F5, the D2C brand, is gunning for a USD 3 million funding

Launched in 2018 by Raghav Arora and Lalit Aggarwal (both IIM Lucknow alumni), F5 is building a unique hyper-local ecosystem around the daily workplace needs of the consumer market, which is considered to be valued at USD 100 billion.The brand already has its own profitable hyper-local delivery, hooked consumer base and network of partnered retail stores.To begin with, F5 used tea/coffee as a go-to-market strategy to onboard workplaces across three formats: subscription, on-demand as well as at retail outlets. Now, the company is expanding its product portfolio adding meals, snacks, water and even digital services. Products are priced at market rate (e.g. INR 8-10/cup for tea or INR 70/meal) with the assurance of good quality, hygiene and service.The D2C service brand is now looking to raise USD 3 million to expand its presence across geographies and introduce artificial intelligence and machine-learning backed solutions for customers. “We have plans to clock INR 50 crore ARR with this raise and reach 50,000 daily consumers and 250 partnered stores. We will also expand our portfolio to digital products and services through affiliated partnerships with our client base,” Arora said.The company is currently present in Delhi and Lucknow and is running four cloud kitchens with one to launch soon. The daily subscription consumers count is 14,000 while serving 100,000 meals on a monthly basis. So far, F5 has partnered with 40 plus stores and claims to have registered 3x of pre-second lockdown revenue with INR 9 cr as its annual recurring revenue.“We have three consumer target segments, consumers working in unorganised MSME workplaces like the retail shop in Karol Bagh or Dadar or Aminabad, a wholesaler in Sadar Bazaar or a micro factory in Anand Parbat etc. Second, consumers working in semi-organised MSME Workplaces like company showrooms of Reliance Digital, Nike, Airtel, Bata etc, Bank branches, private offices of CAs, Lawyers etc. The third are the consumers working in large corporations such as Cyber city in Gurgaon or BKC in Mumbai,” Aggarwal informed.As of now, the founders don’t see any direct organised competitors. “We have indirect competitors playing in their own segments and serving their own type of demand. For example, Swiggy/Zomato majorly serve hedonic needs while Chai Point/Chaayos are more synonyms to cafés. Tinman or Box8 caters to a higher price point or into pantry management space. On the other hand, local vendors lack quality, hygiene, serviceability, tech etc,” they added.Published by ET Hospitality on November 2 | https://bit.ly/30eO5HWCheck out how Revenue Based Financing is the asset class for the Smart Investor and what investors should account for in Bharat-focused startups?