mCaffeine eyes Rs 700Cr revenue by FY24, to ramp up hiring

Caffeine-infused personal care brand MCaffeine aims to log Rs 700 crore in revenue by FY24 as it expands its presence across online and offline channels, and bolsters its product portfolio.

Mumbai-based Pep Technologies (which owns mCaffeine) is also looking at ramping up hiring to take its headcount to about 200 people in the next 18 months.

"In October 2016, we launched mCaffeine and have served close to 2.5 million customers till date. This year (FY22), we will do Rs 300 crore in terms of GMV and by FY24, we will touch Rs 1,000 crore in GMV. Revenue would be at Rs 700 crore by FY24," mCaffeine Co-founder and CEO Tarun Sharma told PTI.

He added that 70 percent of mCaffeine's business in FY24 is expected to come from online channels, while 30 percent would be via offline channels as the company is expanding its presence across brick and mortar stores as well.

"By FY24, we expect to be present in 8,000-10,000 offline retail points across the country. Online will always be the first focus for us because that is how the brand has been formed. But our customers are omnichannel and that is why we also want to go to the shelf near them," Sharma said.

He added that the company has about 60 employees and as it expands its operations, this will touch 200 in the next 18 months as mCaffeine hires for strategy roles, offline retail, marketing, and supply chain.

On offline expansion, Sharma said some of the areas where the company is looking at include Maharashtra, Bengaluru, Punjab, Gujarat, Bengal, parts of Chattisgarh, TTM (Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam speaking markets) — which are also strong markets for the brand in terms of online sales.

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The company raised about Rs 60 crore in funding and is backed by investors including Amicus Capital and RPSG Ventures.

Talking about the company's product portfolio, Sharma said mCaffeine has launched 13 products this year and has 31 SKUs in its range.

"We will continue to launch new products. Five years down the line, 20 products a year is where we average out in terms of new launches. For us, revenue by product density is extremely important - which means if I have made Rs 300 crore business from 30 SKUs, what have others done to do that - is it less or more," he added.

Sharma noted that this metric speaks about brand affinity, stickiness, repeat purchases, product penetration and category leadership.

"We have almost three times better revenue by product density as compared to any other brand. That means, for reaching Rs 300 crore, someone else has launched 90 products. And that is one of the most important metrics for us. So, we will expand to 15 more products, and will have 45-46 products by the end of the financial year but when we launch, we will make sure our revenue by product density is intact and growing," he added.

Sharma highlighted that the company is looking at its revenue by product density being double of current levels over the next five years because "we will increase the distribution of the products and our products should have a larger share of the categories".

mCaffeine has an in-house product research and development team, and has partnered with three third-party manufacturers to make the products.

Asked about international expansion, Sharma said: "We believe we have a fair amount of chance to put India on the map of global iconic mass-premium/premium brands".

"International has always been on the back of our heads and this year, we are launching two geographies. We have received a tremendous amount of response from the top 10 geographies of Amazon, the usual suspects US, Middle East, South East Asia. So we will close on two. Initially, we will go online, understand the consumer, set up our teams in these geographies and we won't go offline if the market doesn't require us to do so," he added.

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