Kirana Tech – Dutch Uncles https://dutchuncles.in Market Intelligence & Mentoring Resources for Startups and Small businesses | Dutch Uncles Mon, 09 Aug 2021 11:27:28 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://dutchuncles.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/favicon.png Kirana Tech – Dutch Uncles https://dutchuncles.in 32 32 5 Years of B2B E-Commerce Firm Udaan, Eyes 100% YoY Growth in FY’22 https://dutchuncles.in/featured/5-years-of-b2b-e-commerce-firm-udaan-eyes-100-yoy-growth-in-fy22/ https://dutchuncles.in/featured/5-years-of-b2b-e-commerce-firm-udaan-eyes-100-yoy-growth-in-fy22/#respond Mon, 21 Jun 2021 03:35:03 +0000 https://dutchuncles.in/?p=30826&preview=true&preview_id=30826 Udaan, a Bengaluru-based B2B e-commerce start-up offers an online wholesale market and caters to bulk orders. It is one of India’s biggest wholesale markets and recently completed a Series D funding round worth $280 M backed by Moonstone Capital Partners, Octahedron Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, DST Global, GGV Capital, Altimeter Capital, and Tencent Capital. 5 […]

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Udaan, a Bengaluru-based B2B e-commerce start-up offers an online wholesale market and caters to bulk orders. It is one of India’s biggest wholesale markets and recently completed a Series D funding round worth $280 M backed by Moonstone Capital Partners, Octahedron Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, DST Global, GGV Capital, Altimeter Capital, and Tencent Capital. 

5 things done right by Udaan

Evolving business model to meet market demands

Each year, Udaan’s business model was sharpened and has evolved to meet market requirements. This is one of the many things that they did right. 

Udaan’s business model initially took off as an idea that they could somehow bring about a transformation in India’s trade ecosystem. It has always aimed at becoming a full-stack marketplace, logistics, and lending platform for small and medium enterprises. When the SME community in India was growing at an accelerated pace, Udaan capitalised on the high frequency of transactions taking place here and subsequently gained an increase in their revenue along with the growth of the SME ecosystem over the years. 

Strategic Investments in various business arenas

In the span of a single year, Udaan invested more than INR 4000 Cr in a number of business arenas including technology, supply chain, category, credit, people, compliance and more. These efforts were aimed at accelerating and strengthening their capabilities. 

Providing solution to fill gap in a critical market

Rural India is riddled with mom-and-pop Kirana stores. These stores need B2B marketplaces to connect with sellers for stocking up. Businesses of all sizes in B2B especially the neighbourhood grocery stores are being empowered by Udaan’s much-needed supply chain solution. Thus, the start-up has proved to be a saviour for Kirana stores during the pandemic.

Much needed deviation in e-commerce 

Kirana stores contribute to nearly $650 M of the $1 T retail market in India. Udaan rightly capitalised on the huge demand for B2B online retail which is 7.5 times bigger than that of B2C online retail. The secret sauce behind Udaan’s rapid growth has been the fact that they took on the challenge of rural Kirana stores’ stocking problem head-on. 

Deep personal understanding of the problem statement

Last but not the least, Udaan’s stellar success can be attributed to its founders’ own lives which are deeply connected with rural India. The founders have known what it feels like to have your hands tied due to lack of credit access as a small towner or villager. This understanding has been a boon for them along with the fact that they gained hands-on online retailing experience at ‘Flipkart’ prior to Udaan. 

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Each year, Udaan’s business model was sharpened and has evolved to meet market requirements. This is one of the many things that they did right.

What’s in it for me?

It’s a no-brainer that e-commerce is one of the raging successes among all business and industry sectors during the pandemic. With the entire retail and commerce space moving online in just a span of 1-2 years, the opportunities are huge in e-commerce. 

Running an e-commerce firm during the pandemic and amidst lockdown restrictions will entail higher costs which you need to be prepared for before launching your online store. To constantly work around the short-term disruptions which will no doubt show up, your start-up needs to learn to be adaptable. 

E-commerce start-ups listing products from a variety of categories including food, lifestyle, electronics, etc. are guaranteed to succeed. Even with the intense competition, the sector is still largely untapped especially in the small business scene in rural India. Small business food e-tailing is exceptionally lucrative and Udaan is a prime example of this. 

