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White.Inc—which currently has two brands—Unbottle and Totem recently raised over $1 million. The founder and CEO Siddharth Gadodia on building the business.

Rising Stars: Entrepreneur Siddharth Gadodia on building successful digitally-native and Instagram-first brands

32-year-old Siddharth Gadodia, founder and CEO of Bengaluru-based White.Inc, returned to India in 2015 after completing a Master’s degree in manufacturing from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom and working with an aerospace engineering firm to building a disruptive brand in the consumer space

32-year-old Siddharth Gadodia, founder and CEO of Bengaluru-based White.Inc, returned to India in 2015 after completing a Master’s degree in manufacturing from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom and working with an aerospace engineering firm to building a disruptive brand in the consumer space

Entrepreneur Siddharth Gadodia talks about building successful digitally-native, Instagram-friendly brands

For 32-year-old Siddharth Gadodia, founder and CEO of Bengaluru-based White.Inc, the business of brands has always been fascinating. Having keenly observed direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands leverage their online heft during his time spent abroad, Gadodia returned to India in 2015 after completing a Master’s degree in manufacturing from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom and working with an aerospace engineering firm to building a disruptive brand in the consumer space. 

But it wasn’t easy. Gadodia initially tried reaching out to international brands to establish a presence in the Indian market. Most of these D2C players had found navigating India’s retail landscape and distribution network challenging and were held back from venturing in. He then went on to establish Upbeat Retail in 2015, which helped launch D2C brands in India, managing their end-to-end operations, supply chain and marketing. 

The COVID-19 pandemic proved to be a pivot for most consumers moving towards online retail channels. “Suddenly, digital payments were booming, and we felt it was the right time to launch our D2C brand,” says Gadodia. 

According to a recent report by Technopak Advisors, India’s D2C market is poised for steady growth. The market is estimated at $1.9 billion, contributing close to one per cent of Indian FMCG, home and consumer accessories. Moreover, the report says that India’s D2C market is estimated to grow to $22 billion by FY25 and will contribute more than 10 per cent share. 

In fact, very recently, Aditya Birla Group’s venture TMRW, which markets itself as a digital-first house of brands venture, announced that it would invest heavily in the D2C lifestyle and fashion space. According to several media reports, TMRW has already invested about ₹ 290 crore in eight homegrown D2C brands.

White.Inc—which currently has two brands—Unbottle, in the sustainable drinkware segment, and Totem, offering Apple-focused gear (with more brands to follow), recently raised over $1 million. This was led by Dholakia Ventures, Inflection Point Ventures and First Port, alongside angel investors like Suhail Sameer and Shashvat Nakrani from BharatPe, Guruvanth Vaid from 4G Capital Ventures, and Aniket Gore from the Ceramet Group. 

Here are edited excerpts from a conversation with Gadodia for The Established:

How did White.Inc come about? 

While studying abroad, I was in awe of brands like Warby Parker, an online eyewear company in the United States, and Away, a luggage brand, who were disruptors in the market. There was some excellent product innovation happening here. 

I met my co-founder and head of e-commerce, Young Yun, a Korean native, in 2016. He was managing the India business of Spigen, a mobile accessory brand. It was the right time to tap into the D2C space in India. Our research led us to Box Clever, a San Francisco-based product design company doing some cutting-edge innovation with market-leading companies. Not many Indian brands have invested heavily in product design. We wanted to differentiate here, and that’s how the idea for a digitally-native firm came about, focused on audiences looking for products with design and functional appeal. 

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"Our primary customer acquisition happens on Instagram, as that’s where most users are"

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"Our brands must appeal to this customer base and should be eye-catching enough to discourage users from scrolling further"

What was the value proposition in launching an Instagram-first brand? 

