Ashneer Grover stated in his letter of resignation to the board: “I’m writing this with a heavy heart since I’m being forced to leave a firm that I founded today. With my head held high, I declare that this company is now a leader in the fintech industry. Unfortunately, since the beginning of 2022, I’ve been the target of a few individuals who are willing to hurt not only me and my reputation, but also the company’s reputation, which they claim to be protecting.”

The news comes days after Moneycontrol revealed that the Singapore International Arbitration Centre had rejected BharatPe co-founder Grover’s emergency arbitration request, disputing the firm’s intention to conduct a governance review (SIAC).

In an interview with Moneycontrol, Grover questioned the board’s intention to initiate a governance review.

“My query to the board is as follows. Why did a governance review become necessary in the first place? “

Statement by Ashneer Grover

Grover also raised concerns about media leaks when portions of Alvarez and Marsal’s audit report circulated on social media.

Grover wrote in his resignation letter: “I’ve gone from being hailed as the face of Indian entrepreneurship and encouragement to Indian youth to start their own enterprises to squandering my time fighting my own investors and management. Unfortunately, the management has lost sight of what is really at issue – BharatPe – in this war.”

BharatPe announced on January 28 that it had hired Alvarez to conduct a governance review of the company. The following week, the company disclosed that it had also hired PwC.

Moneycontrol also claimed that bringing PwC on board after hiring Alvarez was a step toward terminating the employment of Madhuri Jain Grover and Ashneer Grover, as their dismissal can only occur when a report from a Big 4 audit firm indicts them.

Inconsistencies in contacts with vendors were discovered, according to a preliminary assessment completed by Alvarez in January. Payments to vendors and consultants that were not made, but were flagged in the report.

At the troubled fintech BharatPe, accusations and counter-accusations have become the new normal. The company accused Ashneer Grover of spreading false information, which it says is inappropriate for a managing director. Shortly after, he launched an attack on the chairman of the board of directors Rajnish Kumar and co-founder Bhavik Koladiya, alleging the governance review was riddled with prejudice.

“You have been distributing false and accusatory material about the company’s senior management to the family members and/or spouses of the said senior management members. Such heinous behaviour on your side is entirely unjustified, and the company strongly opposes it. You are once again being asked to stop disseminating incorrect and provocative information against members of the company’s senior management. Your behaviour in this regard is entirely unworthy of a company’s managing director. “On February 22, the firm responded to Grover’s email with a letter.

According to the firm, Grover allegedly reached out to the wives of those under investigation. Although it did not explain the information–it was referring.

I am now wasting myself fighting a long, lonely battle against my own investors and management.- GROVER

Ashneer Grover

However, after accusing Kumar, a banking veteran and former chairman of SBI, Grover claimed to be biased and prejudiced. He added that Koladiya had phoned him for a meeting and was hostile with him during a verbal chat over the phone and that he reserves the right to take necessary legal action.

While the firm has accepted Grover’s call with Koladiya, it has denied Grover’s assertion that it took place at Kumar’s home. BharatPe said that the audio recording he released does not correspond to the corporation’s “official contact” with him, calling it a personal chat between Koladiya and Grover.

Grover had taken a leave of absence until the end of March due to anger over his aggressive language toward a Kotak employee, BharatPe’s unhealthy culture, and bold behaviour. Following Grover’s footsteps, his wife took a leave of absence too.

For sites like PayTM, PhonePe, and GooglePay, BharatPe has been a fierce competitor in the UPI industry. His resignation came just days after his wife, Madhuri Jain Grover, accused senior management of being unprofessional and was fired from her position as head of controls.

The internet is scrambling to process this knowledge, and social media is awash with memes and advice for the guy.

Ashneer had previously taken a leave of absence when an audio recording surfaced of him scolding a Kotak employee for missing the Nykaa IPO allotment. While his followers may be surprised by his resignation, it’s clear that he made a planned action after determining the best outcome for his situation.

