Beer Goggles

Trees for Fashion, Community Masala, Meaty Competition

GlobalBees

Oct 19

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Hello! 👋

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

This weekend got the better of us. We got a bit late, but we got you covered on the D2C front. Let’s get to it then.

What’s sizzling hot? 🔥

D2C brands are not just about the David and Goliath story. There are stories about making the world a better place. Brands have taken to planting trees, educating children, co-creating with the community and much more. Here' are some examples we came across:

Trees for Fashion: A fashion brand from Goa -No Nasties, acknowledges fashion being one of the most polluting industries and goes out to offset its carbon footprint for every piece of clothing . The company has planted over 75,000 (whoa) trees and is transparent about how it has been making offsetting its carbon footprint by 300%
What's Up Wellness donates 1% of its revenue every month to Give India's Every Girl In School mission, where money donated goes to the education of underprivileged girls. They have been doing this since day 0, last month were able to help 55+ girls go to school!
Besides getting men to look good, The Man Company shares stories of ordinary gentlemen who have done extraordinary work for society. Stories that change lives. Stories that build confidence.
Stuff from The Plated Project has adorned many walls. (makes for a great Diwali gift too btw). The company claims that it is a place where art joins hands with commerce and impact to create social innovation. It has sponsored over 550,000+ meals for malnutritioned children till date.
Community Masala: Naario is a community-first brand where everything is co-created and co-marketed by homemakers. On hearing a “Log kya kahenge is umar me business!”, Anamika decided to help her mom and the 17 million other Indian homemakers to carve an identity for themselves while making the best of food products available to all!

🗞️Marketplace Updates

Metaverse Everything: Flipkart is launching a dedicated virtual shopping experience called ‘Flipverse’ as part of its Diwali sale. The pilot experience will be live on the company’s Android app starting today till the end of the week. The ‘metaverse’ style experience can be accessed by users to interact with select brands in a virtual, 3D-style setting.
Fashion retailer V-Mart Retail (V-Mart) has acquired e-commerce platform LimeRoad for a lump sum cash of around Rs 31.12 crore. It further plans to invest Rs 150 crore to scale and achieve sustained profitability. LimeRoad had raised over $51 million. The company clocked in 1.7 crore value shoppers and achieved a gross merchandise value of more than Rs 700 crore.
Vikas Purohit steps down as the CEO of Tata Cliq. Purohit joined Tata Cliq in 2016 from Paytm. Before that Purohit spent more than three years at Amazon India building its fashion business.
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Online grocery delivery organization, Blinkit has launched its first silent store in Laxmi Nagar area of the national capital. This store is operated by 20 specially abled individuals who are unable to hear and speak.

🍕D2C Bites

Ready to Deploy: The OG and early-stage consumer-focused venture capital fund Fireside Ventures raised $225 million. Verlinvest is now embarking on being the kick-starter LP in a new VC fund dubbed V3 Ventures. Its moneybags are Euro 100M heavy
Hyderabad in Good Health: Hyderabad-based D2C healthtech startup Good Health Company has raised $10 million in a Series A round. With a focus on raising awareness about health and wellness, the startup provides a full-stack solution for patients with conditions like hair fall, sexual health, and weight loss, amongst others.
Unmeat: Licious is entering the plant-based meat market with the launch of its first portfolio brand, UnCrave. On the unicorn's menu are ‘chick-n’ and ‘mutt-n’ seekh kebabs, purely vegetarian!
Meaty Competition: Meanwhile US-Based Beyond Meat Enters Indian Market to sell its mock meat products in India. Plenty of Options for the vegetarians ( and for the non-veg converts).
Beer Goggles: Domestic premium beermaker Bira 91 has acquired India's largest alcobev chain, The Beer Cafe, in an all-stock deal that will make the pub chain a fully-owned subsidiary of Bira 91.

📢Leader Speak

Get the latest on what D2C Founders and Leaders had to say this week!

“We don’t want to be a ‘just profitable’ business. We want to be a well-profitable business,” - Peyush Bansal, Founder Lenskart

“We don’t follow trends and we will stay sharply focussed on B2B opportunities” - Harshil Mathur, Co-founder Razorpay

Reads and Recommendations 📚

Getting the creative right. Testing Creatives, Meme and taking cues from Hollywood.
12 hidden gem websites to visit when you are bored + to learn new skills
A chaet sheet for building gamification
The case of coupons. Here’s how the coupon mania started.
Gaurav Munjal @gauravmunjal
Great companies not just build great products, they also invent new ways to market their products.
7:32 AM ∙ Oct 11, 2022
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💪Gym Gear

It’s always a good time to load up on gym gear. We’ve got you covered. Load up with this selection of gear that covers yoga mats, skipping ropes, grip strengtheners and even gallon bottles.