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

“10x Growth In India’s E-Marketplaces” - The headline number from a Bessemer Venture Partners report. The report notes that in its next phase, India will see new millennials comprising a bigger chunk of women than before, households, SMEs (small and medium enterprises), and population from tier-II cities and beyond, jump to online marketplaces.

Interestingly, the report bifurcates e-marketplaces into new consumer marketplaces including the likes of Nykaa, Spinny, etc; direct-to-consumer (D2C) marketplaces such as Faballey, Clovia, among others, and business-to-business (B2B) ones likes Moglix, Zetwerk, among others, which cumulatively represent a $1 trillion opportunity.  

🗞️Marketplace Updates

• To make ends meat. Swiggy shuts down its meat marketplace and lays of 300+ employees. The company cited challenging macroeconomic conditions and overhiring in 2021 as the primary reason for team rationalisation.

• Stores, Supermarkets and Hypermarkets. Amazon, Samara Capital pump Rs 300 crore into More Retail. More Retail management has recently told ET that the company is planning for an initial public offering over the next 12-18 months. More Retail operates 881 supermarkets and 42 hypermarkets with plans to set up around 100 new stores, including ten hypermarkets, this fiscal. Last fiscal, it opened 129 supermarkets and 11 hypermarkets.

• Whoa! Udaan shipped over 1.7 billion products across 1,200 cities in 2022. The company said that it is witnessing good growth across food, FMCG, electronics, lifestyle, general merchandise and pharma verticals. About 586 sellers sold products worth ₹1 crore on the Udaan platform in 2022. As many as 120 of these sellers were from the lifestyle segment, and 219 were from the general merchandise business. The platform has over 3 million retailers and thousands of sellers on the platform across the country.

• Furni-Tech Technology has been a game changer for Pepperfry. Building a consistent omnichannel customer experience using tech, using augmented reality and leveraging machine learning in multiple areas helped the company set itself apart from the competition. Know more here.

• Go get em’ B2B e-commerce company, IndiaMart Intermesh reported a rise of 60.68 per cent in its consolidated net profit to Rs 112.8 crore for the quarter that ended Dec 2022. More numbers by the company:

  • 165 million buyers

  • 7.4 million registered sellers

  • 1,94,000 paid customer subscribers

• Disclosure norms tightened for social media influencers. Social media influencers will soon have to mandatorily disclose sponsored posts as paid content if there is a material connection between them and a brand, failing which, they can be prohibited from publishing for six months and face a penalty of Rs 10 lakh and upto Rs 50 lakh (😲) for repeated offence, according to the new social media influencer guidelines published by the government.

🍕D2C Bites

• Malaika Arora Backs D2C Healthy Dessert Startup Get-A-Whey. The development comes about a month after Biryani By Kilo infused $2 Mn to acquire a majority stake in Get-A-Whey. Get-A-Whey plans to introduce keto cheesecakes, vegan gelatos, and other healthy desserts in one to two months. The startup will use the incoming funds to expand its offline and online footprint across India.

• Milk Bridge. D2C dairy brand Sid's Farm raises $1 million in a bridge round from its customers. The company shall use this fund for new product development, infrastructure upgrades, deeper retail penetration and digital transformation in order to gear up for future trajectory.

• Brass n Gold, Jewellery Firm Amama secured seed funding of $250,000 from venture capital fund She Capital. Ttarted by Nikita Gupta as a hand-embroidered jewellery company in 2018, last year it rolled out 22kt gold plated brass jewellery. Currently, it has an 80-member team and aims to launch its accessory line soon. 

• FMCG Giants’ love for D2C continues. ITC is all set to acquire Yoga Bar (💌) to expand its presence in fast-growing healthy foods space. ITC said this deal is in line with its ‘ITC Next’ strategy that focuses on building a future-ready portfolio of products that serve evolving consumer needs. Sproutlife Foods ( YogaBar) had clocked Rs 68 crore sales in 2021-22. The company has built a product portfolio of nutrition bars, muesli, oats and cereals with a high salience of online sales and a growing presence in offline stores.

• Trim n Scape. Pune-based direct-to-consumer personal care brand Zlade has secured $1.5 million in a fresh fundraise from a clutch of investors. Founded in 2015, Zlade offers a range of products including manscaping trimmers, intimate hygiene solutions, razors and shaving essentials, among others. Currently, it has over 10,000 retail outlets and aims to grow physical presence to 30,000 retail outlets by FY24. 

📢Leader Speak

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

Reads and Recommendations 📚

• A brief history of predicting shorter weeks

• What makes Sharks take the bait? The pointers that sharks keep in mind while evaluating participants on Shark Tank India, the deals and investments made so far, and how the show is helping in making entrepreneurship mainstream in India.

• Why the era of happy tech workers is over now? For nearly two decades, tech cos heralded an approach that centered on making workers happy with benefits that were intended to seamlessly integrate work and life. They made well-being programs and unlimited vacation, initiatives that prioritized the whole person, standard employee benefits. But now that's changing very fast. 😟

• But music lives forever. Watch the animated graph here

⛄What’s new?

Here’s some awesome stuff that really got us excited:

• 🧦Diabetes socks. With over Over 74 million adults living with diabetes in India diabetic socks are a miracle. They come with extra cushioning, reducing the chances of any injuries. Prolonged diabetes can cause nerve damage that results in reduced sensation of injuries and cuts. These socks help reduce swelling, increase blood circulation and reduce fatigue caused by several chronic health issues.

• 🪑These gaming chairs are a rage. Upgrade your gaming setup with the Interceptor Gaming Chair today.

• ✈️Flying can be Boeing at times. Check out these awesome travel luggage options from The Clownfish:

  • Kenzo series

  • Ballard Series (love the yellow one)

  • Denzel Series

  • Stark Series (our favourite)

That’s all for this week! Bye!

Stay tuned for more.

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