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Also in the food and grocery industry, which has a major offline portion, new purchasing patterns have emerged in the last year. The success of direct-to-consumer (D2C) food brands, as well as the rapid expansion of online grocers, attest to this.

But what if cutting-edge technology could be combined with conventional supermarket shopping practises to provide customers with the best of both worlds?

VegEase is the creation of eGreen Farms, a food retail company based in Delhi that was established in 2018. Mayank Chaurasia, the company’s founder, began developing VegEase well before the pandemic began. However, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, its introduction was pushed back. The platform was finally launched in January 2021.

What problems does VegEase solve?

Essentially, VegEase provides a future-ready experience for purchasing farm-fresh fruits and vegetables, in which customers can book a grocery cart on the app (similar to booking a cab), wait for it to arrive at their door, and handpick the best stock themselves.

VegEase employs specialized supply logistics to deliver exclusive carts containing 70-80 SKUs at the customer’s defined time slot. The carts are organized by localities/sectors.

Mayank, the company’s founder, says:

Unlike other online grocery platforms that require consumers to pre-order products and have them shipped, VegEase allows customers to touch, sound, and handpick the fruits and vegetables at the time of purchase.

They do just what they will do in a typical mandi, but from the comfort of their own homes. “We’re keeping the old thela tradition alive, but in a new package,” Mayank says.

He goes on to clarify the need for such a service, saying,

Furthermore, VegEase seeks to address the issue of differential pricing across neighbourhoods and localities by providing premium goods at standardised rates.

Early expansion and activities

VegEase is currently available in Delhi and Gurugram, and will expand to other northern cities by May. By the end of the year, the startup hopes to have a pan-India footprint (20 metros and Tier 1 cities).

It currently has 100 or so working vans (carts) and plans to increase that number to 1,800 to 2,000 by December as it expands into new cities. Each van is run by a cart captain (VegEase’s own delivery fleet), who can be reached through the app.

In less than three months, the bootstrapped company claims to have amassed a user base of over 5,000. It processes over 200 orders per month, with an average ticket size of Rs 400-500, and aims to generate Rs 200 crore in revenue from 1.5 lakh customers by March 2022.

VegEase has also built two warehouses of 90,000 square feet each in Delhi and Gurugram, with a third expected to open soon.

The startup sources its goods directly from FPOs and farmers across the world. Although leafy vegetables and fruits are sourced daily, less perishable products such as potatoes and onions are stored in warehouses for longer periods of time. VegEase also offers unusual vegetables such as cabbage, broccoli, and zucchini.

According to Arpit Katta, CFO of VegEase,

“When consumers see a cart full of fresh fruits and vegetables at their door or inside their apartment complex, they often end up buying more,” Arpit adds.

Future plans and the market landscape

VegEase is only in its early stages in a highly competitive retail market. According to RedSeer, online grocery is expected to be a $18 billion industry in India by 2024. Grocery, on the other hand, has the thinnest margins in the industry.

It does not have many domestic counterparts yet, but the service appears to be modelled after FarmDrop in London and CornerShop in Chile.

Also Read: Ultraviolette, an electric bike startup, expects to raise up to $75 million

“We want local grocers and mandi guys to partner with us in the future,” the creator says. On average, they have a fleet of five carts, all of which they own. We’ll send them the fruits and vegetables, and they’ll deliver them to your door.”

“The only thing we can not outsource is product quality,” he declares.

VegEase is also expanding its hiring around the country.

Currently, 75 percent of its 200-person staff is employed by the organisation.

The startup has invested around Rs 10 crore so far and will seek funding in a year and a half.

“What VegEase is offering is a grocery buying method where touch and feel is the USP,” Mayank summarises. That, too, from the comfort and security of your own home.”

The post This bootstrapped company delivers a shopping cart to your door in less than 20 minutes appeared first on Bharat Details.

“The funds raised will be used to put the prototype bikes into production over the next three quarters, scale up operations, expand the team, and further invest in the R&D of in-house developed lithium-ion battery technology,” said one of the three, who did not want to be identified.

