Homegrown ecommerce marketplace, , has launched a new initiative, ‘Flipkart Boost’ to partner with direct to consumer (D2C) brands in the country.
A statement from the company said, through a service fee model, Flipkart Boost will provide emerging “Made in India” brands end-to-end support covering planning, advertising, cataloguing, logistics, quality control and mentoring.
The Flipkart Boost programme 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.
According to Flipkart, the programme was piloted with several brands earlier this year, seeing significant growth in quarterly revenue. These brands cover a diverse range of segments, including F&B, baby care, lifestyle, beauty and home improvement.
On the launch, Ravi Iyer, Senior Vice President and Head, Corporate Development, Flipkart, said,
“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.”
According to a report by Avendus Capital in October 2020, the pandemic has accelerated the uptake for D2C brands, with an almost 88 percent rise in demand over 2019. The D2C sector in India is worth $44.6 billion (end of FY 2021), and is expected to be worth $100 billion by 2025.
According to the company, the Flipkart Boost Program reinforces its mission to offer growth opportunities to budding D2C brands and offers a platform to power the next phase of growth. Based on certain criteria, brands can apply directly on the Flipkart Seller platform, of which 100 brands will be chosen for the programme this year.
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