Offline Expansion Continues To Peeve D2C Brands: mCaffeine’s Tarun Sharma

Speaking during a session on “Secrets To Scaling: Breaking Through Into The INR 100 Cr Club” at Inc42’s D2C Summit, mCaffeine’s cofounder and CEO Tarun Sharma said that 95% of the company’s business continues to come from its online vertical. 

“For mCaffeine, 95% of our business continues to come from our online vertical. I believe that offline expansion continues to be a hard challenge for D2C brands irrespective of the category,” he said. 

His comments come at a time when the D2C beauty and personal care (BPC) brand’s losses are widening. In its last disclosed financials for the financial year 2022-23 (FY23), mCaffeine’s loss jumped 61.5% year on year (YoY) to INR 91.6 Cr.

Its revenue from operations also increased 51.8% YoY to INR 205.2 Cr during the year under review. Including other non-operating income, mCaffeine’s total revenue stood at INR 210.1 Cr in FY23, up 54.7% YoY. 

His comments come at a time when more D2C brands are taking an omnichannel approach to further their growth. A plethora of D2C brands such as Firstcry, Bombay Shirt Company, Lenskart, Rage Coffee, and Giva, just to name a few, are embracing the omnichannel route to reach out to their consumers. 

WaterBridge Ventures’ partner Ashish Jain expected D2C and regional brands alone to generate $100 Bn in sales by 2027 with 60% share of offline sales. 

Founded in 2016 by Sharma, Vikas Lachhwani, Vaishali Gupta, Mohit Jain and Saurabh Singhal, MCaffeine offers caffeine-infused skin and hair care products. It sells these products on its website and various online marketplaces such as Amazon and Nykaa. 

The D2C brand last raised INR 240 Cr ($28.5 Mn) as part of its Series C funding round led by Paragon Partners.

The D2C Summit is presented by Broadway, co-presented by Simpl and Emiza, powered by Venture Catalysts++, Zippee, Pay10 and Mobavenue, along with associate partners NITRO and Rukam Capital.