“Manufacturing electric vehicles is a very capital-intensive industry. This means it’s not just about early-stage research and development, growth capital, or international expansion. There are many phases that a business must go through. This is just the beginning for us “Ultraviolette Automotive founder and CTO Niraj Rajmohan declined to reveal specifics of the proposed fundraise.

Ultraviolette is in talks with a number of potential partners who can assist the company beyond its primary financing needs.

In November of last year, the Bangalore-based startup unveiled pre-production models of the first electric motorcycle, the F77. Ultraviolet’s founders hope to place the bike as India’s first performance-oriented electric motorcycle, with prices ranging from Rs 3-3.25 lakh on-road.

As a result, it is unable to take advantage of government incentives provided under the Fame-2 programme (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles in India). Subsidies are available under Fame 2 for electric two-wheelers that cost less than $150,000.

Because of the pandemic, the commercial launch of F77 has been postponed until mid-next year.

Also Read: Medkart, headquartered in Ahmedabad, aims to lower the medical bills with generic drugs

TVS Motor, led by Venu Srinivasan, increased its stake in Ultraviolette from 25.76 percent to 29.48 percent last month by investing an additional 30 crore as part of the company’s series B funding.

Last fiscal, the manufacturer of the Apache motorcycles invested Rs 11 crore in the Bengaluru-based startup, including Rs 5 crore in the latter’s preference shares.

According to Rajmohan, the new funding was part of a larger series B round, and the funds will be used for final testing, as well as bringing the bikes into production.

In the first 12 months after its launch, the startup hopes to manufacture and sell 10,000 units of the F77.

The startup’s current R&D and assembly set up in Bangalore, according to the founders, would be sufficient to handle the first year’s volumes. “I still have other proposals in the works. We’ll be looking beyond our current facility as things develop “Rajmohan added.

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The medtech startup was established in September 2014 with the aim of increasing patient knowledge of low-cost generic drugs that have been approved by the World Health Organization’s Good Medical Practices (WHO GMP).

Many medicines available in India are generic copies produced at low rates, according to experts, but the savings do not hit the consumer because large pharmaceutical firms market them at high prices.

A generic drug is a prescription that is identical to a brand-name drug in terms of dose, strength, route of administration, cost, performance characteristics, and intended use. Since a generic medicine isn’t a brand-new drug, manufacturers don’t have to spend money developing and marketing it; instead, they will apply for approval to produce and sell generic versions as the drug’s patent expires.

The amazement moment

Ankur became interested in generic drugs after his father-in-dialysis law’s care in December 2013, which forced him to take a Rs 1,300 injection every week for a year — an expensive affair.

He discovered that buying the injections in bulk could cut the cost in half.

Ankur had intended to open an e-pharmacy at first. However, he admits that “it wasn’t easy explaining to customers about less costly substitutes; it was a time-consuming task.”

Ankur was the chief financial officer at Endeavor Education at the time, and Parasharan was the chief operating officer.

Parthiv, their mutual bond, had spent a decade working in the pharmaceutical industry and had extensive knowledge of its various aspects.

It was only a matter of time before they teamed up to launch Medkart in 2014.

Parasharan joined the company full-time three years after it was founded and assisted in its development.

Medkart now offers generic versions of the injection that Ankur’s father-in-law was prescribed for Rs 300.

Ankur and Parasharan have been colleagues for around 13 years and are familiar with each other’s working styles, having previously worked together in strategic teams on previous projects.

The process of finding co-founders went very smoothly because we all share the same vision, which is to make generic medicines available at the lowest possible price while also educating consumers about how to buy smart and right, according to Ankur.

Medkart is currently managed by a team of 275 people.

Also Read: How Veirdo from Ahmedabad grew by 20X by providing youngsters with affordable fashion

Analyzing the demand

According to Parasharan, after Medkart was founded, the founders tried to figure out how people bought medicines.

For example, if a customer has a prescription that only lists a few branded medicines, Medkart would try to inform him or her about other medicines that are of comparable quality and cost less, he explains.

