Lights, Camera...Ka-Chow✨

D2C Accelerators, Consumer Giants' D2C strategy & Social Commerce

👋 Hey!

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

What’s in the news?

D2C to the moon 🚀🚀

Online first brands are taking 1/5th the time taken by their predecessors to find the product-market fit, create a brand, and scale up. RPSG Capital Ventures wants to further expedite this journey for D2C brands with its D2C accelerator programme, in partnership with Little Black Book.

The first cohort of the accelerator includes Bartisans (unique cocktail mixers), Plow Foods (high protein ready-to-cook breakfast), Born Good (plant-based home cleaning), CurryIt (ready-to-cook Indian curry pastes) and Eat with Better (jackfruit as alternate protein).

RPSG knows the drill, it’s already backing leading D2C brands such as The Souled Store and mCaffeine. Other prominent accelerator programmes for online brands include Flipkart Boost, Amazon Accelerator, and Your Story’s Brands of India Initiative.

PS: Shark Tank India debuts on December 20th. Exciting, right?

OGs playing it right ✅

Procter & Gamble acquired the International new age skincare brand Ouai, which boasts of a highly connected community. Ouai will sit alongside P&G staple brands like Herbal Essences, Pantene, Aussie, and Head & Shoulders. The deal is P&G’s second acquisition in a matter of weeks after it invested in cult brand Farmacy Beauty.

This kinda sugar-daddy relationship between a younger socially connected brand and one of the largest companies in the world is not new, even to India:

Conventional brands have advanced from simply listing their existing brands on platforms like Amazon and Flipkart to building an all-rounded strategy of building their own D2C operations, and even moving B2B sales between the brand and its distribution network online.

Being the beauty and the beast💪

Indian women-led and run organic food brand Naario raised undisclosed pre-seed funding from a group of women investors including Sairee Chahal of Sheroes, Harshita Singh of Times Prime, and Ankit Mehrotra of Dineout. Naario offers organic condiments and beverages like a 9-in-1 flour mix, Lucknowi Masala, Jaggery powder, and Rose Sherbet. Other players in the indigenous ingredient category include Taru Naturals, Sprig, Phulo Phalo India.

Speaking of Sheroes of the start-up world, Sequoia India announced The Nestery (one-stop-shop for curated childcare products) a part of its 15 Women Fellowship Program that will mentor them to become successful entrepreneurs.

Smile, please…Ka-Chow!' 👄

We all have noticed the wave of startups selling oral hygiene products including toothbrushes; but now even basic orthodontic services are online! D2C dental care startup Snazzy selling invisible braces online raised USD 2.2 mn in a seed funding round, from investors including Y Combinator. Snazzy offers braces starting from INR 39,000, while conventional players charge anywhere between INR 1 to 3 lac. Other prominent online players in India include Toothsi and Carestack (both raised funding earlier this year).

With telemedicine taking prominence during covid and net worth of Asia Pacific orthodontics market expected to hit USD 4.2 bn by 2025, the D2C business model might just be a perfect fit.

Is there any consumer product that you wouldn’t buy online? Hit the reply button and let us know!

Binge-worthy funding news🗞️

• Money paw-ring on pet market: Pawpurrfect and Zoivane pets raised funds. Check out our coverage on the pet care market here.

• Kind is the new sexy: Sustainable homecare and footwear brand Clensta and Solethreads, respectively raised funds. Woh! we have covered this trend as well, see for yourself!

Brands that caught our eye!

Green dot, good dot! 🌱

Plantmade, as the name suggests, uses plants to make food, to rekindle your taste and to save the environment. Imagine indulging in your favorite scrambled eggs, pancakes, chicken nuggets, sausages, without the guilt of animal suffering or consuming cholesterol.

Plantmade extracts proteins from indigenous grains and converts them into functional plant-based alternatives like veg anda and beverages including masala chai soy milk. It now also offers nut butter and sauces.

Slay with clay 🍳

Green Heirloom offers sustainable and eco-friendly cookware from artisans and creators across the country. You can get rid of your non-stick pans with chemical coatings and move to a sustainable future with Green Heirloom’s cookware made of clay, stone, cast iron, bronze, and brass. They also offer other kitchenware including containers and plates, ‘all natural’.

Trend of the week: Social Commerce💰

Social commerce is effectively e-commerce that utilizes social networks and peer-to-peer communication to assist online buying products and services. Different models have emerged under this broad concept including the reseller model, group buying, video commerce, live commerce, influencer run commerce, etc.

India’s social commerce market is pegged at USD 800 mn. Here’s our list of prominent platforms facilitating social commerce in India:

Reads & Recommendations

1. What is good retention by Lenny Rachitsky

2. Can Thras.io disrupt Indian consumer giants by AJVC

3. Building a brand by Nik Sharma

   Nik Sharma @mrsharma

   99% of entrepreneurs in CPG fail because they don't build a BRAND, even if they had a good product. After helping launch 11 brands in the last 18 months, I've put together a Modern Day Brand Ingredient List. Here are 10 simple things you can do to consistently build brand 👇

Trivia Time

Here are 3 questions that will be easy for you to answer if you’ve really gone through the entire newsletter. It’s not a test, just some fun facts to get your chai time discussions activated on Monday.

1. How did the term ‘Soap Opera’ originate?

2. Name the 7 sharks ruling the tank.

3. Pick the right one. India’s petcare market is valued at:

   • 200 Million USD

   • 600Million USD

   • 2 Billion USD

Answers (here, here and here)

That’s all for this week!

PS: Here’s an adorable video capturing the happiness of small business owners on making a sale.

PPS: Stay tuned for more insights about the D2C start-ups in India.

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