Lucknow’s Agritech Startup and PV Sindhu to better health

• In 2017, Prateek Rastogi and Aishwarya Bhatnagar founded Greenday with a focus to infuse nutrients in everyday meals by increasing the nutrient quotient of crops.
• The Badminton World Champion, PV Sindhu collaborated with Greenday to tackle the serious concern of micronutrient deficiencies and consciously work towards better health and livelihoods.
• The fresh capital will be used to expand its NutriFarms project, inflate the distribution network across multiple crops and essentially nourish its biofortification technology.
• It collaborates with 15,000 farmers currently and plans to scale up operations significantly.
• Prior to this, in 2022, Greenday raised an undisclosed amount of funding from IIMA Ventures (formerly known as CIIE), a startup incubator established in IIM-Ahmedabad, along with a clutch of angel investors.
• Operating around 75 Agri-input stores and procurement centers across India under the brand ‘Kisan ki Dukan’ Greenday incentivizes farmers to grow nutrition dense crops enriched with Vitamin D, Iron, Zinc and Vitamin A.
• 'Better Nutrition', uses 'Biofortification,' a transformative method that enhances the nutritional value of crops from the seed stage, turning them into powerhouses of essential vitamins and minerals. The product range includes biofortified atta, rice, bajra, ragi, and makka, all enriched with minerals and vitamins such as zinc, iron, protein, pro-vitamin A, and calcium, which promote holistic human growth and development.
• Prateek Rastogi, the Founder remains steadfast that Greenday will be at the forefront of the nutrition dense farming and staples market slated to stand at about INR 2000 crore by 2030.

Highest-paid woman athlete powering economy too!

• Inspired by her father who played Volley ball, PV Sindhu started playing badminton at 8 years.
• Sindhu has been a health champion not only because of badminton, also that she believes in nutrition to be infused internally. She had quit on sugar consumption before the Olympics and her everyday meal is packed with high protein breakfast, grilled chicken while her go to snack is a banana.
• Sindhu went on to become the first Indian woman to win an Olympic silver medal and been the recipient of India’s fourth highest civilian honor, Padmashri. The award corner in her house gets to host the Arjuna Award, and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna among others.

EDITOR’NOTE

• India’s Agritech market might be standing at USD 25 billion by 2030. The country is blessed with vast Argo ecological diversity and the emerging Agritech startups is about to ride the next revolution. Brands like Greenday will be one of the forerunners in this space.

KEYWORDS

• #greenday #betternutrition #pvsindhu

Dalal Street Debut

• Due to the heavy participation of institutional investors, Awfis Space Solution was subscribed at 108.17 times in its initial public offering.
• The INR 599-crore IPO received bids for 93.34 crore shares against 86.29 crore shares.
• The portion reserved for non-institutional investors was subscribed 129.27 times subscription while the category for qualified institutional buyers by 116.95 times and retail investors 53.23 times.
• Awfis Space Solutions had raised a little over INR 268 crore from anchor investors namely Ashoka Whiteoak, HDFC Mutual Fund, Nippon Life India, Axis Mutual Fund, Canara Rebeco Mutual Fund, Motilal Oswal, Goldman Sachs, Allianz Global Investors Fund, and HSBC.
• Proceeds from the fresh issue will be used to fund capital expenditures for setting up new centers, supporting working capital requirements, and general corporate purposes.
• Axis Capital, Emkay Global Financial Services, ICICI Securities and IIFL Securities are the managers of the offer.

Growth Hack

• Way back in 2015, Amit Ramani started with a single objective which was to redefine the traditional office model and integrate workplaces with a sense of community on the back of collaboration.
• While operating a 70-seater model, Amit gathered that the optimal size for a co-working space to trigger community engagement and the network that is needed to sustain it in the long run.
• He also understood that small space limited the capacity to design appropriate activity-based infrastructure like collaboration zones or meeting pods break-out zones garnering collaboration.
• This limited seating capacity centre was the reason behind the sharp rise of Awfis Space Solution.
• Today if the working class enjoys a cohesive working space right within 10-minute driving distance, well the only brand to be grateful for, Awfis Space Solution.

The coworking marvel

• Launched in 2015, Awfis has grown from 5,800 desks across 20 centers in 2017 to 35,000 seats across 70 centres now. Currently, Awfis has more than 28,000 community members and 1,500 partner companies spread across 10 cities in India.
• Awfis stands strong with a robust network of 55 centres across nine cities in India and a strong community of 15,000 professionals.
• While working as a consultant in USA, Amit Ramani realized the lack of plush work opportunities
• The founder’s Sundays see zoom calls playing Housie or Antakshari with family.

