YourStory to unveil ‘Brands of India’ to build and grow the D2C startup ecosystem of India

YourStory will unveil ‘Brands of India’ -- an initiative to bring together brand builders, D2C startups, investors, corporates, and policymakers to discover, build, and enable the growth of India’s D2C ecosystem -- in a special launch event scheduled for Friday, September 17, 2021. 

“With over 760+ million online users in the country, there has never been a better time to build a D2C startup/brand in India,” says YourStory Founder and CEO Shradha Sharma. 

“Through YourStory's Brands of India initiative, we will work closely with key leaders and ecosystem stakeholders to help discover, enable and build D2C startups in India, while powering the rise of the next 500-1000 D2C brands from India,” she adds.

More specifically, YourStory's Brands of India will power a slew of initiatives to fuel its mission of helping daring entrepreneurs create an additional 500 Brands of India in the next three years and enable existing brands to grow their business to $100 million from $10 million.

They include: 

• Brands of India Summit: A flagship summit to bring together brands, leaders, experts and the government to define the future of India's D2C brands
• 500 Challenger Brands of India: Discover, showcase, and amplify high potential emerging D2C brands
• Small Business Survey: Survey of D2C brands and startups to identify challenges and invite recommendations for policy and regulatory changes 
• The Brand Accelerator: 100 handpicked brands that will be supported by YourStory’s network from incubation to scale 
• Digital property focused on 'Brands of India’: Media property showcasing stories of brands, entrepreneurs, customers, and brand builders
• Content led campaigns: Customised campaigns focused on promoting ecosystem partners and brand builders

Brand Builders and Co-Creators of YourStory's Brands of India property will have the opportunity to:

• Discover 500 D2C emerging brands of India
• Gain access to and visibility of 500 emerging D2C Brands of India
• Amplify stories of the 500 D2C Brands of India
• Participate in the country’s biggest D2C event: Brands of India Summit
• Reports: Feature in quarterly and annual reports & coffee table books
• Introduce policy recommendations based on research and feedback from the industry
• Conduct cohort-based workshops for D2C Brands
• Feature in infomercials and commercials of select D2C brands
• Gain reach, impressions and visibility to 100 million users

Brands of India Launch event

The September 17 Brands of India launch event will feature eminent personalities from the D2C startup ecosystem and leaders, policymakers and influencers in the space.

This will include:

• Anil Agarwal, Additional Secretary, Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Government of India, 
• Kanwaljit Singh, Managing Partner, Fireside Ventures, 
• Ghazal Alagh, Chief Mama and Co-founder, Mamaearth, 
• Rishi Vasudev, Co-founder and CEO, G.O.A.T Brand Labs,
• Vidit Aatrey, Co-founder, Meesho, 
• Ramneek Khurana, Co-founder, Lenskart, 
• Manish Chowdhary, Co-founder, Wow Skin Science, among others.

The day-long event will host fireside chats and panel discussions around areas such as the future of India’s D2C startup ecosystem, building a pure-play D2C brand from India, acing the D2C marketing game among others.

YourStory will also launch one key initiative under the Brands of India property: 500 Challenger Brands. Under this initiative, over a period of 12 months, YourStory will select top 500 challenger brands with potential to take India's D2C ecosystem to another level, both at the local and global scale. 

Top 100 of these 500 challenger brands will get nominated to 'The Brand Accelerator' — another initiative under Brands of India — to be supported by YourStory's network from incubation to scale.

Register to become a part of YourStory’s Brands of India initiative here.