Where there is a will there is a way, this is an apt adage for all the startups reigning the new evolving entrepreneurial ecosystem of India. There is no surprise about the fact that India is home to one of the several biggest startups' success stories in the past decade. Read on to know more about the startups growing via franchise business model.
Time is right for startups in India. Business appears to be booming and in this article you will catch a glimpse of how startups are flourishing in India because of their uniqueness and how franchise business model has further helped them boost their business across the world.
Lemme Be
Working with the Red Cross, allowed Devidutta, Founder, Lemme Be the opportunity to work with teams dealing with period poverty, menstrual hygiene management (MHM), safe sanitation and hygiene. While working on a grassroot level, Devi found a deep understanding of the struggles faced by many young menstruators across the country. She analysed that in India, poor menstrual hygiene causes over 70% of all reproductive diseases and the current state of menstrual hygiene in India and her understanding of these problems eventually paved the way for her to work on Lemme Be, an inclusive period care brand that provides an honest and free choice for all menstruators to have comfortable and safe periods.
She evaluated the period care market for western and developing countries and analyzed the problem statement. Before launching Lemme Be, she launched India’s first organic period care brand named Mirai Me and worked on it for 2 years, creating user cases, understanding customer journeys, and developing need-based products. This venture helped her get a deeper perspective on the struggles faced by many young menstruators across the country.
As per Devidutta, Founder, Lemme Be, “We live in a world riddled with taboo, so being a voice of woke, sassy, and never-yielding generation our objective is to amplify awareness and education regarding menstruation and menstrual hygiene. Periods are natural, healthy and important but due to a lack of awareness about proper menstrual care, many menstruaors suffer from problems like rashes, leaks, stains, odor, and discomfort; which, if not taken care of, can lead to severe health issues. Since its launch in November 2020, Lemme Be has focused on rigorous and thorough research to design and sell a variety of menstrual products that can bring absolute comfort with ample options of menstrual products that suit our customers’ choices.”
Product USP
The brand offers a varied range of products to choose from which are available in
different sizes. The menstrual pads, tampons and pantyliners that it offers
are made of GOTS-approved 100% organically certified cotton, oxo-
biodegradable, super skinny with perforated top covers, and without any
chemical, bleach, or fragrance that is harmful to the intimate areas.
Raising the business bar
The brand has raised angel of INR 5 crore and pre series A of INR 13.5 crore. Their investors include Wami Capital, Multiply Ventures, Sattva Family Office, UNI-M, angel investors, and the founder of Sixth Sense - Nikhil Vohra.
The brand operates via its partners in General Trade / Modern Trade which help them to be placed across various stores to build their brand awareness and help adoption of mass products and thus catering to upselling / cross-selling, it is thought through GTM channel built. The brand is further seeking multi-brand franchises who will be interested to become their partners in growth. The brand is also looking at vending machine franchise model for expansion. Currently, they are present in close to 500 sales points.
They are presently working with partners which are either medical shops or are our distributor partners in tier 1/2/3 towns where they can help build the brand resonance, also they are focussing on helping women to become entrepreneurs through their program by starting businesses with as less as 1 lakh and build a community to sell our products.
When asked about expansion, Devidutta avers, “We plan to expand our footprint to US/SEA and UK markets but will take it one at a time as we stabilize one market and then move to one another. For the time being our focus is Dubai and Australia. We believe in the next 24 months we will be a global brand from India, which will have deep penetration in Global markets as well as India, serving close to 1 million odd customers and launching 10 more SKUs.”
Lootel Café
It was a life-changing and threatening event for Neelam Singh, Co-Founder, Lootel Cafe and Yashwant Suthar, Founder, Lootel Café for using an unhygienic and unsafe public restroom in the mid of an urban city a few years ago. Post this underwhelming event, both the founders quit their job & started working on the public toilet problems. After a lot of R&D, they listed all the problems and concerns about the public toilet and found that using restroom is a serious problem for women regarding safety and hygiene and created a sustainable solution “Lootel”. Lootel is committed to provide clean and hygienic washrooms to the users and they call it “Happy Washroom” which brings a smile to the user's face.
The brand caters to the user’s psychological and physiological needs while travelling and transiting. Lootel (Loo of Hotel) provides clean and air-conditioned public restroom services. Lootel (Loo of Hotel) is IoT based smart restroom cafe that provides the place for the "Take a Break" with 3R ( Recharge, Refresh, Refuel) model.
These three services are complementary to each other and create sustainability in revenue. These service combinations help them get 24X7 hours of operation for cross-city users. They are purely running on technology for the operation and management.
Lootel is a completely bootstrapped startup and is raising funding through franchise business. It is completely a tech-based startup and manages the operation of franchise business through technology. They have developed the IoT for operation and management.
According to Yashwant Suthar, “In India, daily 2.5 crore people travel by train and 5 crore people travel by bus daily and this huge market for us. After covid pandemic hygiene is a priority for the user and new generation service seekers and they are ready to pay for quality restrooms.”
Raising the business bar
To strengthen the brand’s presence, the company has opted for franchise business model. It is an asset lite model. The reason they have chosen to operate via franchising is that it helps them in the operations where they need not take care day to day operational activity. The brand started franchising recently & has three franchise partners.
To expand its presence, the brand is planning to add 15-20 franchise outlets in metro cities and transit locations. To partner with Lootel, there are two models an investor can choose from varying from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 1.5 crore. To run the outlet successfully, Lootel offers entire setup & operational support to its partners.
India is home to several successful startups. Recently, The Bombay Shaving Company, which has positioned itself away from a men’s grooming firm to a hair removal brand, has raised Rs 160 crore in a Series C funding round led by Malabar Investments, a hedge fund based in India. The brand has also started franchising to make the brand grow stronger. The online furniture and home décor startup Pepperfry too operates via franchise model for expanding its offline stores. However, in the coming future, we will see many more startups which will do wonders via franchising in India & international market too.
BLURB
Lemme Be has raised angel of INR 5 crore and pre series A of INR 13.5 crore. Their investors include Wami Capital, Multiply Ventures, Sattva Family Office, UNI-M, angel investors, and the founder of Sixth Sense - Nikhil Vohra.
Lootel is a completely bootstrapped startup and is raising funding through franchise business. It is completely a tech-based startup and manages the operation of franchise business through technology. They have developed the IoT for operation and management.
The Bombay Shaving Company, which has positioned itself away from a men’s grooming firm to a hair removal brand, has raised Rs 160 crore in a Series C funding round led by Malabar Investments, a hedge fund based in India. The brand has also started franchising to make the brand grow stronger.
The online furniture and home décor startup Pepperfry too operates via franchise model for expanding its offline stores.
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