Fairdeal Raises Funding To Help D2C Brands Expand Offline Distribution

Retail intelligence platform Fairdeal.Market has raised $2 Mn funding in a round led by WaterBridge Ventures. It also saw participation from Gemba Capital, GrowX Ventures, Ananta Capital CEO Priyaranjan Kumar, Vini Cosmetics CFO Manish Bajoria, among others. 

Founded in 2022 by brothers Prateek Bansal and Yash Bansal, Fairdeal is building a data-led distribution network to provide full-stack offline distribution service to D2C brands. 

It also helps regional and global brands launch new products and enter new markets. 

“We are firm believers that developing multiple touchpoints with consumers holds the key to building a long-lasting brand and that the strong offline presence of brands will remain a key determinant in purchase decisions. We also believe that digitally influenced offline sales will drive robust growth for new-age brands, heralding a new era where omnichannel will be the norm,” Prateek Bansal said. 

Citing the need for its network, Fairdeal said data-backed offline distribution is the key to success for brands amid the stiff competition from ecommerce. The startup also said that online distribution channels are expensive, further increasing the importance of tapping offline channels.

According to Fairdeal, only 50% of the rural areas have been tapped well by the FMCG giants with an annual revenue of more than $2 Bn. This is the gap that the startup is aiming to bridge by building a retail intelligence platform for brands using an offline distribution first approach. 

Fairdeal claims to have a network of over 10K retailers and said it aims to use data to ensure optimal mapping of brands to retailers to help them boost sales and support brands to co-create new products and develop pricing strategies.

“D2C and regional brands alone are expected to generate $100 Bn in sales by 2027 with 60% share of offline sales. If Fairdeal executes efficiently and is able to capture just 1% share of this, it has an opportunity to become immensely valuable,” said Ashish Jain, partner at WaterBridge Ventures. 

Over the last few years, the number of D2C brands are on the rise in the country. While most of them started selling their products through online channels, they have now also expanded to offline markets to build an omnichannel presence.

India’s D2C market is estimated to reach a size of $100 Bn by 2025. As per Inc42’s analysis, F&B (27%), fashion (25%), and beauty and personal care (28%) occupy the top spots in the product category list for D2C brands. 

As a result, along with the rise in the number of D2C brands, investments are also increasing in the space. Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters, Pilgrim, abCoffee, and Third Wave Coffee are among the major D2C brands which secured funding recently.