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With their grit, gumption and an undying spirit to make it to the top, these raring-to-go startups have managed to carve a niche for themselves in the extremely competitive D2C market. Recognising their efforts and encouraging budding talent, Pickrr and YS have launched ‘The Super Startups’ to support the disruptive D2C startups in their growth story. The aim of this initiative was to provide the upcoming brands with a platform to showcase their products to a large audience.

According to Jarshad NK, Editor-in-chief, YS, “The potential is immense for D2C startups. YS has been putting its weight behind the startups with initiatives like Brands of New India and 500 Challenger Brands. It is in line with this vision that we have tied up with Pickrr to launch The Super Startups.”

Meet the winners

Each participant of The Super Startups has immensely contributed to the growth of the D2C ecosystem. Having received registrations from more than 600 startups across the country, choosing ten was indeed a difficult task.

‘The Super Startups’ winners will not just enjoy a host of exciting prices and opportunities to scale to the new chapter, but also bag a chance to network with VCs and investors, get mentorship from experts, and the opportunity to win Rs 200,000 worth of Pickrr miles and appear in the global spotlight.

Five winning startups have been recognised as Alpha Star – under which fall the funded startups and Five as Emerging Superstars which has promising startups from Tier II, III cities.

Alpha Star winners:

Nat Habit: A personal care brand, Nat Habit products are chemical-free, preservative-free and made with fresh ingredients. The products have a shorter shelf-life and come in small-sized packaging keeping the freshness of the natural ingredients intact. “We are trying to reimagine the personal care space. With over 50,000 orders on a monthly basis, we are scaling very rapidly,” said Maithily Sarkar, Associate Director Marketing and Customer Experience, Nat Habit.

Amara Herbs: Creating superfoods by blending in pure herbs, Amara Herbs is an innovative startup giving healthy alternatives to existing players. With an upward sloping revenue graph, Amara Herbs is now exploring the hyperlocal sector segment “Today customers would want to have the product within two to three days of placing the order. And, Pickrr has been helping us in delivering on our customer’s expectations,” said Rupan Oberoi, Founder, Amara Herbs.

Svish: Started during the first wave of the pandemic, this two-year old personal hygiene venture has millennials and younger audiences as its target group. Ishan Grover, Founder, Svish said, “For any brand to succeed, it is important to have a reliable logistics partner.

Earth Rhythm: Earth Rhythm is a sustainable skincare D2C brand with the idea of building 100 percent sustainable products not just in the packaging aspect but also in the ingredients. “Currently 95 percent of our revenue is coming from digital channels, which means logistic-tech players play a huge role in terms of how they support our business growth,” said Harini Sivakumar, CEO, Earth Rhythm.

Vanity Wagon: With over 250 brands as their partners, Vanity Wagon is a clean beauty marketplace. Dealing in toxin-free, safe products, Vanity Wagon is working with homegrown as well as international partner brands. “Because we are an online marketplace, Pickrr has made our shipping seamless and helped us reach consumers across India,” said Naina Ruhail, CIO and Co-founder, Vanity Wagon.

Emerging Superstar winners

Alpino Health Foods: With an aim to revolutionise the healthy food segment in India, Alpino is the pioneer of Indian made peanut butter and is known for its 100 percent natural vegan products. “With our main focus being on peanuts, we’re trying to differentiate ourselves in our bid to make India a protein-sufficient nation,” added Chetan Kanani, Co-founder, Alpino Health Foods.

Juicy Chemistry: With a wide range of organic and natural skin, hair and body care products, Juicy Chemistry has transformed clean personal care products. Founded in 2014 by Pritesh Asher, Juicy Chemistry has put together a truly efficacious range of 100 percent natural and organic products.

Mecraaz: A slow fashion home and lifestyle brand from Kashmir, Mecraaz specialises in Pashmina scarves and walnut wood and copperware home decor products. Pretty Agarwal, Director and Co-founder, Mecraaz said, “It’s very important for the consumer to have a pre-sale and post-sale experience and Pickrr, being one of the Industry leaders, has been a very important partner for the brands. We’ve actually integrated their one click checkout experience as well, and so far, they’ve been very supportive in making the shipping experience seamless for us.”

Adil Qadri: Adil Qadri is a brand of premium fragrances that are 100 percent alcohol-free. Currently operating as D2C, the brand is looking to venture out in the retail space as well.

Plum Goodness: Plum is a fresh line of 100% vegan beauty products and is a leading brand in the clean beauty segment.

Empowering startups

With an incredible interest in the ecosystem from investors, more than $2.31 billion have been poured into D2C startups across 191 deals in fiscal year 2022. According to a recent report from BCG, online retail is expected to touch the 300 billion mark by 2030. As one of the leading logistic-tech startups in India, Pickrr is playing a crucial role to enable smooth delivery systems for the entire D2C industry in the country. The company offers features that not only simplify logistics processes for online businesses but also enable them to give an excellent post-purchase experience to their end consumers.

Sharing more about the initiatives Pickrr is taking to propel the D2C ecosystem of India , Gaurav Mangla, CEO and Co-founder, Pickrr said, “We are here to build products that will help in staying ahead of the curve, reach customers faster, and have better innovative tech products.”

“A lot of VC money is flowing into this ecosystem and there has been no downward trend observed in the D2C and e-commerce industry,” he added.

Concluding his address, Gaurav congratulated all the winners of ‘The Super Startups’ and assured Pickrr’s complete assistance in helping them take the business to new heights.