their kids,” said Parthiban.

She also said that taste is Sweet Karam Coffee’s primary differentiator, along with clean and locally-sourced products.

Elaborating on clean products, Asher said Juicy Chemistry has always focused on building trust with its customers since inception. Hence, the brand invested in certification.

“Trust, traceability, and transparency became the three pillars on which Juicy Chemistry was actually built,” he said.

Working with farmers and women

Asher spoke about starting off in Tamil Nadu, which was an added advantage with strong networking.

“For us, the ingredient story was very strong as well. We started finding ingredients not just from organic farmers, but (also) started sourcing from across the globe.”

Juicy Chemistry sources ingredients from almost 20 countries.

“We bring it to our own manufacturing facility, and that’s where it gets distributed across 12,000 pin codes and 20 different countries from India,” he said.

According to Maikapillai, finding farmers with organic certification was a challenge because the cost of certification is almost like the cost of one acre land.

“Farmers were practising organic (farming) without knowing they were practising organic because it’s kind of a traditional thing … which they do. So, the challenging part is identifying those farmers in each region,” he said.

Sweet Karam Coffee helps an entire ecosystem of small farmers and homepreneurs, providing opportunities to those who sustain these traditional delights.

“This entire network of scaling homepreneurs has been extremely gratifying, extremely fulfilling,” said Parthiban.

She also mentioned that almost 70% of the brand’s manufacturing comes from women entrepreneurs.

On raising funds

Advising founders on raising external funding, Parthiban said, “Keep it to a scale where you are confident that it will work. The moment you see customers love building, it’s time to start raising funds.”

Source link

Post Views: 30

Startup

Magenta Mobility’s FY24 revenue rises three fold, losses widen by 17.1%

Published

24 mins ago

November 8, 2024

admin

Magenta Mobility on Thursday reported a 199.5% jump in its full-year revenue to Rs 35.53 crore compared to Rs 11.86 crore in the previous year helped by a significant rise in its revenue from services.

The company provides a 100% electric fleet and AI and IoT-enabled fleet management and data analytics platform to optimise logistics operations and deliveries. Revenue from these services for the year ended March 31, 2024, increased to Rs 30.17 crore compared to Rs 10.15 crore in FY23.

However, the company reported a 17.1% increase in its loss for the period to Rs 46.44 crore as opposed to Rs 39.66 crore in FY23, bogged down by rising expenses during the year. The 109.1% rise in expenses to Rs 90.17 crore was primarily due to rising driver costs, employee benefit expenses, and finance costs.

Magenta Mobility appoints drivers on a contract basis to provide services to its customers, which it accounts as an expense. The drivers’ cost for FY24 increased to Rs 18.49 crore, compared to Rs 6.34 crore in FY23.

The rise in demand for the company’s fleet comes amidst a boom in the last-mile delivery sector in India owing to the rise of ecommerce and quick commerce players. Magenta Mobility caters to clients such as Flipkart and hyper-local delivery platform Dunzo, among others.

Founded in 2017 by Maxson Lewis and Darryl Dias, the company last raised $22 million in a Series A funding round from BP Venture and Morgan Stanley India Infrastructure-managed investment fund.

Source link

Post Views: 0

Startup

Juspay cuts losses by 7.7% as revenue surges 49.6% in FY24

Published

1 hour ago

November 7, 2024

admin

Payments startup Juspay Technologies saw its losses narrowing in FY24 as revenue growth outpaced expenditure. It narrowed its total loss for the period to Rs 97.54 crore, down 7.76% from Rs 105.75 crore in FY23.

According to the consolidated financial statements accessed from the Registrar of Companies, the SoftBank-backed fintech firm’s revenue from operations surged 49.64% to Rs 319.32 crore, up from Rs 213.39 crore in FY23.

Juspay’s primary revenue source—payment platform integration fees—brought in Rs 286.52 crore. Additional operating revenue from services like product implementation and support added Rs 32.80 crore.

Total expenses rose by 29.52% to Rs 443.74 crore in FY24, compared to Rs 342.59 crore in the previous year. This increase was largely driven by employee benefit expenses, which saw a 41.73% jump to Rs 303.36 crore, while other expenses increased slightly over 3.56% to Rs 123.76 crore.

Juspay, founded in 2012 by Vimal Kumar and Ramanathan RV in Bengaluru, specialises in developing payment orchestration solutions that act as a technology layer over traditional payment gateways.

The Accel-backed startup has also developed Namma Yatri, a mobility app focusing on ride-hailing services, leveraging Juspay’s strengths in payments and open-source protocols. Namma Yatri is built on the Beckn Protocol and aligns with the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), aiming to provide low-cost ride-hailing options and open access to digital mobility services.

Recently, Juspay decided to spin off Namma Yatri as an independent entity to attract separate investors and scale further. In February, the company said it acquired LotusPay in an all-cash deal to strengthen its offerings to the BFSI segment and merchants.

LotusPay, founded in 2016, pioneered NACH Debit technology with cloud-based software for merchants and banks. Using NPCI’s NACH Debit, it facilitates recurring payments for loans, insurance, and subscriptions.

Source link

Post Views: 1

Startup

Flipkart selects five startups for third cohort of Flipkart Leap Innovation Network

Published

2 hours ago

November 7, 2024

admin

Flipkart has selected five innovative startups for the third cohort of its flagship startup accelerator programme, Flipkart Leap Innovation Network (FLIN).

The cohort is introducing startups that are driving advancements across GenAI, omnichannel, analytics, and video commerce, the company said in a statement.

The selected startups— Intelligence Node, Invenzo Labs, StoryBrain, Phyllo, and D-ID— are set to run pilot programs with Flipkart to develop solutions.

“The selected startups get access to mentorship, resources, and the opportunity to execute pilot projects within the Flipkart ecosystem, scaling their solutions to meet the demands of India’s digital economy and e-commerce growth,” the company said.

Since its launch in 2022, the accelerator programme aims to accelerate the growth of the startup ecosystem in India, driving collaboration, and championing cutting-edge retail innovations.

“Through the FLIN programme, Flipkart continues to expand its role as a catalyst for innovation within India’s startup ecosystem, providing a collaborative platform for startups to test, refine, and deploy solutions that can shape the future of e-commerce in India,” said Naren Ravula, Vice President and Head – Product Strategy and Flipkart Labs.

The programme is designed to engage with startups through commercial partnerships in Flipkart’s areas of interest. Successful startups get the opportunity to scale up to a business partnership.

Over 20 startups from the initial two cohorts have concluded pilots working closely with the Flipkart Product and Engineering teams.

The company added that four startups from the previous cohort— Anagog, Speedsize, Sangti, and Vtion— have recently concluded successful pilot projects with Flipkart.

Source link

Post Views: 0