Hello! 👋

D2C Pulse is a newsletter written by the team at GlobalBees, curating happenings in the direct-to-consumer ecosystem of India.

Have you been “keeping up with” the newest venture capitalist in town? Yes, Kim K! She has entered the PE space along with former executive of The Carlyle Group. This doesn’t come as surprise as Ye’s ex has built several brands of her own, including Skims and KKW Beauty!

What’s sizzling hot? 🔥

🗞️Marketplace Updates

• Online pharmacy platform Tata 1mg has become India’s 107th (whoever is counting now) unicorn after raising nearly $40 million in a funding round led by Tata Digital. Apart from selling to consumers directly, 1mg also targets corporates, OPD in insurance, and patient support programs in partnership with pharma companies. At present, 1mg claims to deliver 31 mn orders a month across 20,000 pin codes in the country.

• Flipkart’s app has gone through a major upgrade. Plenty of new stuff, like:

  • Brand Mall Mode - for online shoppers looking to buy premium products.

  • A new Image search feature where users can take a screenshot of the outfit or item they are looking for.

  • Live commerce to discover new products and learn about them in detail through influencer-led interactive video content.

  • There’s a virtual try-on feature.

  • Also, Flipkart has forayed into hospitality sector with the launch of hotel booking feature.

🍕D2C Bites

• 🐮Bengaluru-based organic dairy products manufacturer Akshayakalpa Organic has secured $15 million as a part of its funding round led by British International Investment. The company offers milk and milk products that are free from antibiotics, synthetic additives, and chemical pesticide residues.

  The startup works with 750 farmer families, has over 550 rmployees and reaches over 60,000 consumers daily, with its offering, via its direct delivery platform, 2000 retail outlets, and e-commerce platforms (whoa!) .

• 🐶Papa Pawsome, a petcare products company whose range of products including flagship shampoos, oils, creams, silicone-free serums and spa kits for doggos and cats has raised USD 250K. Papa Pawsome offers breed-specific and concern-specific kits. 

• 🍩Noida based, retail tech startup Daalchini, which offers smart vending machines to hundreds of brands in India, has raised $4 million to establish autonomous smart stores and vending machines.

💰India’s B2B Ecommerce Story

India's B2B e-commerce market is expected to reach a whopping $90-100 bn in GMV by 2030, as per a Redseet report! This growth is led by players like Udaan, Jiomart etc. (the former currently sits with 46% market share). E-B2B’s contribution in the $1.4 tn general trade play is increasing as it becomes a strong digital procurement solution, with wide category and national coverage.

E-B2B platforms are resolving pain points of general trade viz. higher prices, no credit option, untimely delivery, and low quality of products, among others, esp in order to access underserved markets as a replacement for ineffective traditional distributors.

For our D2C buddies - eB2B is not far away from becoming another de-facto channel for brand marketing and ad spends for scaling brands.

☠️The Watch-dog ‘bites’

• The government has finalised a draft framework of standards and how to counter fake reviews and unverified star ratings on e-commerce websites. This comes after the rampant practice of fake or unverified reviews makes it impossible for consumers to differentiate between actual and paid reviews of products.

🏮Gearing up for the festive season

• Ecommerce firms like Amazon India and Flipkart have conveyed to their sellers to prepare for the upcoming festive season sale as they expect a noteworthy change in consumer sentiments potentially resulting in 30-100% ( higher sales during the Diwali sales this year compared to last year.

• Myntra is looking to hire 16,000 temporary workers as it prepares for the expanded demand of the festive season. These jobs will be primarily focused on delivery, logistics, warehouse handling, and customer support roles.

It’s officially time to ride the bull!

Brands that caught our eye 👀

🍸A Stort to Tell

Produced by Third Eye Distillery (the good folks behind Stranger & Sons gin and Svami), Short Story, is a new alco bev brand. Checkout the affordable, high-quality range of spirits - rum, vodka and gin variants, The highlights are minimalist packaging, and ingredients:

• triple distilled grain vodka, that’s been filtered through charcoal

• classic juniper and citrus forward pot-distilled London Dry gin

• natured white rum blended with Indian molasses rum

🌶️A Saucy tale

Woodstreet sauce co. offers a range of small-batch sauces and condiments, inspired by condiments from around the globe, and made with locally sourced ingredients. Its offering includes Gizhou-style chilli crisp sauce, fermented fresno chilli sauce, black pepper wok sauce, korean bbq sauce, salsa brava, scallian cilantro salsa verde.

Trend of the week📈: Street-wear 👕

Adidas Originals to Supreme are OGs of streetwear but lately, Indian streetwear brands have been burgeoning and budding owing to their unique representation of Indian culture, aesthetics, style and comfort. Here are some of the most exciting streetwear brands in India at the moment:

Reads and Recommendations 📚

• The story of Nike’s Logo. Yep Nike paid just $35 for it

• The A to Z of ONDC's commission structure

That’s all for this week!

Stay tuned for more insights about the D2C ecosystem in India.

• PS: D2C Startup Folks, ping us if you want your startup covered.

• PPS: VC Folks ping us if you want us to mention any upcoming D2C events

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