“The drugs available at a lower cost are from GMP-approved brands, which means they will meet the same requirements across the country,” he adds.

Generico, Dava India, and the Ratan Tata-funded Generic Aadhaar are some of the companies that operate in the same domain as MedKart.

“However, there are no brands that can compete with Medkart’s offerings, and there is no direct competition,” Ankur says.

Customers in Gujarat can search the startup’s mobile app for medication availability and position orders for delivery, and the company also uses an omnichannel approach.

Medkart, according to Ankur, serves about a lakh customers per month and produced Rs 60 crore in revenue in FY21. Customers have saved Rs 1,100 crore so far thanks to the startup’s lower-cost generic drugs, according to the company.

Focus solely on rapid growth.

Medkart has so far been self-funded with funds from family and friends. The first store was opened with a seed capital of Rs 20 lakh, which was used to finance back-end operations.

The company is in talks with strategic investors and hopes to expand its store count in Gujarat to more than 250 in the next 18 months.

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According to the Fashion Forward 2020 report by BCG, some 130-135 million Indians purchased online for fashion items last year compared to 50 million in 2017.

Driven by increased smartphone penetration, increased awareness among customers and improved online sales and distribution of brands, fashion eCommerce growth has grown in recent years.

According to a RedSeer survey, online fashion is also the fastest-growing (CAGR of 32%) segment in India’s apparel and lifestyle retail industry.

Veirdo, an Ahmedabad-based fashion commerce startup, has benefited from all of the above macroeconomic shifts.

Veirdo fills the gap

Dhaval Ahir, Amardeep Jadeja, and Piyush Ganatra, three techies, created Veirdo in 2016 to provide trendy and affordable fashion to men aged 16 to 45.

“When we launched, ecommerce was still an emerging market in India,” Dhaval Ahir, Veirdo’s Co-founder and Purchase & Technology Head, tells YourStory. We knew it was the future, though. We had no prior experience in fashion or shopping, but we were familiar with the operations of online marketplaces such as Amazon and Flipkart. In the world of youth fashion, we discovered a quality and price difference. That’s why we started Veirdo by selling Rs 400-500 floral T-shirts.”

Veirdo has come a long way from one floral T-shirt to 300+ designs, 1,500 SKUs, and various fashion categories. But how did the company get its name?

The founder states, “It stands for the strange and quirky designs we sell.”

Made exclusively in India

Veirdo is a fully in-house fashion label that sources (raw materials), dyes, designs, prints, produces, and distributes all of its clothing.

Even before ‘aatmanirbhar’ became a buzzword, the startup was essentially ‘aatmanirbhar.’

According to the founder,

Shirts, t-shirts, skirts, vests, waistcoats, sweatshirts, trackpants, shorts, and jeans are among Veirdo’s men’s clothing options. T-shirts, vests, shrugs, sweatshirts, trackpants, night suits, shorts, and kurtis are among the womenswear options.

Packs and other lifestyle items will be available soon on the website.

Its products are sold on Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, AJIO, Snapdeal, Limeroad, Udaan, and IndiaMart, as well as on e-commerce marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, AJIO, Snapdeal, Limeroad, Udaan, and IndiaMart. About half of Veirdo’s current revenues come from Amazon.

Veirdo currently has a monthly production capacity of 1.5 lakh garments, which are produced by a team of 50 contract staff and 100 full-time employees.

“We ramp up our manufacturing capacity and extend our designer network every six months to meet growing demand,” Dhaval explains.

Also Read: From sports nutrition to jazz music, Leverage Edu, a career guidance company, helps students study abroad

Business development and plans for the future

Veirdo’s growth over the last five years has coincided with the overall expansion of India’s fashion ecommerce industry. According to a RedSeer survey, online sales will account for 14% of India’s total fashion GMV of $133 billion by 2024.

After breaking even in 2018, the startup claims to have closed the previous fiscal year with a Rs 30-crore turnover.

