India-based D2C e-commerce enabler tech startup for product sampling and trial, Smytten raised USD 15 million (INR 100 crore) in its Series B round. The funding took place on May 17, 2022. Existing investors such as Fireside Ventures and Roots Ventures led the round for Smytten.
Meanwhile, Sharrp Ventures, Einfochips founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Pratul Shroff family office–Waao Partners, Rockman Industries chairman Suman Kant Munjal family office’s Survam Partners and Sattva Group family office, also invested in the funding.
Purpose of Funding for Smytten
Smytten will build many industry-first tech and data solutions with the recent proceeds. With advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) applications it seeks to optimize the marketing funnel for D2C brands, i.e. starting from new product development to consumer acquisition and retention.
In addition, the startup will invest heavily to create a best-in-class servicing infrastructure across the country. The aim is to widen the product trial touch points and strengthen the online service delivery to better the pre-purchase buying experience for consumers at scale. Besides, the company will hire in areas like supply chain, marketing, research & insights.
What the founders have to say
Siddhartha Nangia, Co-founder of Smytten, said, “We are looking at a significant growth and push this year. The funding we have raised will be used for five different business growth aspects. One is the significant growth of technology and infrastructure. Currently, B2B brands in the D2C segment have seen significant growth. We want to continue onboarding one to our partners every day. We are looking at the HENRY (High Earning, Not Reached Yet) segment of consumers. These are between the age of 27 to 38 years and have an average income of Rs 8 lakh to Rs 10 lakh per annum. Currently, 70 per cent of the users are women; however, with the new categories we will be expanding into, we want to attract more men as users. Try before you buy. It is not specific to women.”
He further said, “Currently, we are present in 12 categories and are looking at adding five more categories and category experts. We also are looking at significant brand building, and we expect every Indian to know about Smytten.”
Swagat Sarangi, Co-founder at Smytten, said, “Our mission is to democratize access and experience of premium and D2C brands for the Indian consumers by offering direct-to-home product trials. We are building a robust tech platform to make consumers’ pre-purchase journey and decision-making process seamless by bringing in the power of trial experiences, data, content and community altogether.”
What the investors have to say
Kannan Sitaram, Partner at Fireside Ventures, said, “We continue to believe in developing an enabling ecosystem for the consumer brand revolution shaping up in India, and Smytten is right at the forefront of it. Their integrated approach to the consumer funnel and technological innovations to solve the key challenges faced by many D2C brands makes them the unequivocal leader in a potentially $10 billion sampling and advertising market. The data-driven experiential solutions are already making waves, and Smytten is becoming the first port of call for every consumer brand.”
In addition, Japan Vyas, Managing Partner at Roots Ventures, said, “Smytten has grown more than 12X by revenue since the time we invested. We have participated in every round of fundraising they’ve had. We will continue to back them in future with even stronger conviction. Our team is confident that Smytten will be a large, profitable and fundamentally strong business in the consumer-tech space globally.”
About the company
Former Googler Swagat Sarangi and ex-Unilever executive Siddhartha Nangia co-founded Smytten in 2015. The tech enabler startup offers product trials in different categories such as fragrances, beauty & makeup, male grooming, food & beverages. It also provides product samples to consumers across these categories and asks for real-time user feedback post sampling.
Its clientele comprises brands such as Mamaearth, Plum, MCaffeine, Wow Skin, Maybelline, Man Matters, Bodywise, and The Man Company.
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