Pets & Hunger Pangs🐕
All things noteworthy in the D2C space
Hey👋
Welcome to this week’s edition of GlobalBees D2C Pulse! D2C Pulse is a weekly newsletter that provides curated news and content on the D2C ecosystem in India - be it funding, acquisitions, partnerships or new start-ups, we are creating a one-stop resource for all things noteworthy. In case you missed our last few editions, check them out here!
Ever wondered why D2C brands are giving tough competition to legacy brands? Well, to start with D2C brands are lean (create-sell-learn-reiterate-repeat) and they follow Market-Product fit i.e. start with researching the market first and then derive a product from it. Speaking of market research, here’s a chart on consumption growth patterns in India from 2019-21, by Euromonitor:
In today’s issue, we see how start-ups following these consumption pattern tailwinds are gaining maximum success - specifically pet care, health and food delivery services.
Let’s get going…
What’s in the news?
🐶 Paw-sitive news for HUFT
Your dachshund might be tiny but the valuation of India’s pet care market isn’t - valued at USD 600 mn, pet care market in India is growing at 20% CAGR. Wagging its tail behind the trend, Delhi based Heads Up For Tails just got a treat of USD 37 mn funding from Sequoia Capital India, amongst others.
Started by solopreneur Rashi Narang in 2008, HUFT has now become one stop shop for pet care with 5000+ products (food, apparel, toys & accessories) and top-line of more than INR 80 cr. in FY 2021 (YTD Dec). Another pet care company Supertails was also recently funded by DSG Consumer Partners. Other players include Dogspot.in, Waggle.in, Doggie Dabbas.
With this latest funding, HUFT aims to increase its distribution paw prints, accelerate new product development, and develop educational content around pet wellness.
👩🍳 Curefoods rock n ‘rolling’ with cloud kitchens
Do you get 1:00 a.m. munchies like us? Well, we sure are glad for cloud kitchens coming to the rescue. Cloud kitchens are nothing but cooking facilities with no physical dining space; they only cater to online delivery orders e.g. Faasos, Box 8 - a market that is expected to reach USD 21.41 bn by 2026. Nom Nom Wow!
Curefoods by Cure.fit, is aggregating and incubating cloud kitchen brands into a single platform (roll-up like Thrasio), and challenging the Zomato-Swiggy duopoly. Launched in 2020, Curefoods just raised USD 13 mn. It has close to 25 kitchens across 4 cities in India and competes with the likes of Rebel Foods which has 350+ cloud kitchens in India and is actively using IoT to scale.
🚺 India’s fem-tech moment is finally here
The last few years have witnessed many fem-care brands like Pee Safe, Nua, Oziva, &Me. However, women healthcare has deeper needs. A recent response to this gap has been the growth of fem-tech start-ups that use software solutions for period, diet and PCOS monitoring, consultations, self help and more. In India alone, ~40 fem-tech startups were founded in last 3 yrs, per Tracxn (Elda Health, MyAva, Veera). The pandemic has been a tailwind for telemedicine, which is a key offering of these fem-tech startups.
There is a huge opportunity for fem-care and fem-tech companies to collaborate to provide holistic health solutions including subscription-based products, consultations and community building.
P.S: September is PCOS awareness month (read more here).
🗞️Bewakoof knows how to stay in the news
Bewakoof, a youth-oriented fashion brand founded by Prabhkiran Singh in 2012, has been creating a constant buzz in 2021, from its partnership with Dukaan to creating a social commerce platform or launching a cosmetics brand Cosmos. Now, it’s again in the news for picking up INR 60 cr. funding led by InvestCorp, with an aim to clock INR 2,000 cr. in sales by 2025.
Bewakoof plans to introduce activewear and innerwear categories, and scale Cosmos with this new influx of funding. The brand has served 6 mn customers to date and continues to add over 100,000 new customers every month. Bewakoof is a perfect example of a lean D2C brand that quickly adapts to prevailing market trends to stay relevant and profitable e.g. selling masks, athleisure wear during pandemic.
Brands that caught our eye!
🧼 Milkman delivery for soap
With the aim of controlling the growing waste problem, Refillable has built a sustainable system involving everyday use home care products like detergent liquid, toilet cleaner etc. After the initial purchase of these products from Refillable, all a customer needs to do is book Refillable’s online service, and its team will go to customer’s doorstep, disinfect the used container, refill it as per the order and hurray, a bottle ready for the customer to use and one bottle less from entering the landfill.
💘 Speed dating consumer brands
One of the biggest hurdles faced by D2C brands is consumers being skeptical of trying new products. Smytten provides a solution to this problem by facilitating trials of D2C brands for customers on its online marketplace.
Consumers can get free/ nominally priced samples of brands across beauty, food and wellness categories on the platform. Smytten offers samples of more than 700 brands like Mamaearth, Plum, Mcaffeine. This sample-first method can change the way brands interact with their potential consumers and lead to better engagement, targeted marketing.
Trend of the week: Hemp🌿
Hemp is a variety of cannabis sativa plant - there is more to hemp than just marijuana/ bhaang and it can do a lot more than just getting you high!
Hemp has 20,000+ Industrial applications including medicine, proteins, clothing, cosmetics, pet products and oil. The Global industrial Hemp market size was estimated at USD 4.71 billion in 2019 and is expected to register a revenue based CAGR of 15.8%.
Many brands in India realised the potential of this wonder fibre and have set up profitable businesses around hemp👇
Reads & Recommendations
How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1,000 users by Lenny Rachitsky
To get good startup ideas, look for anomalies, by Paras Chopra
Direct to a Billion Consumers, Deepak’s Shahdadpuri’s interview with Arjun Vaidya (they discuss upcoming business trends)
That’s all for this week!
Stay tuned for more insights about the D2C start-ups in India. Do share your feedback.
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Insightful!