Deepak Gupta

Homegrown craft beer brand Medusa Beverages Pvt Ltd has raised INR 56 Cr (approximately $6.5 Mn) in a Series A funding round co-led by amal parikh, Managing Director of Ohm Stock Broker, and ASHWIN KEDIA, cofounder of Alchemy Capital Management. The funding round also saw participation from prominent investors, including Ramesh Damani, Crest Opportunities, and several high-net-worth individuals (HNIs) from Singapore, the UK, and the UAE. Medusa Beverages plans to utilize the funds to scale operations, strengthen its partnerships with distributors, and expand its market presence across India. “We are excited to expand our operations, build a diverse portfolio of brands, and strengthen our presence in key markets with the support of our investors,” said Avneet Singh, founder and CEO of Medusa Beverages. Growth Plans and Market Expansion The Delhi-based company, founded in 2017, is eyeing Assam, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra as its next growth destinations. Medusa’s craft beer is currently available in 7,000 retail outlets across seven states, including Delhi, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Himachal Pradesh. Medusa has carved a niche in the craft beer segment with its three unique beer variants and aims to further diversify its portfolio to meet the evolving preferences of Indian consumers. Financial Performance Medusa Beverages has raised a total of INR 13 Cr in funding to date. In FY24, the company reported gross revenue of INR 132 Cr, driven by strong demand for its flagship craft beer. Singh projects FY25 revenue to reach INR 175 Cr, underscoring the brand’s steady growth trajectory. Team Medusa👇 Avneet Singh | Jasleen Kaur | Nitin Kalra | Amardeep Singh |

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ITC Limited is in preliminary discussions with Norway’s Orkla ASA to acquire its Indian businesses, MTR Foods Private Limited and Eastern Condiments Pvt Ltd, in a deal valued at approximately $1.4 billion. #brand #marketing #fmcg #acquisition https://lnkd.in/gRBX8gTZ

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The war for talent is as critical as the war for market share. At Marico Limited, one of our toughest challenges was to attract leaders from leading FMCG of global companies. On the surface it looked difficult. These were people who worked with global brands and vast structures. Yet many of them felt stifled by the distance from decision making and lack of autonomy. Critical calls were being taken in headquarters far away. We built our proposition on a very different promise. At Marico, young leaders could launch products and see their ideas reach the shelves within months. They were empowered to shape outcomes in a way they could never have done in larger corporations. That became our edge. The war for talent is not won with higher salaries alone. It is won by creating an environment where people feel they can grow faster, take real responsibility, and make a visible difference. Markets reward the companies that win this war. Talent is the true multiplier of strategy. #leadership #talent #culture #future #success

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Why are brands spending so much on QCom? A big reason for the rush towards QCom by F&B brands is the slowdown in General Trade and Modern Trade on account of consumption slowdown. GT caters to 90% of India's population. Modern Trade services the top 40%. QCom caters to the top 8% population which will consistently grow every year for the next ten years. And that's why it is the bright spot right now. That's why brands are willing to spend on Qcom, even in cases when it doesn't make sense. The mantra is Growth, not Efficiency or Volumes. But Paid Visibility is not Advertising. Even though they may classify it as Ads. Luring some customers who are already inside the store by pointing out discounted prices or one product feature is not Brand Building. This is "shortest-term" marketing that I know of. And, no, you will not even get to a 5% market share this way. Soon, the number of dark stores will stop growing. Discounts will reduce. Consumer behaviour will demand that 8 out 10 tiles on the page are not sponsored skus. Delivery charges will increase. Delivery times will increase to 30mins and beyond. QCom will expand horizontally into non-FMCG categories with higher AOV and higher margins. QCom will settle down into 15% contribution for basic products and 30% for value adds. It is already near that mark. This will happen as soon as the general consumption picks up in the population below the top 8%. Growth in GT and MT will lure back brands into spending on customer acquisition taking funds away from Qcom. Articles will be written on the resilience of the Kirana stores. And there will again be balance in the Universe. So what's the most important metric Marketing should look at? Organic search. Do whatever it takes - online AND offline - to improve this. If you win here, you win Qcom in the long run.

