Transcription
This startup from Punjab has built a 300-cotop brand, challenging Coca-Cola and Pepsi in India.
There's also this startup from the state that's turning India's stubble burning problem into business with their biofuel.
And also these founders who turn their health issues into a business that's helping over a lakh people lose weight sustainably.
These are just a couple of the incredible startups from Punjab that I'll be covering in this video.
So without further ado, I'm Caleb Friesen, and this is Startup Subcontinent from Backstage with Millionaires.
Let's dive in.
We'll begin our journey in Moolly to meet our first startup, Laori Zira.
It was founded in 2017 by three cousins: S Mjal, Sbna, and Nikil Doda.
Basically, this company started over a casual evening chat at Nil's house.
These cousins would often brainstorm business ideas, but none of them really stuck.
What did stick, though, was Nil's cooking.
One evening, Nikil whipped up a Zira drink, and the other two loved it.
That's when the light bulb moment happened.
They asked, "Why don't we actually sell this?"
When they looked into it, they realized that 90% of India's AED beverage market was dominated by Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
So they saw a huge opportunity for a drink that would resonate with Indian consumers.
Their main ingredient, by the way, rock salt, is also called Laori salt, and this is what inspired the name of their brand, Laori Z.
Without wasting any time, the cousins set up their factory and launched their flagship product.
To make it accessible, they priced their drinks at just 10 rupees, so it's easy for someone to just grab it while they're shopping.
This plan worked; customers loved it.
They kept coming back, and by FY 24, Laori Z was making 312 crores in annual revenue while building a profitable brand from day one.
Okay, now let's take a trip over to Punjab's biggest city by population, Luana, to meet our next startup, Recode Studios.
This company was founded by BJ Bunel and Rahul Sadea in 2018.
Basically, they're selling skincare and beauty care products.
Initially, things were going really well for this company, but then the 2020 lockdowns hit them hard.
They were stuck with between 5,000 and 7,000 SKUs, and most of these were going to be expiring in 6 to 8 months.
There was no way to sell them.
In a desperate effort, they decided to sell their entire inventory at just one rupee per unit, which seemed like the end of their business.
But it turned out to be a marketing masterstroke.
Customers loved, of course, the price point but also the products.
They kept coming back even when the prices went up.
By the time they appeared on Shark Tank India Season 2, Recode Studios had closed FY 22 with 15 crores in annual sales and were already profitable.
Despite the sharks being impressed, none of them chose to invest.
Some found the business to be too expensive at a 100 crore valuation, while others didn't want to back a competitor to their friend's venture, that friend being, of course, V Singh and her startup being Sugar Cosmetics.
Fast forward to FY 23, and Recode Studios had hit 26 crores in revenue.
The last we heard, they were on track to close FY 24 with 50 crores in revenue.
Now, while Recode Studios had to sell their entire inventory for almost free just to survive, this next startup was built to save this craft from dying.
In Amzar, founded in 2019 by Ad Agell K and G of God PTO, they sell handcrafted brass, copper, and bronze kitchenware utensils.
The idea for Bitl came to the founders when they were still in college.
They discovered this community in Amzar that was practicing India's only UNESCO-listed intangible cultural heritage craft.
But the problem was that this craft was dying.
Modern utensils had taken over traditional utensils, and these artisans were earning just 20 rupees per piece.
The situation was so bad that the number of artisans practicing this craft had dropped from 500 to just 30.
UNESCO had considered delisting the craft entirely.
As college kids, they wanted to do something about this.
They started Bitl as a social cause with the initial goal of increasing the artisans' income from 2,000 to 5,000 rupees per month.
Today, Bitl has evolved into a full-blown business.
The founders claim that their products retain 93% of nutrients in food compared to just 13% in modern utensils.
By the time Bitl appeared on Shark Tank India Season 3, they had already closed FY 23 with 3.98 crores in revenue and had raised artisans' average monthly income to 25,000 rupees.
Bitl ended up getting an all-shark deal, getting a commitment of 1 crore for 3.2% equity on the show.
Now, while Bitl is started to save cultural heritage, this next startup from Moolly was started to help people lose weight.
Founded by two childhood friends, Max Singh and Sahil Bunel, in 2019, Fatel has built a network of 1,000 health and nutrition coaches who are helping their customers lose weight and manage their diseases in a sustainable manner.
Max and Sahil had met each other all the way back in 2003 at a gym.
At the time, both of them weighed over 100 kilos.
They tried everything to lose weight, including using medicines and changing their diets, but nothing really worked.
It was always the same cycle: they would lose weight and then gain it back.
Fast forward to 2019, and these two reconnected at a friend's place to discuss a startup idea.
While that idea didn't take off, Sahil noticed something different about Max, which was that he was on an incredible weight loss journey.
At one point, Max had weighed 120 kg, suffered a ligament injury, and was bedridden, forcing him to leave his job.
Since then, Max pursued a master's in nutrition in 2015, where he learned the importance of a healthy diet to lose weight sustainably.
From 2016 to 2019, Max experimented with building online platforms for nutrition coaches to help others in their weight loss journey.
Finally, in 2019, he and Sahil teamed up to create Fatel.
Today, Fatel has helped more than one lakh customers with an impressive 99.3% success rate.
Okay, now let's take a short trip to Rajura to meet our next startup, A2P Energy.
This company is turning a major environmental problem into a sustainable solution.
Founded in 2018 by Sukmit Singh and Dr. Robert Barry, A2P Energy converts paddy straw, the waste that's left over from rice farming, into biofuel.
