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Optimising Fresh | Varun Khurana of Crofarm
86 Plays3 years ago
“Once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur.” – Varun Khurana, Crofarm
In this edition of The Spotlight, Akshay Datt speaks with Varun Khurana, Founder and CEO, Crofarm, who has been on a quest to identify industry niches and build businesses in them.
Varun is a graduate of IIT Delhi and is a three-time entrepreneur. His previous ventures, Wirkle Technologies and Mygreenbox were acquired by Location Labs and Grofers, respectively.
During his stint as CTO at Grofers, he observed the poor state of the supply chain in the agriculture sector. This paved the way to his third venture Crofarm, which aims to cut agricultural wastage and help farmers get the right price for their produce.
Tune in to this episode to hear Varun speak about how Crofarm is disrupting the fresh produce market by optimising the delivery of perishable products without compromising on their quality.
Key Takeaways:
- Building and scaling multiple tech start-ups.
- Understanding market direction and making strategic exits at the right time.
- Challenges faced in the perishable products delivery industry.
Recommended
Transcript
Getting Involved vs. Corporate Mindset
00:00:00
Speaker
that you have to get your hands dirty. You can't do a startup with a corporate mindset. When people tell me that I can't do something, I will do whatever it needs to do. Life may not compensate you. One is your learning and one is your learning. Fundamentally, it has always been good. I'm your host, Akshay Dutt, and you're listening to Spotlight, a podcast in which I speak to disruptive startup founders.
Introduction of Varun Khurana
00:00:37
Speaker
Hi, everyone. I'm Varun Khurana. I'm the founder and CEO of OTP, which is a fruits and vegetables supply chain service for consumers. More on the community group buying one.
00:00:52
Speaker
Some of our best conversations are with serial entrepreneurs, and this episode is right up there in terms of the lessons it offers to aspiring founders. Varun Khurana is a third-time founder, having built and exited from two previous startups, and each one had a unique journey. Varun's current venture is Crow Farm, which is solving the problem of getting fresh produce like fruits and vegetables directly from the farm to the consumer's tables.
Asset-Light Supply Chain Model
00:01:17
Speaker
Crow Farm's business model is disruptively unique, running a very asset-light and optimized supply chain to save costs and pass them on to consumers. Listen to this conversation to learn about the secret sauce behind their amazingly successful business model disruption. Here's Varun telling Akshay Dutt about building Crow Farm.
Varun's International Upbringing
00:01:41
Speaker
So my childhood was spent in, I would say, multiple countries. See, my father was in the Indian Foreign Services. So as a child, obviously, when we were in India, I was mostly in Delhi because that's where the Ministry of External Affairs is.
00:01:59
Speaker
And then for the times when we were not in India, we were posted in a country and my father would basically be at the embassy of Indian embassy in that country. So I've spent my childhood in places like, for example, spent quite a bit of time in Austria, Vienna, which is based in Europe.
00:02:22
Speaker
I also spent time in the Middle East, which is Oman, Muscat, which is the capital there. And then I would say towards the latter part, even in Jamaica, which is a part of the group of islands of West Indies. Come 10th grade, I was in India, and then 10th, 11th, 12th, I did out of here. And then after 12th, I was in IIT, Delhi.
00:02:45
Speaker
So that is how I would say. But I think you have to study abroad. You have to study in Europe. You have to study abroad in India. How do you feel? That's true. Obviously quality of life is enough. And in those days it was even more so. The gaps are getting bridged. But to be honest, like the best friends that I made,
00:03:15
Speaker
Wherever I went. Mostly, I started this year. IIT, did you study a lot for it or were you brilliant? It's unfair to say I did not study a lot. I applied to a few companies that come further at US.
00:03:39
Speaker
and I was able to make it through. The company that I ended up joining was NetApp, which is a data storage system, storage company. It's a last-act history company, and it's based out of Silicon Valley. And you were doing what? What product or what were you working on? I was working on data replication. And what was your thought process then?
00:04:26
Speaker
and people basically making ideas and business plans on paper napkins and so on and so forth. And in fact, in the DAPTA, the founders of DAPTA planned to see the paper napkins in a breakfast spot in Bali. So that was very fascinating. In the sense, it seemed that you can work on what you like,
00:04:38
Speaker
I will continue to be in this field and go back and find a job in India.
00:04:55
Speaker
you can create a lot of value for people and along the way, you know, trade well for yourself also.