EDITOR’NOTE

• An entrepreneur who rented just about 5 seats at the Awfis Space Solution went on to bring IPO and he had Amit Ramani to thank! Awfis’s hassle-free setting provided the entrepreneur to concentrate on his core business. Well, there will be several founders and professionals extending gratitude to Amit Ramani for seamless 9-hour of their lives.

KEYWORDS

• #awfiscoworkingspace #amitramani

Ambitious disbursement

• Flexiloans rolls out ambitious plans to disburse loans worth INR 100 crore to over 2 lakh registered users in Nagpur by 2025.
• The Gurugram-based fintech startup, founded in 2016 by Manish Lunia, Ritesh Jain, and Deepak Jain, has already disbursed over INR 20 crore in loans to more than 500 MSMEs in the area, capitalizing on what it describes as ‘exponential demand’ from over 50,000 registered users.
• Nationwide, FlexiLoans claims to have facilitated over 65,000 loans amounting to INR 4000 crore over the past seven years. The company has received backing from prominent investors such as Sanjay Nayar, Falguni Nayar, and Maj Invest

Loan at a click

• In June 2022, FlexiLoans raised INR 500 crore fund and its assets under management (AUM) grew to INR 1000 crore in April 2023 aiming to hit INR 10,000 crore in AUM by 2025. Moreover, operating leveraging has been consistently improving. In September, FlexiLoans reported its first full year of profitability in FY23 with a PAT of INR 7 crore on revenue of INR 110 crore.
• ‘The jaan-pehchaan-based-borrowing model’ has been disrupted by Flexiloans, one of the founders Deepak Jain recalls.
• FlexiLoans has disbursed 70,000 loans worth INR 3,400 crore across more than 2,000 cities and 25,000 pin codes in India
• Every month FlexiLoans attracts 100,000 applications but grants only 2,000-3,000 loans, disbursing a total of INR 115 crore (USD 14 million) in loans per month. 53% of all loans are go out to MSMEs borrowing for the first time including 47% MSME loans in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
• FlexiLoans had last raised INR 150 crore through a mix of debt and equity in a funding round led by Nayar’s family office in October 2020. Prior to that in December 2017 the platform had raised INR 45 crore in debt from a handful of financial institutions.

And how did it start

• Stark reality of life led Deepak Jain aid the MSMEs. Born to a jeweler and money lender, Deepak grew up seeing people coming to his father’s shop to pawn jewelry for loan, that too on high interest rates.
• Deepak was exposed to the American digital lending model during his MBA day at ISB which made him realize that securing finance can be convenient game for the MSMEs.
• Flexiloans office still operates like the initial days. At the end of every month Deepak, Lunia and third co-founder Ritesh Jain hold review meetings looking into disbursals, collection rates and NPAs of every customer segment. They make tweaks where necessary, even shutting down customer segments that aren’t delivering.
• Looking back, Deepak feels the only grim season seen by MSME lending was Il&FS crisis in 2018.

EDITOR’NOTE

• A journey which began on the comprehension of loan amount less than 10 lakh is not a business loan eventually gave birth to a NBFC lender who claimed to disburse over 65,000 loans amounting to INR 4,000 crore over the past seven years.

KEYWORDS

• #flexiloas #msmefunding #nagpurindustry

Maiden Funding

• In its first external funding, the omnichannel women ethnic wear major, Libas got funded by IAF Series 5 (ICICI Venture Fund).
• Libas will strengthen its omni-channel presence and ramp up its exclusive brand and retail outlets across key metros and tier I, II, and III cities.
• The capital raised will be used to leverage its technology, infrastructure and supply chain network.
• According to reports, the ecommerce platform generates about 15% sales while the other marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart and Myntra make up for 70% sales.
• Libas collection is available at 15 exclusive brand outlets and 400 large format stores including Lifestyle and Shoppers Stop
• Sidhant Keshani, Founder and CEO, expects a significant growth of 40-45% amounting to about INR 1000 crore revenue by 2025. He is confident about an offline expansion to about 16 store presence in the near future.

There is always a Libas!

• Cutting across generation, trends have proven that sleek and timeless silhouettes are firmly in and there is no better destination to shop than Libas outfits.
• There is so much history in the traditional women wear. Taking cue from the heritage, Libas delivers sustainable yet stunning Kurta Sets, Sarees and Lehangas.
• When the word ‘fashion’ is shifting gears, dresses, loungewear and jumpsuits available at Libas are closet must fit.