India needed to catch up to the e-commerce movement. Until the pandemic, most people were still hesitant to shop from D2C companies. In 2020, we started our research, teaming up with leading market research firm Kantar, on categories that could grow over the next ten years, apart from food, fashion and beauty. We zeroed in on five relatively underserved categories, starting with Unbottle in drinkware and Totem for Apple products. We’re planning to launch our luggage brand Motion in May next year, Amber for cookware in September, and Zen for house plants in February 2023. 

Our primary customer acquisition happens on Instagram, as that’s where most users are. Our brands must appeal to this customer base and should be eye-catching enough to discourage users from scrolling further. Currently, 68-70 per cent of our sales are from Instagram via our websites and the rest from platforms like Amazon.

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"What was personally challenging for me was learning how to raise funds. It took me some months to figure out before I could raise money"

How are you competing with traditional retail channels, given that people are increasingly shopping offline?

We want to be category leaders in the premium segment. You can either have five per cent of the mass market or 70-80 per cent of the premium market. It is imperative to note that modern trade is geared more toward FMCG than lifestyle products. So we don’t see ourselves competing with traditional retail. 

What makes Unbottle different in a market cluttered with sustainable drinkware options? How is it uniquely positioned as an Instagram-first brand? 

We launched Unbottle in January this year and have sold 43,000 bottles till date. We’ve noticed that new-age Indian consumers are looking to upgrade their lifestyles with products that are both functional and aesthetic. Most of the legacy brands in this space still offer limited colour options and have been slow to innovate. So we’ve decided to focus strongly on our product design and aesthetics. Customers can choose their colour preference from muted, pastel and neon hues and even engrave their names on the bottle too. Almost 80 per cent of our orders are engraved, and so personalisation is key. We will launch the second series of Unbottled in April 2023 with our patented design, which will help propel the brand further. 

How will the funding be used? And how will it be a game-changer for the company? 

We have primarily raised money to invest in product development and buy more inventory. We sold out Unbottle’s merchandise within three months of its launch. We’ll also use this capital to build a team to launch more categories and scale the business. The goal is to focus on these five categories and hit revenues of over ₹1,000 crore in the next four years. Next year, we’ll be looking to raise another $10 million. For us, it’s all about building brands that retain customer loyalty. 

Customers can choose their colour preference from muted, pastel and neon hues

Customers can choose their colour preference from muted, pastel and neon hues

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"Almost 80 per cent of our orders are engraved, and so personalisation is key"

What about the company’s growth trajectory and target revenues?

We closed the last fiscal at ₹6 crore in terms of revenue. This year, we’re closing at ₹18 crore, and for the next fiscal, we have a target of ₹50 crore. Currently, nearly 70 per cent of our sales come from Tier-I cities and the remaining 30 per cent from Tier-II cities. We built a strong distribution network from the get-go, so we can offer delivery in 1-2 days for our products, just like Amazon would. The ultimate goal is to take these brands internationally as well.

“CURRENTLY, 68-70 PER CENT OF OUR SALES ARE FROM INSTAGRAM VIA OUR WEBSITES AND THE REST FROM PLATFORMS LIKE AMAZON”

Siddharth Gadodia

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"Currently, nearly 70 per cent of our sales come from Tier-I cities and the remaining 30 per cent from Tier-II cities"

Given that India's start-up funding has declined in the last couple of quarters, what were some of the challenges in raising funds? 

We didn't face challenges in that sense. Our unit economics was strong, and so was our business model. We also tested out the market. What was personally challenging for me was learning how to raise funds. It took me some months to figure out before I could raise money.

What do you think of India’s changing consumption patterns? And how will this shape up for online retail? 

It is changing every year. The future lies in making the experience more personal for consumers. One of the biggest challenges for e-commerce is for customers to be able to touch and feel a product before purchasing it. If e-commerce companies can figure out tools like video-shopping online, where customers can talk one-on-one with a representative and view products on the website in real-time, it can help them make more informed and quicker decisions. We’re also working on bridging the gap of high-intent consumers to make sales on the website. I think that is the future for e-commerce, and will be a game-changer over the next five years.

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