Tag: startup india

Startup India initiative – Startup Seed Funding

The Startup India initiative was launched on 16th January 2016, by the Hon’ble Prime Minister. The Prime Minister also unveiled an Action Plan consisting of 19 Action Points that act as a guiding document for the startup initiative. Since the inception of the initiative:
There are over 99000+ startups recognized by the government of India as of May 2023

49% of them having a base in Tier 2 – Tier 3 cities
These startups are spread over 669 districts from 36 States and Union Territories of India
As of 31st March 2023, India is home to 108 unicorns with a total valuation of $ 340.80 Bn. Out of the total number of unicorns, 44 unicorns with a total valuation of $ 93.00 Bn were born in 2021 and 21 unicorns with a total valuation of $ 26.99 Bn were born in 2022

VISIT STARTUP INDIA PORTAL

Startup India
Seed Fund Scheme

Financial assistance to startups for proof of concept, prototype development, product trials, market entry, and commercialization

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Startup India Seed Fund Scheme Launch

An Initiative To Spur Entrepreneurship Across India

The Need For Startup India Seed Fund Scheme

Easy availability of capital is essential for entrepreneurs at the early stages of growth of an enterprise.

Funding from angel investors and venture capital firms becomes available to startups only after the proof of concept has been provided. Similarly, banks provide loans only to asset-backed applicants.

It is essential to provide seed funding to startups with an innovative idea to conduct proof of concept trials.

Objective Of The Scheme

Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) aims to provide financial assistance to startups for proof of concept, prototype development, product trials, market entry and commercialization.

This would enable these startups to graduate to a level where they will be able to raise investments from angel investors or venture capitalists or seek loans from commercial banks or financial institutions.
KNOW MORE ABOUT THE SCHEME

How Startup India Seed Fund Will Operate

The Seed Fund will be disbursed to eligible startups through eligible incubators across India
DPIIT

Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade

Nodal Department
EAC

Experts Advisory Committee

Government Representatives & Industry Experts
Incubators

Govt assisted/Not-Govt assisted Incubators

Operational for atleast 2-3 years
Startups

DPIIT-recognised Startups

Incorporated less than 2 years ago

Features Of Startup India Seed Fund Scheme


Year-round ‘Call for Applications’ for Incubators and Startups
Sector-agnostic
No mandatory physical incubation
PAN-India startup programme
Startups can apply to 3 incubators simultaneously

Eligibility Criteria

For Startups
A startup, recognized by DPIIT, incorporated not more than 2 years ago at the time of application.
The startup must have a business idea to develop a product or a service with a market fit, viable commercialization, and scope of scaling.
The startup must have a business idea
MORE DETAILS

For Incubators
Incubator should be operational for at least two years on the date of application to the scheme.
Incubator must have facilities to seat at least 25 individuals.
Incubator must have at least 5 startups undergoing incubation physically on the date of application
MORE DETAILS

Startup India Seed Fund Scheme Launch

The Startup India Seed Fund Scheme was launched by
Honourable Shri Piyush Goyal on 19th April 2021

Scale Up Your Startup With
Startup India Seed Fund Scheme

Your journey of seed fund starts here.
Complete the application to initiate the journey
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FirstCry – The Startup Story

 

FirstCry –
The Startup Story

 

 

The Founder

 

In 2010, Supam Maheshwari launched FirstCry.
Supam graduated from IIM Ahmedabad with a degree in engineering from Delhi
College of Engineering. First-generation business owner that was driven to
create something on his own, he founded FirstCry voyager. He is a founder of
XpressBee, one of the biggest logistical platforms in the nation.

 

What is FirstCry?

 

FirstCry is a dedicated baby and children’s merchandise
e-commerce website. More than 2 lakh products are available on this site in
many categories, including diapers, toys, clothing, and accessories.
Additionally, this industry titan in e-commerce provides mother care products,
such as food, nursing, skin, and wellness items.

 

The idea and foundation of FirstCry’s
inspiration

 

Supam’s love for creating his own things inspired him to
launch the First Cry. Supam had the concept for FirstCry after he observed that
there were few options for infant supplies on e-commerce platforms in India.