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I used to think stability was everything in FMCG. Turns out, I was wrong. Not wrong about discipline. Not wrong about building the right portfolio. But wrong about expecting the world to stay stable. I first learned that in 2006, when I walked into Gujarat’s most unprofitable territory. Distribution gaps everywhere. A demotivated team. We had to rebuild everything from scratch. Later, in Nepal, volatility was constant. In some quarters, it felt like the norm. Yet by 2020, in the middle of all that volatility, we took PepsiCo to leadership share for the first time in 25 years. During COVID, when competition shut down, agility meant: → We reimagined supply routes. → Broke large territories into 20–30 km clusters with clear ownership. → Met unmet demand in tough times. → Became seen as both socially responsible and commercially resilient. For me, an unstable situation isn’t the enemy. It’s the raw material for transformation. The future won’t reward those who just wait it out. It’ll reward the ones who build while everything around them is breaking. #Leadership #Resilience #FMCG #ConsumerProducts #GrowthMindset #BusinessTransformation

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🚨Inc42 Exclusive🚨 Former Milkbasket cofounder and CEO Yatish Talvadia has launched a new venture, D2C grocery brand Anmasa. Talvadia has cofounded the startup with Shailendra Upadhyay, the former founder of grocery delivery platform Veggie India that was acquired by Milkbasket in 2019.⚡ 🔸 Currently present only in Gurugram via an omnichannel model, the startup is raising $1 Mn in its pre-seed funding to penetrate deeper into the Delhi NCR region. 🔸 The startup plans to foray into more Tier I cities by mid-2026. However, it is yet to zero down on the regions for this. 🔗Read the full article here - https://4-2.co/4iADPMx #news #Inc42 #Milkbasket #Ecommerce #quickcommerce #D2C #startupnews #startup #Exclusive #businessnews #business #India #grocery

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Field Execution - a usual problem and proposed solution Today's post is quite interesting. Team Boiling Point 212 has recently completed a live project for one of the largest multi-category #FMCG companies of India. 🅰️ The problem (Chart 1): The company competes in twelve categories with 170 #SKUs with two categories as market leaders. The #assortment has a balanced mix of standard, promotional and seasonal SKUs. The #brands are quite popular and few products have a good pull from #shoppers and #consumers, but average #SKU per outlet is only 4.3 and the major #sales value (around 80%) comes from only 17% SKUs. Obviously the management was concerned about the thin range spread and high dependence on a handful SKUs. Team #boilingpoint212 did a comprehensive field research, worked with various sales positions across seven distributors of north India for two months and proposed implementable solutions. 🅱️ The field research findings (Chart 2 to 4): 1️⃣ The in-store time of #distributor sales representative was a concern. He spent only 8 minutes on an average per #outlet and out of that only 26% time was dedicated for actual sales talks. It was just 2 minutes!!! 2️⃣ The Field Sales Executive, who was supposed to interact most with the consumers and shoppers, did the least, just 8% of opportunities!!! However his boss, the Field Sales Manager, used the maximum around 23% and the super boss, the Zonal Sales Manager, around 12% of interaction opportunities. 3️⃣ The Field Sales Executive worked for 9 hours a day, but the effective in-store time was just over 2 hours, and more alarmingly was the actual sales talk, just 48 minutes per day!!! 🆎 The proposed action steps 1️⃣ Restructured the market coverage of #distributor sales representatives. Number of outlets per route was reviewed and corrected. Proposed the way to use the 'waiting' time (42%) on stock check and build that observation to actual 'sales talk' for better orders. 2️⃣ Developed a on-the-job coaching tool for Field Sales Managers to equip the Field Sales Executives to effectively interact with more and more shoppers and consumers and subsequently generate the business insights out of these interactions. 3️⃣ Reworked on Field Sales Executive's daily working time. The time slots are re-allocated with higher priorities on 'coaching' and 'sales talk'. Introduced a score-card based on-the-job coaching tool for Sales Executives which can be tracked by the Sales Manager. 4️⃣ Developed a Field Execution Performance Dashboard with 5 business KPIs, e.g. productivity% per route, SKU per outlet, contribution of top 17% SKUs, brand-channel distribution and target vs. achievement status. 🅾️ The results: Post project two months had been quite satisfying. SKU/outlet increased to 5.2, the contribution of top 17% SKUs came down to 71% while avearge monthly sales grew by 8% Leave your comments, call us at [email protected] for #fieldoperations best practices. Stay tuned👍

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