🎀 Bows that left us wow

Home care brands getting rich, products catering to period care, D2C subscription model in India!

👋 Hey!

Welcome to this week’s edition of GlobalBees D2C Pulse where we curate content around the direct-to-consumer (D2C) ecosystem in India - new start-ups, funding, acquisitions, partnerships, and more. If you missed our previous editions, check them out here!

What’s in the news?

🧹Clean meets Green

Koparo Clean, a company offering sustainable solutions to home cleaning (laundry liquids, veggie wash etc.) raised INR 5.7 cr. from Saama Capital, Titan Capital, and DSG Consumer Partners. The company’s products are eco-friendly i.e. made without using any parabens and synthetics.

The organic home care category has long-standing players like The Better Home (now housed under GlobalBees), Mamaearth, and recently funded Beco. These players are right now competing for a piece of the metro market, as there is still a long way to go before high-priced eco-home cleaning becomes mainstream. Brands need to be patient and educate the consumers, esp in Tier 2 cities. The trend of being ‘eco-friendly’ and ‘sustainable’ is playing out well in other categories too: apparel (No Nasties), skincare (Plum), foods (Blue Tribe).

☕Something’s brewing at Sleepy Owl

Be it providing a productivity boost for long WFH hours or simply being a lifestyle product, artisan coffee has forayed into the Indian coffee market with its gourmet flavors. Indian coffee market, once limited to players like Nestle and Bru (with their instant coffee powder mix), is poised to reach 2 bn by 2025. Indian consumers are seeking better experiences, and are willing to pay for newer formats and tastes.

Sleepy Owl Coffee, one such artisan brand, has raised USD 6.5 mn from its existing investors Rukam Capital and DSG Consumer Partners. The brand was started in 2016 with hot & cold brews and ready-to-drink mixes. It has recently launched a subscription service and partnered with The Whole Truth Food to launch coffee crunch granola. Its competitors include Rage Coffee, Slay Coffee, Blue Tokai, and Araku.

🤑 Ugaoo that money tree

D2C home gardening brand Ugaoo has raised USD 2 mn from DSG Consumer Partners and RPG Ventures. Founded in 2015, Ugaao offers an array of gardening solutions including indoor plants, kitchen garden seeds, and plant care products. Another prominent player in this space is Kraftseeds. Pandemic has given a solid push to DIY culture, leading to the growth of the sale of plant seeds and saplings online. The global lawn and garden consumables market is projected to reach USD 26.3 bn by 2030.

Speaking of plants, there is one variety whose trade Amazon does not give a blessing to - Marijuana. It is working with enforcement agencies to crack down a recently brought to light racket involving the use of Amazon’s platform for sourcing marijuana.

Brands that caught our eye!

🚺 Menstruation is natural

While the topic of period care is typically considered a taboo, it is a massive market in India. Sirona, a female hygiene startup, has launched a first-of-its-kind anti-bacterial product to remove period stains from clothes. The formula is plant-based and contains bio-enzymes that remove both old and new stains without bleaching the clothes or impacting the fabric quality.

Sirona aims to solve all unaddressed female problems from Puberty to Menopause through its period kits, pain patches, travel hygiene products, sexual and pregnancy care products.

🎀 Bows that left us wow

Cutesy knick-knacks alert! The brand called It’s a bow thing offers handcrafted bows for all - from mini bows, bow scrunchies to bowties to pretty up yourself, your bae, bebe, or doggo. The founder Prathiba Selvam believes that people have not thought of many ways of sporting a bow. Wanting to slip bow into flip-flop slippers, jewelry, apparel, sling bags, and whatnot, she started It’s a bow thing. Gotta agree, no idea is too small or too big when it comes to startups, even a tiny spark can turn into a mighty flame.

Trend of the week: Subscription E -commerce 📆

Subscription e-commerce is a great way to keep consumers invested in a company by giving them a service they need at a regular interval. This produces a consistent revenue for the business and offers consumers a convenient, personalized, and often lower-cost way to get what they need. The subscription model in India is at a nascent stage as our preferred mode of payment is still CoD which doesn't work great for subscriptions. There are three broad types of subscriptions:

• Replenishment subscriptions allow consumers to automate the purchase of commodity items, such as razors or diapers.

• Curation subscriptions seek to delight by providing highly personalized experiences in categories such as apparel, beauty, and food.

• Access subscribers pay a monthly fee to obtain lower prices or members-only perks, primarily in the apparel and food categories.

Here’s a list of limited Indian brands that are experimenting with subscription model:

Reads & Recommendations

1. Nail pricing for your products:

Growth Tactics @GrowthTactics

We've helped about 600 startups nail their pricing These 12 models work for every business model:

2. Understand the audience of social media channels.

3. A step-by-Step guide to conducting market research.

That’s all for this week!

Stay tuned for more insights about the D2C start-ups in India. Do share your feedback and have a bangin’ week.

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