 

He saw this as a chance to develop a platform specifically
for infants and young children. It results in FirstCry’s initial conception.
Supam estimates that the baby and children’s sector in India generates a
revenue of about 50,000 INR crore after conducting additional research. What’s
more intriguing is that the offline market accounted for 95% of the total
revenue.

 

Challenges which Appeared During the
Commencement

 

India’s FirstCry launched its baby care e-tailing business
in December 2010. The business was started by Supam with a seed investment of roughly
25 million INR. He overcame every obstacle in a variety of fields, including
payment gateway and logistics. Across the nation, there was tremendous
competition in the marketplace for new clients.

 

Collaborations and the
First Milestone for FirstCry

 

First Cry previously used an inventory-based paradigm. With
their four ware house situated in Pune, Delhi, Bangalore, and Kolkata, they
were exclusively managing the logistics of goods within the nation. Later, they
also began adding different sellers to the FirstCry portal, giving them the
chance to offer their goods on its marketplace.

 

Additionally, FirstCry just debuted its BabyHug clothing
line and CuteWalk shoe line. They have also gained control of Babyoye, a
Mahindra platform for infant products in 2016.

 

The FirstCry worked with Masala Baby, a lifestyle,
children’s, and infants-focused business with headquarters in New York.

 

The Current Growth
Status of FirstCry


Amitava Saha, co-founder and chief operating officer, and
Supam Maheshwari, co-founder and chief executive officer, recently added
SoftBank, a major Japanese internet and telecom company, to their list of
principal investors.

 

These additional funds will probably be used to strengthen
FirstCry’s technological platform and increase its offline and online
visibility. The whole amount raised will raise the First Cry’s estimated value
to $800 million.

 

Right now, FirstCry is the biggest online retailer for
children in Asia. Over 300 of their offline franchise locations are spread over
100 different cities in India.

 

Trends in the Babycare and Mom Products Market
Have Changed

 

As was already indicated at the beginning of the essay,
there is a significant changeover in the Indian baby and children’s market.
However, the nation is currently becoming much more urban with a rise in
nuclear families. Most parents today have two incomes, so they are more likely
to spend the extra money on their kids. The number of children’s items with the
correct brand image and superior quality will inevitably increase.

 

Mothers in particular choose stylish and casual clothing
for their children with new party and function dress. Children today are
exposed to a variety of media, and as a result, they are more aware of their
brands. Children are also actively making decisions about their clothing in
another way.

 

As a result, FirstCry acquired a product inventory of
varied items from over a thousand Indian and foreign brands. It carries some of
the most well-known children’s product brands, such as Barbie, Hot Wheels,
Disney, and Pampers.

 

Baby and kid markets: specialized or
overloaded?

 

The market for baby and children’s products is still
underdeveloped. However, FirstCry is looking for a niche in which it may
develop an entrepreneurial environment for parents. The business makes sure to
provide the top brands and quality products available.

 

FirstCry is making a lot of effort to make sure that
customers can easily access both its online and physical stores. Additionally,
they are constantly improving its FirstCry Box campaign for wide-scale
awareness to quickly reach their clients.

 

FirstCry – The Vision

 

In order to increase its offline market, The
First Cry is looking for an aggressive strategy. FirstCry intends to continue
seeing annual growth of above 100%.

The ultimate goal of First Cry is to dominate
the Indian market for baby items.

Currently, FirstCry’s key priorities are
innovation, improvement, and effectiveness for its consumers’ improved buying
experiences. According to FirstCry, there is room for high-quality baby
boutiques within 5 km of every Indian city. They are therefore attempting to
close this gap by increasing their outlets.

 

Nykaa Success Story

About Nykaa

Nykaa is a brand based in India that specializes in multi-beauty and personal care products. It had originally been set up as a sole e-commerce medium until it later began building up various retail outlets in many other urban cities across India.

Nykaa Founders

A graduate with MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, Falguni Nayar begins to work at Kotak Mahindra in investment banking after her graduation. She became the Managing director at Kotak in 2005. She worked for Kotak Mahindra for about 18 years, during which she decided to move beyond the banking sector and experience in other sectors. She recognized the unexplored potentiality of the online beauty sector. 


Nykaa was started in 2012 by Falguni Nayar and is headquartered in Mumbai. She entered the market to remove the irregularities in the beauty industry. Despite high demand, the industry was not up to the mark. Her expertise in Investment banking has made her value the sustainability of the business.