The man shaping womenswear

• Soon after passing out from the University of Manchester with a degree in Economics, Sidhant Keshwani took the reins of his INR 400 crore turnover family-owned brand, Libas as the CEO.
• With practically zero experience in the realm but a germinating concept, Sidhant toyed of entering the ecommerce industry and finally launched Libas in the online space.
• The online retailing led to an eye-blistering growth of 100% Y-O-Y resulting in INR 600 crore revenue in straight 8 years.
• Today, Sidhant is hands-on-founder looking into manufacturing as well as the sales and marketing.

EDITOR’NOTE

• Post pandemic era have witnessed India’s direct-to-consumer markets augmentation. From Bewakoof to Beyoung to Blissclub have secured substantial raise and slated for major growth. Libas have joined the club with its maiden funding. Whether it is the everyday office wear or that glamorous evening outfit, the contemporary crowd’s wardrobe will be bolstered by Libas!

KEYWORDS

• #libas #womenclothing #apparelindustryfunding

Fresh Proceeds

• The Gurugram based food supply platform, FarMart raised INR 24 crore as part of a new round from Swiss Asset manager, ResponAbility Investments.
• The startup will use these fresh proceeds to strengthen its efforts towards carbon efficient food supply chain as well as leverage ResponAbility’s expertise in adopting solution driven technologies.
• FarMart plans to make future investments into technology, research, development and automation.
• With this, FarMart has drummed up nearly USD 50 million to date including a USD 32 million Series B round in March 2022 from Matrix Partners India, General Catalyst and Omidyar Network India.
• FarMart’s B2B product is essentially a digitization of agricultural supplies and produce, putting buyers and sellers located near each other in touch, which it says eliminates several costs involved in transporting goods across the country. The company’s retailer footprint is currently heavy in central and northern Indian states, with relatively sparser presence in the south and Jammu & Kashmir.
• FarMart accommodates about 2000 food businesses securing partnerships with suppliers around 7000 pin codes.

Future of food

• The Farmart Founders address pertinent concerns of the industry, where is the food coming from? how is the food stored? How does the supply chain look like? What is optimised distribution?
• The infrastructure and investment in the food sector will see huge revolution with increased focus on cash flow management
• An integrated logistics park must be the way ahead.
• Building distilled tools to increase livelihood of everybody involved in the value chain while developing environment value chains remains key.
• Within a short span, FarMart managed to avoid 41,974 metric tonnes of carbon emission and 28,350 metric tones of food waste.

FartMarthesis

• FarMart germinated from a simple idea of connecting farmers who machinery to the ones who do not which today, is slated to become one of the top global food supply networks
• From product standpoint, FarMart plans to digitize small stakeholders whom the government does not really care about
• Digitization of food processing is crucial and FarMart will be providing these technologies to the SMEs
• As the founder said, they usually save 30% in logistics in the entire value chain and 36% less carbon as compared to the traditional value chain which will form the very core of their growth.

EDITOR’NOTE

• Recognized as India’s fastest growing tech company by Deloitte, FarMart keeps the future of food sustainable. It has brought about rioting change to the lives of 30 lakh farmers and aspires to increasing the number manifold. 60,000 agri-retailers, 600 districts in India and 75,000 metric tons of produce, the numbers look extraordinary, well the good food economy developer promises to keep them growing.

KEYWORDS

• #farmart # #startup #founder #msme # nbfc

MSME relevance for 9 years

• Kinara Capital driving last-mile MSME financial inclusion had turned full year profitable in FY15 and continues the growth despite several industry odds.
• Kinara Capital offers asset purchase and working capital collateral-free business loans in the range of INR 1 lakh to 30 lakhs within a 24-hour disbursement cycle with an average ticket size of INR 8 lakh to 9 lakhs. The credit assessments are done with the help of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning based data-driven automated credit decisioning.
• Kinara Capital had raised USD 178 million from investors namely Sorenson Impact Foundation, Gaja Capital and IndusInd Bank.
• Over the last decade, Hardika Shah, CEO and Founder of Kinara Capital aided the MSMEs to flourish incorporating industries like auto components, textile, plastic and food products.
• Hardika Shah had been a champion of localization. Localized nuances helped her understand the pain points of the MSMEs which today stands as the pillar of this Srobust fintech.
• Kinara Capital was awarded the Gold Award as 'Bank of the Year-Asia' by the IFC/SME Finance Forum for their impact on SME Financing.

