👋 Hey!

GlobalBees D2C Pulse is back with exciting new content on 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!

Stick till the end of the newsletter, we come bearing goodies for ya! 🎁

What’s in the news?

🤳Shopify for Creatopreneurs

“Every entrepreneur wants to be a creator, and every creator wants to be an entrepreneur”.

That’s why HYPD is enabling creators to monetize their fan base by turning their content into a multi-brand store. Yup, Shopify for Creatopreneurs. Essentially, affiliate marketing is getting a snazzy makeover👇 Given the valuation of the Indian influencer market (USD 75- 150 mn), HYPD has attracted USD 1.5mn investment from funds like Sauce VC, creators like Tanmay Bhat & Ranveer Allahbadia, and D2C founders of Bombay Shaving, Epigamia etc.

🚤 All aboard the boAt IPO

boAt becomes India’s 1st D2C brand heading for a public listing, with its plans to raise INR 2000 cr. boAt started off with selling affordable accessories & earphones and in 9 years its product range expanded to include headphones, speakers, and smartwatches. Credit goes to its cult-like following, carefully built through celebrities collab and marketing. With boAt’s brand power and profitable operations, people can’t seem to wait to get their hands on its share allotment! Here’s a quick look at its financials and YoY growth%.

Other prominent brands planning to get on the trading floor shortly from D2C space include Fabindia, Swiggy, and Delhivery.

💰Niches - a path to ultra-riches

D2C brands tend to kick off their journey with a niche category, targeting a specific audience; once they achieve affinity amongst that audience, they begin to broaden their product portfolio to get bigger market share, while staying true to their brand ethos.

Look at Mamaearth - started as an organic baby care brand and now offers products across the skincare category. Similarly, Oziva entered the skincare space and Wow entered the wellness space. Recently, Kapiva (ayurvedic brand) ventured into vegan women beauty food segment. PS: Our very own brand andMe is also expanding its portfolio to become a holistic women wellness and beauty care brand. More on this later. Stay tuned!

⏲️ Quickies

1. MemeChat gets USD 1 mn funding to tap into massive demand for meme content in India, helping people create, share, and even make memes. 

2. Crisps and ice cream got a healthy makeover with TagZ Foods and Good Fettle raising seed funds, respectively.

3. Cloud kitchen brand aggregator Curefoods announced its merger with cloud kitchen (Swiggy-backed) Maverix, becoming the 2nd largest cloud kitchen in the country.

Brands that caught our eye!

👨‍🎨 Food for thought

Art stirs conversations - aiming to make dinner table and living room conversations more interesting joyous, The Plated Project is reimagining everyday objects (starting with plates as wall decor/dinner set). It is giving plates a twist of beautiful art, with each of its plates’ artwork having a message or a story behind it. The brand also donates meals to the needy from the proceeds of every plate it sells. Take a look👇

🧼Are we living in a bubble?

Soap bars are proving to be more eco-friendly than shampoos. Face & body washes require less packaging and have fewer controversial ingredients like microbeads. Soap Spell is offering handcrafted cold-processed soap bars devoid of any chemicals. Its variants include shot of espresso, honey aloe, and lemon zest. Sounds scrumptious! Imma confused now- gulp or rub?

Trend of the week: Sexual Wellness 👫

While sex has remained a taboo for many Indians, there’s a growing awareness for sexual wellness and seeking help to solve sex problems among urban Indians. India's sexual wellness market is largely dominated by condoms which are projected to become a USD 180 mn market by 2022. Other product categories include self-pleasure devices, performance enhancers, etc.

These new categories are still at a nascent stage and have yet to take up a significant market share. Here’s our list of prominent brands in this space:

Reads & Recommendations

1. The New Normal: Looking at search terms before and after the start of the pandemic to define what is the new normal.

2. Euromonitor’s Trends to Watch Closely in 2022. Key Highlights include Pursuit of Preloved: Secondhand shopping, The Great Life Refresh: Focus on personal growth and wellbeing

3. 60 ideas to boost your brand’s growth.

4. Booby Kooka, the man who created Air India’s Maharaja mascot also created a meme-full Airline Booklet called Foolishly Yours.

Goodies for D2C Pulse Readers 🎁

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That’s all for today!

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

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