Veirdo went on to produce and “deliver” six lakh PPE kits and two lakh masks in three months following the lockdown-related disruptions last year. “In those difficult days, we managed to pay all the wages with bonuses,” Dhaval says.

It has grown from producing 1,000 pieces of clothing per month to over one lakh units per month. Veirdo has served over 2.5 million customers in five years, with 60% placing orders every two to three months.

It’s also looking for strategic investors with “experience in fashion retail” to fund its first round of external funding. “We’re investing in content and brand building, and we’ll look to work with macro and micro influencers as well,” Dhaval says.

Given that apparel is currently the fastest-growing segment of the fashion industry, Veirdo may be on the verge of a meteoric rise.

The post How Veirdo from Ahmedabad grew by 20X by providing youngsters with affordable fashion appeared first on Bharat Details.

Simply put, the Delhi-based startup, which was established in 2017, makes international admissions to over 200 “dream” universities in 30 countries easier for Indian students.

How big of a concern and how big of demand are foreign admissions?

India, after China, is the world’s second-largest source of international students. However, only about 5% of the market for ‘study abroad’ is managed.

The rest is a jumble of mom-and-pop career counselors (dubbed “mohalla rockstars” by Leverage Edu) and premium out-of-reach educational consultancies.

Leverage Edu is full-stack career guidance and global university link network that connects programmers with students.

“We don’t view higher education as just a degree selection exercise, but through an overall employability and migration lens,” says Akshay Chaturvedi, Founder, and CEO of Leverage Edu. We collect student data and provide them with personalized insights through a dashboard. Our aim is to give the university admissions process more legitimacy by matching students with their strengths. It could be anything, from sports nutrition to jazz music to agriculture…it could be anything.”

What resources does the platform provide?

Leverage Edu is a multi-platform offering with four main platforms:

a) Ivy100, which provides Ivy League and comparable university aspirants with premium consulting services.

b) UniConnect, a virtual admissions fair that links students to over 250 universities directly.

c) UniValley, a business-to-business network that allows colleges to handpick students to fill their programs.

d) Leverage Live, a new learning channel for international ed exam preparation.

“We started small with the first category, but we extended to the next levels when we realized there are three very different subsets of international education aspirants in India,” Akshay explains. One that focuses solely on Ivy League colleges such as Stanford, Wharton, and others, which accounts for around 10% of our current business.”

The remaining 90% is split between those who care deeply about the course and college they are applying to, as well as the economic benefits that come with it, and those who see migration as a way to improve their lives.

The founder explains,

Essentially, the four-year-old company aims to “debunk the misconception” that international education is costly and the application process is lengthy. The founder states, “We handle the whole operation before the students arrive at their dorm rooms.”

Industry model and development

Leverage Edu reports that its website receives around 2 million monthly visits and 2,000 applicants. Since its inception, the startup has supported the admission of over 8,000 international students, with 3,000 of them in the last year alone.

“Referrals accounted for nearly 22% of our business last year,” says Akshay.

Utilization of leverage Edu expects to end FY21 with revenues of Rs 13-14 crore, with a 5X increase in the next 12 months. “By March 2022, we want to have 10,000+ students enrolled and an ARR of Rs 100 crore,” Akshay says.

“Our in-house technology, which can manage students in a quality-first manner, and our strong focus on pedagogy will be the key pillars of growth. “We deal with over 35 professors, three of whom are also on our cap table,” he says.

The business model of the startup is two-fold. To begin with, it charges students an advisory fee of Rs 1.5 to 2 lakh per student to connect them with the right mentors for the right courses in the right countries, as well as ancillary services such as loans, visas, and forex.

Two, it receives a fee from colleges in exchange for assisting them in finding the best candidates for their programs. It has about 500 recruiting partners so far.

“Akshay and team have put in place strong foundations for building a big, long-term business in this first year of our partnership,” said Karthik Reddy, Managing Partner, Blume Ventures (one of its early backers) in 2019. We are delighted to see ourselves co-leading a second round with DSG into an early breakout from Fund III due to the size of the overseas education opportunity set being much greater than we initially expected, and the speed at which the team has executed has ensured that we are happy to see ourselves co-leading a second round with DSG into an early breakout from Fund III due to the scale of the overseas education opportunity set is even more massive than we initially imagined.”