HARDIKA’ HERVIKASH

• Kinara Capital understands the pain of capital starved women entrepreneurs which led to the launch of HerVikas program in 2020, aiming to expand the ambit of empowerment to the emerging women entrepreneurs.
• By the 5th anniversary, HerVikas had redesigned the landscape of financial inclusion empowering women operated small businesses.

LIFE BEHIND THE CHAOS

• Born and brought in a Gujarati Family in Bombay, Hardika’s mother ran a provisional store.
• The Kinara Capital CEO begins her day with feeding pets and finds relaxation in experimenting variety of dishes like Sushi, Gnocchi and or even a local Kannada Speciality, Nuchina unde.
• Making lavender candles and olive oil soaps at homes rejuvenates the Fintech Founder.
• The founder’s Sundays see zoom calls playing Housie or Antakshari with family.
• Chances are high when the founder is not caught building one of the biggest unsecured lending platforms, you will find her with the sewing machine and charcoal painting too.

EDITOR’NOTE

• Hardika Shah’s mother ran a provisional store in Mumbai and aspired to create a chain which she could never translate due to lack of capital. The daughter went on turn the dreams of Indian MSMEs into reality. Series of funding, sound model and empathetic approach kept Kinara Capital profitable for 9 consecutive years.

KEYWORDS

• #kinaracapital #hardikashah #startup #founder #msme # nbfc

Rapid road ahead

• Bagzone Lifestyle Private Limited had raised capital of USD 9 million from the First Bridge India Growth Fund which focusses on consumer facing services including manufacturing and business services.
• The capital will be employed to set up a well-equipped manufacturing facility which can produce 200,000 bags per month to cater to the purchasing crowd visiting soon-to-be-launched 300 exclusive outlets.
• Apart from setting up the manufacturing unit, the investment will be deployed to expand its presence in tier1 and tier 2 cities with a vision to increase its sales Rs. 500 in FY2023 to Rs.700-750 crore in FY2024.
• Lavie has drawn a strapping expansion of its multi-brand store count to more than 1000 in the next few years as compared to its current number standing at 200. These new stores will be mostly opened in malls.
• Currently exporting to UK and Middle East, Lavie is devising methods to set its footprints in the global market.

Are designer bags more expensive than art?

• Mumbai-based Bagzone Lifestyles owns and markets its flagship brand Lavie, along with its subsidiaries Lavie Sport and Lavie Luxe.
• Endorsed by Bollywood Prima Dona, Anushka Sharma, Lavie is a range of everyday variety with tote, satchels, slings, wallets and sleek laptop bags.
• Lavie Sport wheel duffels are designed for a hassle-free journey especially for work trips or quick vacations and Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh is the most-suited face of this category given his spirit for projects.
• Lavie Luxe caters to a slightly more premium crowd with contemporary designs yet affordable price tags.
• Currently, Lavie offers up to 3,000 different stock-keeping units and continues to experience the highest traction for laptop bags. The company is also contemplating foraying into other categories ranging from perfumes, cosmetics, watches, and eyewear.
• Ayush Tainwala, CEO is spearheading the brand from perfect perspectives. He has roped in Bollywood Actor Ranveer Singh to endorse its current portfolio as well as the soon-to-be launched ones.

Mother-Son delivered more than expected!

• The name Lavie was derived from the French phrase ‘La Vie en Rose’ denoting ‘life in pink hues’
• Double decades back in 2009, resilient Shobha Tainwala started designing vibrant handbags for guests during family gathering. Confused what could be an ideal yet affordable gift for her own family members, she simply started making them herself. Thus began the journey of Lavie Bags!
• Little did Shobha expect that these handbags will be adored and the number of orders wll hit the rood instantly. It became tough for her to handle the bulk orders single-handedly. Her brother came to help and aided her to manage the growing numbers.
• Between 2010 and 2012, the sibling duo journeyed through Europe and Asia to gather design inspirations and source materials and their travel diary became the source of the everlasting variety of accessories, Lavie.

EDITOR’NOTE

• Lavie is all set for major expansion spree. The humble beginning of making bags for gifting family members today is regarded as one of the brand leads in this sector. What Shobha Tainwala and her brother started has been handed down to the deserving second generation. Ayush Tainwala will see your handbag closet remains stocked!

KEYWORDS

• #bagzone #lavie #ayustainwala #fastfashion