The e-commerce giant Flipkart has announced the launch of ‘Flipkart Boost’, a program for D2C brands in the country. Through a service fee model, the program will provide emerging ‘Made in India’ brands end-to-end support covering planning, advertising, cataloguing, logistics, quality control and mentoring.
According to a report by Avendus Capital, “The D2C sector in India is worth $44.6 billion (end of FY 2021) currently, and is expected to grow to $100 billion by 2025.” This surge in adoption of digital-first models has been accelerated by the pandemic as over 800 brands have joined the D2C club nationwide.
The Flipkart Boost Program is a step towards the company’s aim to help budding brands through a meaningful and insight-led partnership. The program will shortlist brands based on a clear set of pre-decided objective criteria, which covers their growth potential, sustainable revenue run rate, focus on quality, commitment to building a long-lasting brand, strong product mix and customer orientation.
Through a ‘pitch day’ facilitated by Flipkart, the selected brands will also have the opportunity to secure potential funding from a network of leading venture capital funds and active investors in the D2C space, including A91 Partners, DSG Consumer Partners, Fireside Ventures, Matrix Partners India, Sequoia Capital India and Stellaris Venture Partners.
As per the company statement, the programme was successfully piloted with several brands earlier this year, seeing significant growth in quarterly revenue since inclusion in the program. These brands cover a diverse range of segments, including F&B, baby care, lifestyle, beauty and home improvement.
“The onset of the pandemic and the resulting rise of direct-to-consumer brands have boosted the MSME sector in India. The growing popularity of digital-first brands driven by a focus on specific customer needs demonstrates immense market potential. With the Flipkart Boost Programme, we aim to build and nurture these growing customer-focused businesses by providing them relevant mentoring that covers access to a network of investors, market intelligence, scalability programmes, and marketing engagements,” Ravi Iyer, Senior Vice President and Head, Corporate Development, Flipkart.
