TV Mohandas Pai invests in Gingercrush, joins team as advisor
For the Internet-savvy generation, it is all about personalization, and the best way a brand can capture them is by engaging with the consumers at a personal level.
Vadodra-based startup Gingercrush, a licensed product customization platform, is going all out to capture the next-gen consumers. It announced today that it has raised funding from T V Mohandas Pai's family office.
Mohandas Pai will mentor the founding team and senior management to strengthen the organizational leadership and set the company up for strong and responsible growth. According to a company Press release, “The company fits Mohandas Pai's thesis that the next wave of the Internet will be about consumers expressing themselves.”
Earlier this year, Gingercrush had raised $1 million led by Gokul Jaykrishna and Brand Capital. Rajvi Makol & Saumya Nidhi founded Gingercrush in 2015. It is a B2C on-demand retail platform where consumers can instantly shop or customize products to fit their personal style and purchase a vast array of products.
However, the couple already has a licensing venture, Swadesh Essfil (founded in 2011), a B2B firm, that partners with over a dozen brands from across the world. They recorded a top line of Rs 7.58 crores last year.
Commenting on why he placed his bet on Gingercrush, Mohandas Pai said,
A big question in the future of brand value growth is how to engage the new generation of consumers that are coming of age. Today's consumers want to feel closer to the brands whose work they enjoy. So enabling novel methods to deepen those relationships will help drive brand loyalty and recall while improving the experience for us consumers too. I think a product customization platform like Gingercrush makes the relationship of the individual with the brand that much more intimate, and I believe this helps brands deliver new dimensions of affinity and helps the best brands to stand out.
Rajvi, CEO of Gingercrush, added, "We're very excited about Mr Pai joining us as an advisor to the board. We shall stand to benefit enormously from his mentorship, experience, and guidance."
YourStory take
There is a huge appetite for merchandize based on popular movies, television shows, comic characters, and sports stars.
According to a report by LIMA, the leading authority for the global licensing and branding industry, retail sales of products bearing the trademarked names and likenesses of cartoon characters, corporate logos and brands, major sports teams and more, totaled to an estimated $ 13.4 billion in royalty revenues, and $ 241.5 billion in retail sales in 2014.
The big players in the sector in India like Printvenue, Zoomin, VistaPrint, and Voxpop have reported big gains in the past. According to sources, Voxpop, a Blume Ventures-funded company, makes approximately between Rs 2 crores and Rs 2.5 crores per month.
In this backdrop, Gingercrush seems to be in good company, and in all likelihood will not stop with this recent funding announcement.
Licensing is a way to allow others to use a brand’s designs or images on their products while the brand keeps control of the copyright. A license is a legal agreement that allows the owner – the licensor – of the design to grant a manufacturer, or retailer – the licensee – the right to use the design on specific products, usually in a defined territory, over a defined period of time.
(Disclaimer: Mohandas Pai is an investor in YourStory)