Today, social media is fueling the purchase decisions of tech savvy millennials. Be it their personal care regime, or fashion sense, or snacking choices — all of them are today influenced by the new age, customized brands which are catering to your specific needs.
Unlike traditional FMCG players, more than 800+ brands have cut out intermediaries to take the D2C route in the past few years. Instagram and YouTube serve as the primary product discovery platforms driving traffic to these D2C websites. As per our observations — following factors have served as a catalyst for spurt in the demand of D2C products:
- Only 21% of the 675M+ internet users in India shop through e-commerce currently
- Organised retail penetration in India stands at 17% vs 45% in China and 85% in US
- Millennial crowd prefers personalized products over mass brands
- Increased awareness through content consumption results in informed purchases
The Indian consumption story in the upcoming decade belongs to D2C brands. D2C TAM in India is expected to reach $100B by 2025 with lifestyle upgradation and premiumization acting as tailwinds.
An omnichannel strategy is the key for beauty & personal care players to drive explosive value creation in future. And scale up through acquisitions for eventual transition into a house of brands type architecture is imperative for their growth. ‘Thrasio’ type models in India have bagged millions of dollars in funding from VCs thus amplifying the trend.
In this ballooning market, there is a marked shift towards sustainable consumption choices driven by the growing climate change concerns. Shoppers are consciously evaluating their purchases with a rising interest in the product composition and recyclable packaging.
Why Kalaari Invested in Kindlife
Kindlife is a new age beauty and wellness ecosystem catering to the affluent and conscientious customer. The demand for eco-friendly, organic, cruelty free, chemical & toxin free, and ethically sourced products is most pronounced in the beauty industry. Globally, the clean beauty market is expected to reach $ 54 B by 2027 with India estimated to have over 100M+ online beauty shoppers participating in a $1.5-3 B market by 2025.
Community first approach for building customer stickiness
At Kindlife, community engagement serves as the core pillar for building collective knowledge on clean living practices allowing consumers to learn from the experts, share feedback with fellow members, engage in two-way interaction with brands, and create awareness around sustainable living as an influencer. By routinely capturing engagement patterns of shoppers, their AI based product recommendation tool will drive superior curation leading to higher conversions. Since their launch in May 2021, Kindlife has garnered ~10K followers on Instagram and Facebook each with 100+ clean brands listed on their platform. The beta version of their app was launched in July 2021, currently having 5K+ installs on Google Playstore.
Marketplace with a House of Brands architecture
Kindlife is also launching its own private label products with hero ingredients. They will acquire smaller clean beauty brands in future to eventually transition into a house of brands structure expanding their reach and creating superior brand positioning.
Experienced Founding Team
Kindlife is founded by Radhika Ghai, who previously co-founded ShopClues, an e-commerce platform which became India’s 4th e-commerce unicorn in 2016. She is joined by Vidit Jain and Manasa Garemella as co-founders who have worked closely with her at ShopClues. Radhika’s clear vision of building Kindlife and her deep understanding of the nuanced e-commerce business struck a chord with us right from the first meeting. The core team having different areas of functional expertise further solidified our conviction.
Kindlife founders (L-R): Vidit Jain, Radhika Ghai, Manasa Garemella
As a part of the CXXO program, the investment in Kindlife holds a special place in our portfolio. Founders like Radhika are role models, and we wish to support them in creating further examples of exemplary women leadership in the Indian startup ecosystem.
Managing Director, Vani Kola writes –
“At CXXO, we believe that the role of women leaders is essential for a thriving startup ecosystem. Radhika embodies the qualities of an ideal CXXO founder – an innovator, risk taker, and a role model to aspiring female entrepreneurs. Her passion and commitment towards sustainable living, coupled with her wealth of experience and clear vision, truly resonated with us. We are proud to be early partners with Radhika and Kindlife in their journey to create a unique well-being ecosystem.”
Founder and CEO, Radhika Ghai writes –
“I have always admired the way Kalaari nurtures founders, few can match them and specially Vani when it comes to supporting and mentoring early-stage start-ups. Kindlife, as it rolls out its platform for everything well-being, will get a huge leg-up from the wisdom, experience, and energy of Vani as well as Kalaari’s extended network. Add to that the fact that Vani has been able to create a special place for her in a male-dominated sector and is now going out of her way to support women founders through CXXO. This is the best possible beginning for Kindlife.”
We are delighted to have been partnered with Kindlife at the start of their journey to lead the clean-living trend in India and are equally excited for what lies ahead.
Kalaari Capital is an early-stage, technology-focused venture capital firm based out of Bengaluru, India. Since 2006, Kalaari has empowered visionary entrepreneurs building unique solutions that reshape the way Indians live, work, consume and transact. The firm’s ethos is to partner early with founders and work with them to navigate the inevitable challenges of fostering ideas into successful businesses. At its core, Kalaari believes in building long-term relationships based on trust, transparency, authenticity, and respect.
If you are an entrepreneur (or know an entrepreneur) building a company in the D2C space, please write to us at d2c@kalaari.com.