Join Ventures, which deals in direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands, has forayed into the luxury foods segment with a new brand, Masqa, and will invest over $7 million in the next 18 months, the company said in a statement. The firm will also hire over 100 employees across the country in operations, sales and marketing.
Join Ventures said it has over 100 million visitors across its portfolio brands like IGP; Interflora India and IGPforBusiness.
“This year, consumers across the world shopped for over 100 tonnes of indulgent foods from us,” Tarun Joshi, Founder and CEO, Join Ventures and Masqa, said in the statement.
“Food is a strong growth area for Join Ventures and we are looking at investing upward of $7 million in the next 18months on Masqa to give a full stack D2C experience to the consumers. To enable this, we are in the process of building a team of 100 specialists,” he added.
According to Avendus Capital’s report, the D2C food and beverage market stood at $5.5 billion in 2020, and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 40% to touch $15 billion by 2025. India is one of the largest retail markets in the world, projected to surpass $1.7 trillion by 2025, it added.
2021 has seen homegrown D2C startup brands draw more than $250 million from venture capital (VC) investors in the first half of 2021, nearly as much as the total sum invested in such businesses through 2020. Investor appetite for D2C brands, whetted last year by pandemic tailwinds, has accelerated across categories, the statement said.
While the tailwinds have set the stage well for D2C brands in India, COVID-19 has accelerated online adoption amid temporary closure of retail stores and growing wariness for public places.