Also Read: This fabric eCommerce startup provides small-batch custom designs

Funding and a plan for the future

Leverage Edu raised Rs 47 crore in a Series A round led by Tomorrow Capital, with participation from established investors Blume Ventures and DSG Consumer Partners, in February.

With the latest round, the company has raised a total of $8.2 million, or Rs 60 crore, in three rounds. The new funds will be used to create new products and expand into new markets.

“India is one of the largest global suppliers of international students, and yet, the biggest brands assisting students in their admissions come from destination countries like the US, Canada, and Australia, who don’t understand the unique perspectives and problems that Indian students face,” Rohini Prakash, CEO of Tomorrow Capital, said in a statement. We assume that the next great brand in global cross-border education will inevitably be a homegrown one.”

She went on to state that Leverage Edu has a “fantastic roadmap” for global expansion.

Vishal Gondal of GOQii, Ash Lilani of Saama Capital, Amrish Rau of Pine Labs, Chaitanya Rathi of Sula Wines, Karan Khemka of Parthenon’s Education Centre of Excellence, and a group of global executives and Ivy League professors are among the startup’s investors.

“We now act as an aggregator for 11 education loan partners. Tomorrow, we will be able to sell loans to students ourselves,” says the creator.

Leverage Edu also wants to extend its domestic presence, specifically in Tiers I and II cities like Chandigarh, Kochi, and Hyderabad. Indore, Pune, and Nagpur will be included in the company’s next phase of geographical expansion.

“The future of education has to be married with employability,” Akshay says of his long-term vision. People should focus on their strengths. It is not appropriate for all to pursue a career in engineering. I’m sure we’ve all seen 3 Fools. Wildlife photography may not be respected or rewarded in India, but we’ll put you in touch with someone who can.”

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Fabcurate, an online marketplace, has set out to resolve this issue. The Surat-based startup, which launched in July 2020, allows customers to source any design on a fabric, regardless of quantity.

This prompted Sanjay to consider launching a company to meet the demand for these types of fabrics. Fabcurate is a one-stop-shop online platform where customers can order any style of fabric in quantities ranging from one meter to 1,000 meters.

Personalized design

Sanjay is also a director at True Colors Impex, one of the country’s leading digital textile printing companies that produce large quantities of fabrics.

Customers searching for smaller quantities of fabric, according to Sanjay, we’re unable to procure the fabric as well as the pattern they wanted.

Sensing a demand from these buyers, Fabcurate began curating designs worth millions of rupees from all over the world for any prospective buyer to choose from.

True Colors, which has fabric digital printing machines that can churn out from 400 to 10,000 meters a day, is an additional benefit for Fabcurate in this regard. It has set up separate machines that produce smaller amounts of product.

sourcing for design

Fabcurate’s main task was to collect designs from all over the world, including Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh’s interior, and even West Bengal.

The team visited each of these places to find the concept and applied it to their portfolio.

The fabric is printed and shipped in two or three days after a customer places an order. Young designers may also submit their work to Fabcurate for publication on its website. Sanjay believes that their imagination should be unrestricted.

It wasn’t much of a challenge in terms of fabric because True Colors, the parent company, has reserves. The demand for a specific fabric is seasonal, as Sanjay points out. Heavy fabrics are in high demand in the winter, and the festive season has its own collection of requirements.

Booming Demand  

The company got off to a late start because the bulk of its customers were design students. It was able to draw all forms of customers, later on, thanks to word of mouth and digital marketing tools.

People who own boutiques and small businesses are among them. Customers come from the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

According to Sanjay, Fabcurate made Rs 3.5 lakh in its first month of operations and Rs 1.17 crore in December 2020 with 9,000 orders.

Fabcurate does almost all of its business online, with just a small number of customers visiting in person if they need large quantities of fabric.