Despite being a capital-intensive industry, she decided to raise and accommodate funds accordingly. The company has pioneered in providing a one place shopping experience for all domestic brands, international brands, luxury & prestige brands, premium brands, niche, and cult brands.

Business Model of Nykaa


Its business model revolves mainly around inventory management as the company purchases the products directly from brands or distributors and then provides them to the customers on its platform. 


Thinking about how it is different from marketplace models like that of Amazon or Flipkart?

Well in the latter, products are listed by third-party sellers for the customers to make a purchase, which is not the case of Nykaa. This helps Nykaa to secure its customers from any fraudulent sellers and maintain the authenticity of the platform. 

Apart from this, exclusive collaborations with big brands in beauty and fashion, the creation of private labels across categories, and having a physical presence have all helped it stand out in a competitive e-commerce industry where buyers are generally vendor-sceptic and looking for the best deal.


Furthermore, the company’s offline stores are present in 3 formats – On Trend, Luxe, and Kiosks. On Trend & Luxe deals with trending and fashionable brand products. While Kiosk is specifically for featuring premium and luxury brands including Dior, MAC, Huda Beauty, Estee Lauder, and many more prestigious brands.


Apart from Amazon and Flipkart, purple.com is a direct competitor of Nykaa. Purple is one of the companies present in the online retailer business in the same segment. 

Further, in order to interact with beauty enthusiasts, the company formed an online platform – Nykaa Network. This helps them connect better with the customers and provide them with a unique experience.  

Nykaa’s Marketing Strategy

The main element is to promote brands and products via multiple channels, websites, and blog pages. It pitches the products digitally to reach customers in all regions of the country. To directly reach the right audience, the company also collaborated with Femina to conduct Femina Miss India over the last few years.


Another key to its success is its ability to create relevant, engaging, and relatable content for its audience. The focus is to connect with beauty enthusiasts through their YouTube and Instagram handles. The company’s ability to establish itself as a legitimate voice in beauty and, increasingly, fashion talks through social media platforms.

How is Nykaa operating now?

This India-based startup originally began as the sole e-commerce platform. Since then, the company is continuously expanding its operations.

 

It started with the online operations but then diversified into offline stores as well. Currently, the company has 76 brick-and-mortar stores. Earlier, it was only operating in the women’s segment. But in 2019, it entered into the men’s segment by launching Nykaa Men. As of now, the company has 300+ brands in its catalogue under the women, men, and kidswear sections.

Conclusion

The company is planning to expand further in the offline mode through its brick-and-mortar stores. It is planning to open 180+ stores by 2024. This will help the company to boost its sales and revenue. Apart from this, the company is launching an IPO soon, which could take its valuation to 4 billion dollars. It will be the first company in the online beauty marketplace to launch an IPO. Besides, the company is also planning to achieve profitability before going public. 

We could say that Nykaa has become the amazon of the beauty industry. This platform has been instrumental in dispelling the misconception that e-commerce and beauty retail does not work well in India. Due to a continuous rise in sales and the profitability of the company, its plan to launch the IPO has been preponed.


One can say Nykaa has become into the Amazon of the cosmetics sector. Because of this platform, the myth that e-commerce and beauty retail don’t function well in India has been decisively disproven. The company’s plan to start the IPO has been postponed due to an ongoing increase in sales and profitability.

What is Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS)

Overview of Startup India Seed Fund Operation
The scheme aims to provide startups with financial assistance at their early stages such as proof of concept, prototyping, product trials, market entry and commercialization.

Once a startup gets access to capital at the early stage, it improves the potential for the enterprise to scale to a level where funding can be sought from angel investors, venture capital firms, Banks and other financial institutions.
Process of the SISFS
Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has created an Experts Advisory Committee (EAC) to execute and monitor the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme. The EAC will select eligible incubators who will be provided grants of upto Rs 5 Crores each. In turn, the selected incubators will provide startups with up to Rs 20 lakhs for validation of Proof of Concept, prototype development, product trials to startups.
Moreover, up to Rs 50 lakhs shall be provided to the startups for market entry, commercialization, or scaling up through convertible debentures or debt-linked instruments. Detailed guidelines of the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme are available on the Startup India portal.
It is anticipated that the startups that receive support at their early stages shall create significant employment opportunities for everyone.

