1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Kanwaljit Singh of Fireside Ventures (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: I’m going to ask you a few questions about the Indian market. What is your analysis of the Indian e-commerce market?

Kanwaljit Singh: There is a large consumer market in India. E-commerce is satisfying several of those requirements for branded products that Indian consumers are not able to consume due to access and sheer logistics complexity. For a large consumer brand, to be able to reach the remote corners of the country is extremely expensive.

The inventory-first model where you have to place the product in these small towns and villages makes it very inefficient because you almost have to predict what will sell there and how the inventory moves. E-commerce in India is addressing an even larger need than some of the developed markets, which is just sheer access. The only challenge that we are seeing is that because the infrastructure is still evolving, the cost of doing business, especially in the e-commerce context is very high because of your logistics cost.

All of these are still in the very early stage. That’s why you see the kind of investments that are required and the fact that only a few large players are able to sustain that kind of financial need to build the ecosystem. There is no doubt in my mind that e-commerce is going to be important in the overall evolution of consumption in India.

Sramana Mitra: This doesn’t really impact you and your style of companies because you are operating with a small affluent segment of the urban consumer. You don’t really have to worry too much about the logistical complexity.

Kanwaljit Singh: Absolutely. Our focus is more mature and more urban. We work with all the e-commerce players very closely. We do work with some of these smaller markets as well.

Sramana Mitra: It’s not an essential piece of your strategy. Your logistics, in any case, is being handled by the e-commerce players. Is there anything I should have asked you that I missed?

Kanwaljit Singh: I just want to point out something which we’re excited about. Over 50% of our portfolio companies actually have women co-founders. I’m highlighting that because that is one of the areas that we believe very strongly. Almost 80% to 90% of household consumption across the family is influenced by the woman in the house. It’s natural for a woman to be an integral part of the ecosystem.

Sramana Mitra: Excellent. That was an excellent conversation. It’s very encouraging to see that you’re filling a real gap in the ecosystem. It’s very promising. I’m a big believer in this opportunity for India. I don’t know if you read my Vision India 2020 book. I wrote it back in 2009 and it got published in 2010. I had whole sections on consumer brand opportunities in that book. Very little has happened in this period. The problem is the financing ecosystem hasn’t really been there to build consumer brands to that scale.

Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 6 in the series : 1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Kanwaljit Singh of Fireside Ventures
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