The idea for this business came when Sid, who was working at the Indian School of Business's entrepreneurship cell in Moolly, collaborated with Aston University on a project to tackle challenges in Indian agriculture.
That is when he encountered the massive issue of stubble burning, where every year several northern states burn paddy straw, releasing toxic pollutants that make Delhi's winter air 17 times more toxic than the recommended limits.
That's when Sid partnered with Robert, who was the head of the European Bioenergy Research Institute at the time, to research this problem.
By 2018, Sid had quit his full-time job at ISB and started A2P Energy.
By 2019, A2P Energy had started producing biofuel commercially, with Pepsi as their first client.
Today, the company has partnered with over 600 farmers, turning their paddy straw into biofuel that supplies more than 10 clients.
Now, speaking of sustainable solutions, this next startup from Binda is making electric scooters for the masses.
Founded by P Goyle and her paternal uncle, Suit Gupta, in 2021, the automobiles launched their flagship VGS60 electric scooter at the EV India Expo 2023.
The S60 was launched at a price point of 1.25 lakh rupees, offering a range of more than 120 km with a top speed of 75 km/h.
The company has said that they want to set up 100 retail stores across 12 states by the end of FY 24.
Earlier this year, the company announced their entry into the B2B segment with the launch of Drive, which comes with a top speed of 25 km/h and a range between 120 and 140 km per charge.
V's Drive is expected to be priced at anywhere between 70,000 and 80,000 rupees, and the company expects to generate between 15% and 20% of their revenue from their B2B business.
Okay, now let's make our way back to Luana to meet our next startup, Jagger Kane.
Founded by Naor Cor and Goo Singh in 2021, Jagger Kane is a DED to see snack brand that makes healthier snacks using jaggery to replace refined sugar.
While the brand was started in 2021, Naor had started looking for healthier options to replace sugar for her diabetic family as far back as 2017.
After researching jaggery and making some snacks at home, she started looking for a manufacturing unit to turn this into a business.
While all of this was happening, Kosel was running his own jaggery manufacturing unit in Bjob that he had set up in 2016, but he was struggling to keep the business going due to lack of demand for the product in the market.
During one chance encounter at Punjab Agriculture University, MAA, the two met and started Jagger Kane.
They began selling organic jaggery-based snacks like AA cookies, coconut jaggery, and millet cookies.
Today, Jagger Kane is making seven crores every single year selling their jaggery-based snacks.
All right, our next startup from Luana is an online sneaker marketplace called Find Your Kicks.
When Simar Deep Singh, Har Ste Singh, and Den Sha started Find Your Kicks in 2021, it was just an Instagram page.
Basically, what they were doing here was connecting sneaker resellers directly with buyers.
They were making money by charging a subscription fee from the sellers for listing their products.
Find Your Kicks had been in business for just 8 months and had brought in revenue of just 26 lakh rupees when they pitched on Shark Tank India Season 2.
Despite the low sales figures, Find Your Kicks managed to get a deal from all five sharks, getting a commitment of 50 lakh rupees in exchange for 25% equity, valuing the company at 2 crores.
Today, Find Your Kicks isn't just an Instagram page; they have their own website.
While we don't know more details, the company seems to be doing well, and their followers on Instagram have increased from just 40,000 at the time of Shark Tank India Season 2 to 2.4 lakh today.
Okay, so while Find Your Kicks is selling sneakers, this next startup from Jalandhar is building a business selling toys.
Rohit Kan had turned his father's traditional toy shop into an online store in 2018, shutting down their toy store for good.
This online store was called Toy Shine, and it was doing 45 crores in revenue in FY 22 with a healthy profit margin of 15%.
When Rohit went on Shark Tank India Season 2 to pitch his startup, he was asking for 1.25 crores in exchange for 0.5% equity, valuing the company at 250 crores.
The sharks did appreciate Rohit for building a huge business, but none of them ended up investing in Toy Shine because they thought it was a commoditized business.
They believed Rohit needed to build Toy Shine into a brand before competing with giants like Hamleys.
Today, according to Rohit's LinkedIn bio, Toy Shine has sold more than 7 million products.
Okay, now let's head back to Luana for our final startup, Freshleaf Tea.
Founded by brother-sister duo Bat Singh and Monit Aurora in 2022, Freshleaf Tea is a premium tea brand offering traditional and sparkling tea blends.
The two siblings launched Freshleaf using 20 lakh rupees of their own savings to build out 21 SKUs, which included 18 varieties of premium tea blends.
To stand out in this crowded market, Freshleaf launched what's called a sparkling tea as well.
Currently, they offer two sparkling teas: lemon ginger and strawberry kiwi.
The company claims that their sparkling tea blends offer between 30% and 40% less sugar compared to other carbonated drinks.
Freshleaf Tea has even signed an NDA with their flavor supplier to make sure none of their competitors can get their hands on Freshleaf's flavors.
The company has sold their tea to 2.5 million customers across 40 cities.
All right, I really hope you enjoyed the video.
If you want to check out the entire playlist where we've covered the startup ecosystems of most of the states in India, at this point, there are a couple of states still remaining, a couple of union territories.
But generally speaking, we've covered most of the country.
You can check that playlist out in the top right corner of your screen.
Again, it's called Startup Subcontinent.
But either way, I'm Caleb Friesen, and this has been Backstage with Millionaires.
Thanks so much for watching, and I will catch you in the next one.