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All things noteworthy in the D2C space
👋 Hey!
Welcome to this week’s edition of GlobalBees D2C Pulse! Thanks for letting us into your inbox, we’re super pumped to have hit 3000+ subscribers in less than 2 months! Hit reply and type away if you have any thoughts about what you read here. If you missed our previous editions, check them out here!
Last week we saw some hilarious attempts of moment marketing by consumer brands in the backdrop of the IPL mania, Netflix’s new dark thriller Squid Games, and Whatsapp-Instagram outage 👇
Moment marketing is a promotional technique where brands take advantage of trending news or events to gain traction. You’d remember Oreo’s ‘Dunk in the Dark’ tweet during the 34-minute power outage at the Super Bowl 2013. This technique is popular amongst brands as it allows them to insert themselves into consumer conversations, thereby increasing brand recall. Amul and Zomato have been front runners in piggybacking onto trends in India.
What’s in the news?
🦄 A rebellious unicorn
Good news for our chow-time buddies! Rebel Foods - with its network of ~4000 cloud kitchens globally - has become a unicorn with its latest funding round of USD 175 mn, led by Qatar Investment Authority. The start-up is now valued at USD 1.4 bn and operates brands such as Faasos, Slay Coffee & Behrouz Biryani across 10 countries. It also holds franchisees of international brands like Wendy’s and Mad Over Donuts.
While the company is still running losses of more than USD 50 mn, it is moving towards profitability with 100% YoY growth.
What’s next? Expanding their international presence, making more acquisitions, tapping into the unorganized food court market in India by opening outlets housing its brands across highways, airports, and office locations. And of course, going public!
Market size & Competitors: USD 8 bn by 2022; Curefoods, Freshmenu, Swiggy Access, Box 8
🥩 Could Licious get any more delicious?
Licious joined the unicorn club after receiving a USD 52 mn investment from IIFL Asset Management, with a valuation of over USD 1 bn. It disrupted the unorganized Indian meat market that was saddled with quality and hygiene issues, with their farm to fork model. The company offers self-branded food products - from frozen meat to dips by controlling the entire supply chain - right from procurement, processing, and storage to delivery to the consumers. Currently, Licious has a whopping INR 1000 cr. annual revenue, a YoY growth of 500%, operations in 14 Indian cities, and over 2 mn customers.
What’s next? Investments in tech for efficient supply-chain, product innovation, and talent & vendor acquisition.
Market size & Competitors: USD 40 bn; Fresh To Home, Zappfresh, BigBasket and Swiggy.
Wait, we got something for our vegetarian buddies too - Fraazo that runs a fully integrated vertical supply chain for fresh fruits & veggies also raised USD 11 mn in a funding round led by Sixth Sense Ventures.
♟️Mensa Brands finally makes a move
Last few months D2C roll-ups have been boasting about their acquisitions, while Mensa has been playing their cards extremely close to their chest. That is until they revealed a full house, announcing the acquisition of majority stakes in 10 new-age brands across a whole host of categories like fashion, beauty, and personal care. Brands acquired include Karagiri (high-end, designer sarees), Priyaasi (traditional & contemporary jewellery), Dennis Lingo (men's casual wear), Helea (smart home-device), and Villain (men’s personal care).
Market size & Competitors: USD 100 bn by 2025; 10Club, Goat Brand Labs, Powerhouse 91, Upscalio, Evenflow, (and) GlobalBees.
Following on from our last week’s coverage of MyGlamm’s growing mega empire, it has now acquired The Moms Co., a mom & baby care brand.
🏠 WFH getting more irresistible
Work from home is the new normal and brands are striving to make it an even better experience for customers, as witnessed by the following investments in the homecare segment last week:
D’moksha, a D2C home fashion brand that produces handcrafted home linens using sustainable fabrics, raised USD 575,000 in a round led by Venture Catalysts.
Phool, a premium fragrance-based home products company, raised undisclosed funds from Bollywood celeb, Alia Bhatt. Do check out their Diwali Patakha collection - crackers that grow into beautiful plants.
Transteel, a brand offering affordable office furniture, raised INR 4 cr. from investors including Klub.
🍿 Tech bites
Chingari (Another Indian Tik Tok) just raised USD 19 mn. It is all set to compete with the likes of MX TakaTak, Dailyhunt’s Josh and ShareChat’s Moj.
ANS Commerce, a full-stack e-commerce enablement startup, raised USD 2.2 mn. It provides solutions including web store design, performance marketing, fulfillment, analytics, and customer support. Get your store online! Now!
Brands that caught our eye!
☕ Don’t BYOB for this party
More likely than not, home delivery of alcohol is banned in your state. While we hope the state governments chill out and allow us to order a pint of beer in the convenience of our homes soon, for now, we are making do with DrinksDeli - India’s go-to destination for beverage brands.
Targeted at foodies and connoisseurs, they are an extension of the HongKong based chain that provides home deliveries of the finest non-alcoholic beverages like health drinks, tonics, artisan teas, and coffees. They are building a delivery platform driven by the delight of discoverability and engaging content.
🃏 Imma done with Uno
Are you fried playing the same Uno cards game when hanging with friends? Non-serious games are the talk of the party town with the newest set of card games like ‘All or nothing’ and ‘Wanderlust’. On that note, we feel that we need more brands in India tapping the card-based learning and games market, like how the US-based Tadka Tarot offering a deck of mixes of spice, veggie & formula cards, is helping people learn how to cook intuitively.
Trend of the week: Celebs ❤️ D2C
There was a time when B-Town/sports celebrities would charge a hefty fee to endorse a brand, even if it does not resonate with them just to make something extra. However, brands started approaching ‘Micro/Macro influencers’ well known in the niche with high rates of engagement, for endorsements, when it got super expensive working with the celebs.
Celebs have consequently changed their strategy; they are now investing in brands they represent, showing they truly believe in the brands’ ethos.
The list that we could figure out includes Akshay Kumar, Shilpa Shetty, Suniel Shetty, Alia Bhatt, Riteish Deshmukh & Genelia (love their Insta game), Virat Kohli, Katrina Kaif… okay just have a look at the infographic below to get an idea of celebs adding glam to the start-up ecosystem with their investments:
Reads & Recommendations
Today list is a starters pack:
That’s all for this week!
Stay tuned for more insights about the D2C start-ups in India.
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