Fabcurate began with a four-person team and has since expanded to over 70. Most definitely, the startup will end FY21 with a revenue of Rs 25 crore.

Preserving employments

Sanjay says that generating jobs has been the most satisfying aspect of his business journey.

Sanjay also noticed that many small businesses were shutting down operations due to a lack of materials when Fabcurate was formed during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fabcurate, on the other hand, was able to supply the design fabric and assist small businesses and artisans in resuming operations.

Other players in the industry, such as Textileweb, Texofab, Queen of Raw, and others, compete with Fabcurate for similar services.

Also Read: SuperCubs, an ed-tech company based in Rajkot, provides online learning solutions

Making plans in advance

For Fabcurate, Sanjay has big plans. By 2023, the startup aims to produce Rs 100 crore in sales, with the capacity to process 2,500-3,000 orders every day.

Sanjay is also optimistic that as volume grows, they will be able to deliver even better prices to their customers.

“We want to be the country’s leading fabric eCommerce brand,” Sanjay says.

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Dr. Vivek Sinhar, an entrepreneur, encountered a similar problem during the pandemic when he and his wife found it difficult to direct their toddler through online courses. He is an educator at heart, and he has founded a number of preschools in Rajkot, Gujarat.

This personal issue prompted Dr. Vivek to create SuperCubs International in June 2020. The startup’s goal is to assist parents in homeschooling their pre-school children via domain-specific activities and an international-level curriculum delivered online through videos.

Preschool education through the internet

Dr. Vivek explains that SuperCubs is a company that offers educational services to children aged five to six years old. The SuperCubs mobile app helps parents and teachers to work together to enhance children’s learning.

The startup claims to provide students with colorful thematic books as well as live immersive sessions. Students can access day-by-day schedules, activity videos, sports, and progress updates through the mobile app. Students may also use the software to upload their homework to the internet.

With an initial investment of Rs 60 lakh, the startup was bootstrapped. The SuperCubs team consists of 15 people, including four freelancers and three expert mentors who work on a consulting basis.

“In India, early childhood education is yet to gain traction. The majority of parents are also unaware that between the ages of two and six, 80 percent of the brain grows. Convincing parents to continue pre-primary education online and justifying its significance in the midst of the pandemic was a challenge at first”, Said Dr. Vivek.

Also Read: How a cancer survivor came up with the idea for this wellness company in Vadodara

Organization and other subjects

SuperCubs generates revenue from three sources: student tuition fees, franchises, and food and merchandise sales.

In addition, the startup plans to enroll 500 students by Diwali this year and to have 10 franchisees by 2022.

According to an IMARC Group survey, the Indian pre-school and childcare market will expand at a CAGR of around 19 percent between 2019 and 2024. SuperCubs competes against prominent players such as Bright Kids, Tree House, and Flintoclass, to name a few.

SuperCubs, according to Dr. Vivek, also aims to inspire mothers to transform homeschooling and teaching into a company and open their own pre-schools.

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“At the time, my naturopathic doctor advised that I take a trip to a particular location in the Himalayas to explore natural treatments for cancer recovery. “That was a watershed moment in my life,” Radhika says. In 2010, she founded the Raa Foundation, which focuses on yoga and healthy living.

In 2019, she decided to start a food-based startup named Anahata, which is focused on health and wellness, after seeing the need and desires of people moving towards an organic and sustainable lifestyle.

“The Vedas and the Puranas mention Anahata or the ‘Heart Chakra,’ which is present in all of us and epitomizes balance, serenity, and compassion — a motto we follow to make a deliberate effort to inculcate in our brand as a whole,” Radhika says of the brand name.

The 11-year journey from conception to start up

Anahata produces chemical-free, handcrafted goods. In reality, some of her recipes are inspired by her 11-year journey through the Himalayas, where she met sages, travelers, yogis, international students, locals, and a variety of other people who shared their recipes with her.

She’s been creating these meals for her family and friends on a small scale for 11 years, and she’s seen her health and physique develop firsthand.

