🍺🥤Beer & Juice
D2C Introspect, Cricketers ❤️ D2C, Fireside's Home, Amazon's Tez
Hi Surgies 👋
It’s been a week of introspection for the D2C world with Mamearth and boAt’s numbers coming in a week ago. The Arc summarises this well with the question “India’s popular consumer brands are trying to address a pivotal question: does their growth rest on a sustainable product-market fit, or was it merely the result of aggressive marketing and inventory dumping?“
The challenges aren’t limited to marketing. Several brands are reassessing their offline model and scaling back store expansion or closing outlets to balance growth with profitability. Additionally, many brands have targeted urban shoppers seeking ‘affordable premium’ products, but this cohort has proven smaller than expected, constraining growth. Premiumisation then?
🗞️Marketplace Buzz
Thats Tez! Amazon India is gearing up to launch its quick commerce delivery service, codenamed 'Tez,' by late December or early next year. Earlier, the company aimed to roll out the service in the first quarter of 2025 but is now keen to accelerate the process. The service is expected to focus on groceries and daily essentials initially.
Perplexity launched its shopping experience last week for users in the USA. It looks promising with a one-click checkout, multimodal experiences ( snap and buy ) and product comparisons. The company has even launched a merchant program to make it easy for large retailers to share their product specs. Additionally, the discovery experience is powered by platform integrations including Shopify, which gives access to the most recent and relevant information on products across Shopify-powered businesses globally that sell and ship to the US. Check out their blog for more details or give it a spin here.
Quick commerce major Zepto reaffirmed its position as the most heavily backed startup of the year by bagging a mega cheque of $350 Mn. This marks the third fund-raise by the quick commerce startup this year as investors rush to take a slice of the growing market for rapid deliveries.
Ok then! Tata CLiQ, the e-commerce platform, has undergone a rebranding, changing its name to Tata CLiQ Fashion. This shift also marks a move away from a broader marketplace approach to a more focused platform specializing in fashion and lifestyle products. Along with a complete visual redesign, the platform has introduced a new brand manifesto, packaging, and refreshed both its app and web experience. Hoping it takes off now.
Bengaluru-based 10-minute food-delivery startup Swish has raised $2 million in its maiden funding round. The funds will be used for expanding operations and scaling its delivery model across most areas of Bengaluru, with plans to extend into other tier-1 cities.
After quick commerce, fast food delivery is buzzing. Last month, food delivery platform Swiggy rolled out a 10-minute food delivery service Bolt, while Zepto is also scaling up its cafe business--which sells coffee, croissants and other items--across the country aiming to hit an annualised revenue run rate of Rs 1,000 crore within next financial year.
Same-day delivery platform Blitz raised $3 million in funding. Founded in 2020 by Gaurav Piyush, Mayank Varshney and Yash Sharma, Blitz provides logistics support to quick commerce across 10 cities. The firm, earlier known as Grow Simplee, said it would use the funds to expand its network of dark stores and improve its technology infrastructure. Blitz claims to offer same-day delivery for orders placed before 3 pm.
Medicine Problem: PharmEasy has reported a 14.7% decline in its revenue for FY24 to Rs 5,664 crore from Rs 6,644 crore in FY23, while its net loss halved to Rs 2,533 crore from Rs 5,212 crore. Amid growing competition in the quick commerce space, which aims to deliver medicines in 10 minutes, PharmEasy had recently come together with Swiggy Instamart for the latter to fulfil medicine delivery in hyperlocal format.
🍕D2C Snippets
Omnichannel nutrition platform HealthKart has raised $153 million. The company owns multiple digital-first nutrition brands including MuscleBlaze, HKVitals and Gritzo. In FY24, the company crossed the Rs 1,000 crore revenue milestone and achieved full-year EBITDA profitability. Apart from its online presence, the firm has over 200 retail stores across 90 cities.
Skincare startup Conscious Chemist raised Rs 12 crore. Founded in 2019 by Robin Gupta and Prakher Mathur, Conscious Chemist is a beauty D2C brand operating in the skincare category. With this additional funding, it aims to enhance product development, supply chain, marketing, and expand its digital presence.
Juice Good: Paper Boat’s revenue from operations increased to Rs 585 crore in FY24 from Rs 504 crore in FY23. The soft drinks and beverages manufacturer improved its bottom line by cutting its losses by 48% in the same period. Launched by former Coca-Cola executives Neeraj Kakkar and Niraj Biyani, Paper Boat sells packaged juices, coconut water, traditional Indian snacks, and dry fruits.
Beer Better: Proost, a homegrown beer startup co-founded in 2017 by Tarun Bhargava and Vijay P. Sharma, has raised Rs 30 crore. Proost is an innovative beer brand that aims to disrupt the Indian beer market. Its beers are known for their premium quality, low bitterness, and high drinkability. The brand is targeting a 5% market share in the Indian beer industry by the end of the decade, backed by innovation, customer-centric product development, and strategic market expansion.
Pillow Talk: The Sleep Company’s revenue soared 2.5X to Rs 312 Cr in FY24. The company’s growth was primarily driven by its flagship mattress segment which contributed 65% to the revenue and surged by 89% to Rs 203.69 crore in FY24. It is worth noting that mattresses are the only finished goods sold by the company. The rest are traded goods which include chairs, pillows and beds -soared 5.6X to Rs 108.6 crore in FY24. The startup has 100 company-owned, company-operated stores and plans to add another 100 stores by FY26.
Flower Power: Popular online gifting platform Ferns and Petal’s operating revenue increased to Rs 705.4 crore in FY24 from Rs 607.3 crore in FY23 while its losses dropped by 77% in the same period. Sales of products such as cakes, flowers, and gifts were the primary contributors, accounting for 91% of the operating revenue, which increased by 15%. Ferns N Petals sells products through its website, third-party e-commerce platforms, company-owned stores and franchises.
📢Infographica
Cricketers ❤️ D2C (among other startups)
🚩Insights
Fireside Venture’s thesis on the Home category. TLDR:
New home buyers are brand-conscious, place a strong emphasis on design, and discover trends and products on social media.
Renovators most often focus on the kitchen, followed by the living room and the bathroom.
Casual buyers are shopping for home décor, or linens, or small gadgets just as they would shop for clothes or personal care.
Hybrid work has created multi-functional spaces in every home that double – or triple! – up as office, study, and lounge.
Sustainability is an expression of independence as new-age consumers reject plastic, pursue cleaner air and purer water, and demand energy efficiency in all aspects.
Consumers are moving from utility-led brands to design-led brands, and brands are starting to leverage design or “smart” features as differentiators.
📚Reads and Recommendations
A playbook to rule them all. Check out the latest Guidebook for Digital Native Brands by Meta with contributions from leading D2C investors like Fireside, Sauce and DSG.
Amazon Marketing Cloud is a feature factory. A ton of fun stuff is being launched every week. Check out a new way to measure campaign success - Long Term Sales or check out Campaign performance by user funnel stages.
The noise around the Jaguar rebrand was pretty loud with all the bashing going on. Almost anyone and everyone took a swipe. Meanwhile…
Insta Reset: Instagram now has an option to nuke the algorithm and start fresh with all new Recommendations Reset for your Feed, Reels and Explore. The option is available to you, it’s under Settings > Content Preferences > Reset Suggested Content.
This one’s for all the D2C designers who recently signed up. Check out Canva’s 2025 Design Trends report with aesthetics such Opulence Era, Analog meets AI and Serious Fun.
That’s all for this week! Bye!
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