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]]> https://dutchuncles.in/featured/5-years-of-b2b-e-commerce-firm-udaan-eyes-100-yoy-growth-in-fy22/feed/ 0 OkCredit: The Kirana Tech Story Beyond Just Payments https://dutchuncles.in/transform/okcredit-the-kirana-tech-story-beyond-just-payments/ https://dutchuncles.in/transform/okcredit-the-kirana-tech-story-beyond-just-payments/#respond Wed, 07 Apr 2021 02:35:05 +0000 https://dutchuncles.in/?p=22473&preview=true&preview_id=22473 A hard-bound fat notebook generally bright red with the symbol of ‘Swastik on its first page has been the recordkeeper of the monthly credits of the neighbourhood’s Kirana shop. But what seemed to be cumbersome for the local shopkeepers was the task of tallying through those small bills or slips of paper, that have a […]

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A hard-bound fat notebook generally bright red with the symbol of ‘Swastik on its first page has been the recordkeeper of the monthly credits of the neighbourhood’s Kirana shop. But what seemed to be cumbersome for the local shopkeepers was the task of tallying through those small bills or slips of paper, that have a higher chance of getting misplaced and prone to human errors. Any mismatch found while settling the outstanding will lead to a sour customer experience. 

There is a visible gap here, where the larger corporates could afford automated account management platforms there was none for the local shopkeepers, which made them stick into the same old notebook format of managing accounts for several years. Where digitisation is burgeoning into every sector, three IIT graduates thought to bridge this gap by introducing a digital ledger app for small business owners that digitises their transactions and documents payment and freeing them from the  ordeal of maintaining manual accounting books. 

How is OkCredit Disrupting the ‘Bahi Khata’ Management

OkCredit, founded in 2017, is the brainchild of three IIT graduates Gaurav Kumar, Harsh Pokharna, and Aditya Prasad. Realising that most of the small business owners are shy of using new technology and but at the same time there is a deluge in the smartphones, their product OK Credit runs on a basic smartphone that equips the small business owners and their customers with an uncomplicated and secured way of maintaining credit and debit records of their business on an account basis. For ease of usage and relatability, OkCredit supports 13 different regional languages on its platform and has a voice note feature for the users to record the transactions. OkCredit brings efficiency in business by quick settling of balance amounts by allowing the local shopkeepers or Kirana store owners to view its monthly breakdown of credit purchases through a web page link that displays the breakdown. Instead of manual reminders for settling, it can send reminders through WhatsApp and SMS. 

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It is cumbersome for the local shopkeepers to tally through those small bills or slips of paper, that have a higher chance of getting misplaced and are prone to human errors.

OkCredit : Other than Managing the Accounts

Other than being a digital account management platform it has various features – OkStaff and OkShop. For local or mid-sized retail shops there is more than two staff working but OkStaff is a one-stop staff management solution where the shop owners within the comfort of a click can manage staff salary and attendance and can send free alerts through WhatsApp or SMS. The app supports 10 Indian local languages. The workshop feature allows the local shopkeepers to have their digital shop by displaying their products and offers. 

Ok Credit’s Success and Funding 

The pandemic has proved to be beneficial for OkCredit as it played a big role in reviving the small and medium businesses by aiding them to get back their outstanding amounts. In 2020, Ok Credit captured around 0.5 percent of the total GDP i.e. a transaction worth $ 40 billion. It currently has 2.4 crore registered users and 5.5 lakh users are recording transactions everyday. In 2020, the app has witnessed more than 800 million transactions with usage found most in merchants belonging to the age group of 31-40 yrs and 10 percent of the users in 40-50 yrs are adopting the app due to local languages available. Business verticals such as Kirana stores, mobile recharge shops, electronics, apparel, medical stores, and eatery shops form a major chunk of the customers. OkCredit has so far raised funding of $84 million from investors such as Y Combinator, LightSpeed India Partners, and Tiger Global. 

What is in it for MSMEs and Startups? 

Small and medium businesses form the bedrock of the Indian economy, as according to CII (Confederation Indian Industries ) this sector employs around 120 million people and contributes 30 percent in Indian GDP. The local businesses and shopkeepers are realising that pivoting operations to digital will bring efficiency, better inventory management and a doubling of revenues. There is an aspirational change among the local Kirana owners as they want to equally compete with the e-commerce giants. Hence, the future seems bright for the startups who want to bring different digital solutions to solve the business problems faced by their neighbouring local shopkeepers.

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