“The COVID-19 pandemic strengthened my resolve in starting Anahata. I saw the dearth of real, genuine organic products in the market that is true to our culture, environment, and body type (genetics). A lot of these things are not reflected in most Indian brands. That pushed me to start on a large scale and establish Anahata as a corporate brand,” Radhika stated. 

Also Read: Alert! These 7 Banks Cheque Books Will Become Invalid From April 1st.

Creation of the products

Small growers, women entrepreneurs, and local businesses profit from the startup’s manufacturing operation. While the product formulations are curated in the Himalayas, the DIY recipes are passed down in handwritten books and manuscripts from generation to generation.

Anahata started producing the goods in September 2020, but it is still looking for new ways to expand.

Furthermore, the challenges of implementing internal processes, recruiting a committed team, figuring out day-to-day management, obtaining orders, and building a customer base were important.

“We take pride in being an organic and ethical organization, and we plan to continue to support this mission for as long as we can. We recruit people with the intention of keeping them on for the long haul. We believe that it is the people who make the difference, and we take pride in the fact that we prioritize people over income. “However, finding people who are committed not only to the brand but also to the overall cause has been a challenge,” Radhika says.

The organization has expanded its online presence organically, without the use of paid promotions or advertising, in order to draw early consumers who have become core members.

Getting started

The company’s three core values are to create a community, maintain a sustainable manufacturing process, and invest in the right people.

“Even if it is slightly more expensive, we have made the deliberate decision to use plastic-free packaging, instead opting for glass, tin, and recycled products. “As a group, we have chosen to employ people rather than overly automate our processes,” Radhika says.

Anahata has partnered with a number of brands, designers, bloggers, and artists to raise awareness about living organically.

The startup currently has a team of 24 members. Around 70% of the production team is made up of local women who come from low-income families in Vadodara and other parts of Gujarat.

“As an organization, we believe in not only empowering more women but also in creating communities that help other women and children improve their lives. Our team consists of individuals ranging in age from 19 to 34 years old. “Our vendors are mostly small-scale organic farmers from all over the country, local artists who hand paint our boxes and hampers, and other entrepreneurs looking to collaborate and create a community,” Radhika explains.

Radhika put Rs 8 crore of her own money into the bootstrapped business. She believes that social media helps eCommerce companies like Flipkart and Amazon gain much-needed attention. 

“For our beauty and skincare goods, we’re onboarding on platforms like Brown Living, Vanity Wagon, and Wedding Brigade, and for our food, we’re onboarding on Farsan Kart. These channels cater to a very particular audience, and we’re hoping that they will help us expand quickly,” Radhika says. 

Navel serum, Kumkumadi Thailam, Aloe-vera gel, rose cream, rose water, and acne fighter is some of Anahata’s best-selling products. Salts, oils, flours, etc are among the company’s food products.

These range in price from Rs 250 to Rs 500. Perineal, Inox, Tanishq, and other companies are among its corporate clients.

Currently, the startup claims to be growing at a rate of 15 to 20% per year. In reality, it sold Rs 3 lakh in the first three months of its release. Anahata competes with Vilvah, a vegan cosmetics brand based in Coimbatore, Plum, a vegan cosmetics brand based in Mumbai, and Disguise, an online vegan cosmetics brand.

The demand and the expectations

The Indian beauty market is valued at around $7 billion, according to RedSeer, and is growing at a healthy double-digit pace.

“A new brand faces various obstacles in gaining market share, including existing brands, price competition (due to low volume, manufacturing costs are initially much higher), R&D expenditures, trials and tests, and so on. At the same time, high branding/promotional expenses can make it difficult to get through the early stages. As a result, keeping all things in check and moving is a challenge, but we were able to effectively address almost every aspect,” Radhika explains.

Anahata plans to reach the export market through eCommerce sites first, and then through channel stores.

Herbal and organic beauty products, especially skincare from India, are in high demand worldwide. The UAE, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Japan, Russia, France, and Italy are among the largest importers of herbal cosmetics and skin care products from India.

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