From coworking spaces to manufacturers of auto accessories and air purifiers, here are top SMB picks of the week
This week, we at SMBStory have unearthed some great stories of small businesses in India. Read on to know how these SMEs are enabling promising growth for the country.
Indian small businesses are seeing phenomenal growth. This is why the micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME) sector in the country is witnessing new businesses, innovation, and success stories regularly. We at SMBStory have been highlighting some of them and the last week has been no different.
Here are the top SMB stories of the week that impressed us:
ABL Workspaces
Ankur Gupta and Akshita Gupta, Cofounders, ABL Workspaces
Coworking spaces, an unheard-of concept just a decade ago, have become a preferred option for many startups and companies whose millennial workforce enjoy the perks of non-traditional office spaces.
Riding the trend is ABL Workspaces, founded in 2017 by husband-wife duo Ankur and Akshita Gupta. Based in Delhi, the coworking space provider has a total of 10 centres—with another four underway—and 2,700 seats, each priced between Rs 6,000 and 1,6000 per month.
In a conversation with SMBStory, Co-founder Ankur Gupta speaks about the inception of the brand, the journey so far, and their future plans.
AutoFurnish
AutoFurnish founders Chakit Khattar (left), Rupal Wadhwa (middle) and Puneet Arora (right)
In every adversity there lies the seed of an equivalent advantage, wrote Robert Collier, an American author of self-help. Putting Collier’s words into practice is New Delhi-based auto accessories manufacturing company AutoFurnish.
Started by Puneet Arora, Rupal Wadhwa, and Chakit Khattar in 2012, AutoFurnish, which is an auto accessories manufacturing and ecommerce business, is seeing increasing demand for auto accessories despite India’s auto slowdown, and gets over 2,000 daily orders for its products.
AutoFurnish is making the most of a declining industry, which recorded its worst-ever sales in two decades in 2019.
But how? The answer is simpler than one might think - AutoFurnish has a strong focus on selling to the pre-owned vehicles segment.
The Delhi-based company, which has a manufacturing unit in Malviya Nagar, claims it has a turnover of Rs 28 crore.
BreatheEasy
Barun Aggarwal, Co-founder & CEO, BreatheEasy
India is in the middle of an air pollution crisis, causing serious health concerns among its citizens. It contributes to the premature deaths of over one million Indians every year. And, Delhi is in the eye of the storm, with hazardous levels of particulate matter in the city’s air.
When he returned to 2010 from the US, Barun Aggarwal was baffled and wanted to do his bit.
“After coming back to India, I went to Yamunotri to spend some quality time thinking about what I can do in India. The greenery and the mountains in Yamunotri called to me, and I observed the freshness in the air which, unfortunately, I found missing in the city,” he tells SMBStory.
Barun had moved back to Delhi with his family, which found it difficult to adapt to the city’s air quality. It was a wakeup call for Barun when he saw his three-year-old son wheezing while at Lodhi Gardens.
“I found the condition alarming. As we came from a place where the air quality level was better, we could immediately see the polluted air taking a toll on our health,” he adds.
Barun set out to find the best portable air purifiers to combat India’s air pollution crisis. He and his team tested 28 different models across 15 stringent parameters for six weeks in his children’s bedrooms.
The children stopped wheezing and BreatheEasy was born. The company was founded with a bootstrapped capital of Rs 10 lakh in 2013 and is incubated under the Paharpur Business Centre, Nehru Place, Delhi.
Barun says the company is one of India’s first full-service Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) solution providers, helping families, schools, and businesses in India create a healthy indoor environment through its air purifiers.
Other top stories of the week
Kapiva Ayurveda
Ameve Sharma, Founder, Kapiva
At an early age, Arjun Vaidya suffered from severe juvenile bronchitis. He was cured after 14 years of meticulous Ayurvedic treatment. From a very young age, he developed a keen interest in learning the ancient Sanskrit scripts filled with the secret family formulations. In an interaction with SMBStory, Arjun says,
“My grandfather had an Ayurvedic clinic where he used to attend to 350 patients on a daily basis. He took forward the 150-year-old Ayurvedic legacy of our ancestors and he also wanted me to get into Ayurveda.”
His grandfather advised him to study biotech, which would help him in the business. However, Arjun instead did his bachelor’s in International Relations and Economics from Brown University.
But, destiny had some other plans for him. Arjun started his career with L Capital Asia (the private equity arm of the Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy Group) in the US where he worked for a couple of years.
In 2013, he headed back to India. Within three months of Arjun’s return, his grandfather passed away. This left him in shock and he recalled the discussion with his grandfather on carrying forward the family legacy.
So, in October 2016, Arjun decided to quit his job and follow his grandfather’s wishes.”
He founded Dr. Vaidya's in 2016, taking his grandfather’s initials with a bootstrapped capital… (Read the full story here)
Emm Kay Industries
Vinay Jain, Founder, President and CEO, Grafdoer
In 2003, Vinay Jain made the journey from Bhiwadi in Rajasthan to Delhi. The young Commerce graduate had Rs 2 lakh in his pocket and a dream to make it big in the capital city.
The 21-year-old graduated from Rajasthan University in Alwar, but did not wish to take over his father’s mustard oil mill. He wanted to start something new and decided to go to a different city to try his luck.
After reaching Delhi, Vinay did not know what to do or where to begin. He started talking to the locals as he contemplated his next move. When Vinay met with a leading bath fittings manufacturer, he saw the opportunity to become a trader for the company. Seeing how the market for sanitaryware was fairly unorganised and fragmented, he decided to take the plunge.
Vinay invested his money in setting up Emm Kay Industries, a trading house in Chawri Bazar, which is a wholesale market for brass, copper, and paper products.
For the next three years, Vinay traded bath fittings such as faucets and showers. But he wasn’t satisfied; his aspirations were bigger than being a small-time trader.
“Somewhere in my heart, I was not happy with the quality and consistency of products that I was trading. I started dreaming of owning a factory where I could manufacture high-quality bath fittings products,” the 41-year-old tells SMBStory… (Read the full story here)
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