Key points of the SISFS
  • ~3600 Startups expected to benefit from SISFS
  • ~300 Virtual Incubators to be promoted for supporting startups
  • INR 945 crore corpus divided over 4 years, starting FY2021-22, to be disbursed through eligible incubators
  • Year-round ‘Call for Applications’ for Incubators and Startups
  • Sector-agnostic
  • No mandatory physical incubation
  • PAN-India startup programme
  • Startups can apply to 3 incubators simultaneously

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How Easy or Difficult it is to Start a Business in India?

India has improved drastically in the World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business’ 2020 international ranking by moving up to 63 out of 190 countries in the list. India was at rank 130 in a list of 189 countries in 2016. A sudden jump in rank from 130 to 63 is definitely remarkable and shows true business potentials of new India. Although this sounds good there is a lot more to be done for India to continue rising up. Hrishikesh Datar, Founder and CEO of Vakilsearch, a technology driven company empowering Indians with access to trustworthy legal solutions for entrepreneurs, gives his insights into what more can be done to push India further up the ranking.

The World Bank has said “In the year of 2015, India eliminated the paid-in minimum capital requirement and streamlined the process for starting a business. More reforms are ongoing—in starting a business and other areas measured by Doing Business—though the full effects are yet to be felt”.

Doing business in India – a country which the economic pundits say will be the world’s second-largest economy by 2030 (with China top and the USA pushed into third place). Going back a decade or so this assertion might have seemed nothing more than a fantasy, but everybody now seems to agree that India is finally going places. With a rapidly growing population of 1.3 million which boasts a vibrant middle class and a demographic which is heavily weighted towards youth, the potential of India seems almost limitless.

In the past, many developed economies saw India as a destination for the low-cost outsourcing of back-office or R&D-type functions and, whilst this area of the economy continues to thrive, India needs to be viewed in a very different light these days. India is, quite simply, the world’s largest potential market for goods and services. Where China has already developed much of its infrastructure and service economy, India still has enormous work to do. Look around on the streets of Delhi, Bangalore or Chennai and the need for development is obvious – move into the second or third tier cities and this need becomes even more acute.

What does all of this point to? Opportunities. India is a land of endless possibility where the people are aspirational, energetic, open and eager for progress.

Research

The biggest mistake organisations make when looking at India as a market is that they fail to do adequate research. To say that India is enormous would be a massive understatement. A country with 1.3 billion people, multiple languages, ethnicities, climates and geographies cannot be approached as a homogenous unit. You can’t really have an ‘India strategy’ – you probably need multiple India strategies.

The first question has got to be is: ‘Is India the right market for your products or services at this stage of your development, taking into consideration the current needs of India?’ This is not an easy question to answer. So many factors come into play when addressing this – what is your price point, and how does that sit against the competitive landscape in India? Who are your major competitors and how are they faring? Can you afford to invest in India knowing that the returns might not accrue for a number of years? Which city or region would be a good starting point?

All of these questions need answers, but good quality information is not always easy to come by in India. You will need to engage people on the ground in India who can really get under the skin of the local market and get back to you with honest, trustworthy answers to key strategic questions. Don’t convince yourselves you can do all your research via a laptop back in your office or home– you quite simply can’t.

Finding Manpower

India is full of really great potential employees. On the whole, Indians are well-educated, ambitious, enthusiastic and motivated. Lack of local talent definitely isn’t the issue; finding and retaining good people though can be very difficult.

The Indian employment market is very fast-moving. Indians are always on the lookout for ways of improving their career prospects, job titles and income. How are you going to convince good people that you offer them a bright future? Why should they join your company when there is a myriad of opportunities for the type of people you are looking for?

Culture in India

The underlying factors which drive Indian business culture are deeply rooted in the country’s religious, societal and ethnic past. People are often fooled into thinking that because Indian’s often speak good English and because the country has a western-influenced history, that the cultural challenges they might face will be minimal. Nothing could be further from the truth.

You simply cannot hope to succeed in India unless you gain a very good understanding of the local cultural landscape.

Though with huge efforts of Indian government like launching a start-up India portal, Mudra Loan scheme for MSME (medium small & micro enterprises), there’s a lot to be done in collaborate efforts of Indian citizens and Indian government to get into top economic powers of the world.