These 5 businesses became India's most sought-after brands in 2021
The business landscape has changed. Entrepreneurs are now thinking of something innovative to make a difference to consumers. SMBStory has curated a list of small businesses that made it big and became consumers’ favourite brand in 2021.
The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed the definition and landscape of businesses in the past two years. Who knew the internet penetration would be so deep that even the remotest towns of our country would adapt to and prefer online shopping.
As ‘online’ became the new buzzword, young entrepreneurs in our country didn’t take too long to ride the new wave of digital era. Even though they started as a small business, year 2021 gave them wings to unleash and reach their target customers. One can say that the clarion call for Aatmanirbhar Bharat and entrepreneurs being able to reach and educate customers made businesses grow manifold.
SMBStory has curated a list of top 5 businesses that became India's most sought-after brands in 2021.
Amrutam
Stuti Gupta and Agnim Gupta
Founded in 2006, is an ayurvedic health and personal care brand that was running into losses until 2016. Its founder, Ashok Gupta, who was working as a distributor for various pharma companies, was finding it hard to keep the business afloat until his children Agnim Gupta and Stuti Gupta decided to step in.
What restarted in August 2017 by getting one order a month has now grown to receive 4,000 orders per month, with a revenue of more than Rs 2 crore. The company also claims to have witnessed a 250 percent jump in revenue in FY 21.
Agnim and Stuti revamped Amrutam and rebranded its products. From supplying herbal medicines to medical stores and doctors, Amrutam started selling premium personal as well as healthcare OTC products online, through their website, and directly to the consumers (D2C). They also repackaged the products and labelled them differently.
The brand has around 1,000 SKUs, and Stuti claims it differentiates from its competitors in the healthcare category by offering ayurvedic malts.
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The Indian Ethnic Co
Lekhinee Desai and Hetal Desai, Cofounders, The Indian Ethnic Co
Started as a passion project from a family home, is a Mumbai-based brand founded by mother-daughter duo Hetal Desai and Lekhinee Desai in 2016. In just five years, the clothing brand has touched nearly Rs 10 crore in turnover, and deals with more than 3,000 monthly orders.
From 2016 to 2018, the company only sold through its Facebook and Instagram pages. However, since the launch of the website, the brand has seen exponential growth.
In the last two year, The Indian Ethnic Co has witnessed a jump in its global sales and Lekhinee says they have a strong customer base in the US, the UAE, Singapore, and Japan. In total, the brand sells to around 50 countries globally.
Lekhinee says the brand focused on just one goal: to make Indian fashion responsible, sustainable, and truly handcrafted.
The company deals in handcrafted fabrics like Ajrakh, Bandhani, Bagh, Batru, Balotra, Dabu, Sanganeri, and more. Besides salwars and kurtis, their products now involve saris, dupattas, western and Indian tunics, silver jewellery, and more. It works with around 500 artisans from across the length and breadth of India.
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Adwitiya Collection
Aditi Garg, Founder, Adwitiya Collection
Chartered accountancy is a challenging undertaking, with aspirants spending several years to clear the exams.
For Aditi Garg too, who was pursuing her CA, clearing the final exam was becoming difficult with each passing year. As she wanted financial independence, she started as a reseller of jewellery in 2013.
Building a micro-level side business is what gave her the confidence and financial independence to dream bigger. She started selling jewellery online through Amazon and Flipkart. Her business was giving her good profits but she couldn’t give her 100 percent to the business as she was also focussing on clearing her CA finals.
In 2018, Aditi, tired of sailing on two boats, decided to quit her CA and entered the business full time. She started a jewellery label that registered Rs 2.78 crore in sales in FY21, growing 400 percent during the festive season.
GoNoise
Gaurav Khatri, Cofounder, Noise
It was 2014, and the consumer electronics segments for smartphones, smartphone cases, Bluetooth earphones, etc., were exploding on and India. Alongside the smartphone segment blossomed a market for smartphone accessories like cases and covers. This was the segment Gurugram-based Gaurav Khatri wanted to venture into.
“There was an opportunity to invest in smartphone cases and covers; it seemed like a good bet,” Gaurav says.
Fast forward five years, and riding on the wave of skyrocketing smartphone sales on ecommerce platforms, Gaurav claims GoNoise became one of the best sellers in the mobile accessories category.
The year 2020 brought a huge opportunity for – it witnessed double-digit month-on-month growth.
“During the pandemic, there have been use-case based demands stemming - and noise cancellation devices saw a major uptake. We launched a portfolio of five such products and each of them has witnessed great response,” Gaurav tells SMBStory.
Gaurav claims that Noise is growing 100 percent year-on-year.
Shobitam
Aparna Thyagrajan and Ambika Thyagrajan, Co-founders, Shobitam
Started by sister duo, Aparna and Ambika Thyagrajan, holds a strong emotion behind its inception as Aparna says, “Buying Indian ethnic wear in the US was not a very satisfying experience.”
“Living in Seattle, US, I always felt short-changed by the variety and quality in the ethnic wear. During one of my visits to India in 2018, I was working with a zardosi artist for sarees that Ambika and I were designing for ourselves for an event. The karigar suggested that we start a boutique and that he would work with us,” she adds.
This got Aparna thinking and in 2019, she started building Shobitam to take Indian ethnic wear to a global level.
Aparna started by selling 15 sarees, and in just two years, Shobitam is shipping products to over 30 countries.
From Sozni in Kashmir, Chikankari in Uttar Pradesh, Dabu in Rajasthan, Ikkat in Odisha, Moiran Phee in Manipur, to Pen Kalamkari in Kerala and more — the brand is associated with over 340 weavers and artisans across 16 cities in India.
It has witnessed over 300 percent annual growth in the last two years.
Edited by Megha Reddy