2021 has been a year of the Indian consumers

Booming ecosystem for startups

• Startups in logistics see massive spikes in demand

• Payment gateway start-ups, payment wallet companies also reaped the rewards

• Demand for dark stores on the rise

• 2021 has set up a strong platform for 2030-decade

Mumbai: With the fact that several Direct-To-Consumer (D2C) brands and e-commerce marketplaces saw sales volume that was beyond what they had intentionally planned the year 2021 has really been a year of the Indian consumer.

These volumes were the catalyst that caused a positive domino effect across the industry. Initially, the startups in logistics (especially) warehousing and last-mile delivery services, which is a crucial cog of the D2C enabler ecosystem, saw massive spikes in demand. Next to reap the rewards were the payment gateway startups and payment wallet companies that were needed for completing transactions. Talking to Bizz Buzz, Anirudh A Damani, managing partner, Artha Venture Fun, says: "Next were revenue-based financing companies that saw an opportunity to solve working capital issues for fast-growing D2C brands. Now we see the demand for dark stores. All these spaces are growing rapidly (and in tandem) thanks to our Indian consumers. Hence, in my book, the true MVP for 2021 is the Indian consumer."

"In fact, the year 2021 has set up a strong platform for this 2030-decade, which I believe will be the decade of Indian startups - unless we ignorantly mess it up," he added. Significant funding has been pumped into the startup ecosystem at a rapid pace. The visible appetite for tech-IPOs has created a vibrant and secondary market for early-stage investors, which resulted in a positive and enormous rotation of money ploughed back into the early-stage ecosystem.

According to Damani, "This pattern may very well continue in 2022. We might see a few tiny blips, where-in the market may overheat, investors may get cautious and will closely re-evaluate the tangible results vs the promised from their portfolio companies. However, the Fintech juggernaut should continue to penetrate the tier 2/3 markets bringing household debt to GDP to 25-30 per cent by 2030 vs 11 per cent today or, a conservative $1.50 trillion dollar opportunity for a $5 trillion economy! This fintech growth will further embolden the consumer space that will continue feeding the knock-on spaces and spurring new ones!