CEO Prashanth Aluru On The Key Metrics TMRW Looks At Before Acquiring A Brand

Earlier this year, Aditya Birla Group launched its ‘house of brands’ business, TMRW, to back new-age digital businesses. Speaking at Inc42’s ‘The D2C Summit 3.0’, TMRW CEO Prashanth Aluru highlighted some of the key metrics he looks at before making the decision to acquire a brand. 

Category and market opportunity are among the two primary metrics TMRW looks at, he said.

“One area is which is large categories today, which is reasonable ecommerce penetration but still growing well. There we go for mid-sized to selectively large brands,  where the idea for us is to come in and help them scale,” Aluru said.

Besides, he said there are emerging categories which are small but niche. TMRW aims to spot early-stage disruptive brands and create leaders in these categories.

“If the founder quality is great and the early sight on consumer need, on consumer gap is high, we are willing to come in and do the heavy lifting with those founders and take it to the next level,” Aluru added.

One of the very important areas for TMRW is alignment with the founder as it focuses on the founder-led model. “The only idea is to join the founders in the journey who want to stay the course and who want to invest in brand building, who want to build all those capabilities we can bring in, along with the growth capital,” he commented.

Besides, TMRM also looks at other metrics like unit economics and retention, which any investor or operator would look at, Aluru said.

TMRW focuses on brands that are built on strong fundamentals and are taking risks to grow. It makes sure that the structural unit economics of the space and brand are right, the CEO said.

The D2C space is fast-growing in India, attracting corporates and traditional companies as well, apart from startups. Globalbees, Mensa Brands, Good Glamm Group, Plum, GOAT Brand Labs are among the startups in the space.

The two-day ‘The D2C Summit 3.0’ saw founders and investors from the D2C ecosystem discussing a range of issues – achieving profitability, scaling up business, getting product-market fit right, global expansion, among others.

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