Inside YourStory’s Brands of India initiative

YourStory’s Brands of India initiative — aimed at bringing together brand builders, D2C startups, investors, corporates, and policymakers to discover, build, and enable the growth of India’s D2C ecosystem — launched on September 17.

The day-long virtual and immersive event began in the presence of honourable Shri Anil Agrawal, Additional Secretary, Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Government of India, who urged Indian entrepreneurs and startups to come up with localised digital innovations and create visual/voice OTPs to reach the rural population.

Entrepreneurs, leaders, policymakers, and influencers from the D2C startup ecosystem came together to catalyse the growth of India's D2C economy.

While Varun Alagh, Co-founder and CEO, Mamaearth emphasised that ecommerce has been the biggest distribution equaliser in India, he noted that the competition in the D2C space is heating up.

GetVantage's CEO and Founder Bhavik Vasa, agreeing that D2C brands are growing at breakneck speed, emphasised the rising need for entrepreneurs to have access to growth capital without any equity dilution.

Meanwhile, with the consumer focus moving towards Tier-II cities and beyond, Meesho Co-founder and CEO Vidit Aatrey spoke about the startup’s plan to enable 100 million microentrepreneurs. 

Check out the full coverage of the Brands of India’s launch summit here.

Click here to find some useful tools to help you find the nearest vaccine centres in real-time.

The Interview

As a member of the executive leadership team and Senior VP of Mobility Engineering at Bosch, RK Shenoy comes armed with almost two decades of experience in leadership roles.

In a conversation with YourStory, he deep-dives into what the future of work will look like, the positives of a hybrid working model, frugal engineering, and the future of mobility engineering, and more.

Editor’s Pick: Digital innovations to empower rural India

At YourStory's Brands of India launch event, in the keynote address, Anil Agrawal, Additional Secretary at Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Government of India, called on Indian entrepreneurs and startups to work on more localised innovation in digital services to empower the country’s rural population. 

Agrawal went on to highlight the products and services offered by Indian brands to homebound consumers in the last 15-18 months of the pandemic. Read more.

Startup Spotlight

Providing clean power to the Northeast

With an increased focus on climate change, there is a slow but steady switch to greener energy alternatives such as wind or solar power.

Founded in 2016, Renergy Solutions is trying to reduce fossil fuel dependency by providing access to clean and quality power solutions to remote and non-electrified locations in northeastern states. Read more.

News & Updates

• Ola Electric has registered a record for highest sales in a day (by value) for a single product in Indian ecommerce history. The unicorn crossed Rs 1100 crore in combined sales for two days.  Yesterday was the second and the final day of purchase for Ola Electric's S1 and S1 Pro.

• California-based Pyxis One raised $17 million in a Series B funding round co-led by Celesta Capital, a Silicon Valley-based investment firm, and Premji Invest. It will use the funds to develop the product and expand in new geographies. So far, the startup has raised $24 million.

• Global blockchain and crypto exchange firm Belfrics announced it is expanding its business operations in India with an investment of $15 million. It plans to invest $10 million for the Beflrics crypto exchange and the rest in its blockchain platform.

• Biocon Biologics, a subsidiary of Biocon, said it will offer around 15 percent stake to Serum Institute Life Sciences at a post-money valuation of about $4.9 billion. Serum Institute Life Sciences (SILS) is a subsidiary of Serum Institute of India (SII).

• Genext Students Private Limited, a Mumbai-based education technology company, said it raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Navneet Education Limited (NEL), an educational content provider.

Before you go, stay inspired with… 

“Through ecommerce, you have the ability to service 24,000 pin codes. And because of this, you can actually meet the aspirations of a lot of consumers who want these products but had to probably travel 50-100 km.”

— Varun Alagh, Co-founder and CEO, Mamaearth

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