Silicon Valley Experience
00:05:05
Speaker
When you quit finally, you had an idea in your mind, what is the idea that you quit? So actually, a few things that happened in the sense that with
00:05:22
Speaker
from IIT and my roommate there so we had we had a good sense of he and you know he had already kick-started some of the work back in India so this is 2006
Burkle: Mobile Web Content
00:05:45
Speaker
So in 2006 when Akshay, if you recall, there were just a few mobile devices coming up. I'll remind you of the devices. Feature phones, basically. The image of phones should be colored, the 3D edge connectivity should be the likes of a Motorola Razr, Nokia 6600, that class of devices.
00:06:12
Speaker
Our thought process was, we foresaw that these are the devices which are going to become the primary devices of content consumption in the future. So how would this construct look like?
00:06:34
Speaker
And we developed, you know, our own markup language of sorts, which was optimized for these smaller screens. And then we developed a translation engine, which would take web-based content, which is HTML based and translate it into that programming and stuff that we have developed. Yeah, it could create.
00:07:11
Speaker
And what happened was that a lot of, you know, starting off with younger startups only, they said, Kia, look, we already have a, you know, a BEM or a PC based system that works and, you know, we would love to make it mobile friendly and we could do that very quickly.
00:07:15
Speaker
And it's a monetization cat.
00:07:30
Speaker
like you created a complete different markup language so would like regular browser me yeah and and these were like US companies that were in your customer
00:07:53
Speaker
Okay, okay. So you continued in US, like tell me about this, like, you know, that, so 2006, what happened was key.
00:08:07
Speaker
you know my other co-founder had already moved things that started moving and it just felt key you know let's just you know do it full-time and the whole process is very very slow and I was like I was saying I was I was pretty
00:08:34
Speaker
So I just felt like a good time key, you know, the big base one guy and now you know, there's some basic infrastructure also in place and... So it's time to move. Okay.
00:08:59
Speaker
And then you continued to go after US customers? What did you do then? So we did both. So I would say we had continued to have a lot of customers in the US, which India can be, and so on and so forth. So essentially this was a product for
00:09:20
Speaker
company's internal software to make that mobile responsive, basically. Okay. Okay. And therefore you didn't need funding also. This must be self-funded only. We raised a small round from angels, but we're not really dependent on that.
00:09:39
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. Okay. So, you don't tell me about the exit here. So exit wise we ran it from 2016, 2011. The name of the company was Burkle Technologies, WIR, KLE. And just say, you know, 2009, 10. Increasingly iPhone, Android. And you know,
00:10:06
Speaker
However, much we could charge earlier, but the more increasingly proposition to look at our data. So, Native browsers do say in devices, they were able to buy.
First Startup Exit - Burkle Technologies
00:10:22
Speaker
2011 then we had one of our customers at the time. Their name was location labs. So they then, you know, made us an offer key, you know, an exit opportunity, which was good in the sense. And it was at least a few million dollars.
00:10:45
Speaker
So then Vokul was acquired by Location Labs in 2011. So it was an acquire. In the sense, there was a product component to it, there was a team component to it. And there was also the fact that there was a good working synergies. Were you seeing the revenue go down?
00:11:15
Speaker
like 10 11 that was not so much of an issue but okay okay okay so pimp what did you think of like 14 new uh kind of good uh location labs so
My Green Box - Mobile Grocery Delivery
00:11:39
Speaker
So then I started my second startup, actually that was in the grocery delivery business, it was called My Cream Box.
00:11:50
Speaker
So it was a mobile app, and in focus was mobile only. And you know, you know, after the flipkart was templating, you know, the flipkart was templating, after becoming mobile only, you know, the flipkart was templating, after becoming mobile only, you know, flipkart was templating, after becoming mobile only, you know, flipkart was templating, after becoming mobile only, you know, flipkart was templating, after becoming mobile only, you know, flipkart was templating, after becoming mobile only, you know, flipkart was templating, after becoming mobile only, you know, flipkart was templating, after becoming mobile only, you know, flipkart was templating, after becoming mobile only, you know, flipkart was templating, you know, flipkart was templating, after becoming mobile only, you know, flipkart was templating, you know, flipkart was templ
00:12:17
Speaker
So it was the idea was big basket and that was the grocery way.
00:12:35
Speaker
There was a wave, there were a lot of start-ups at that time. A lot of funding that flew into the business at the time. The only mother week, in general, raised another at the time. And we were planning to go now to a couple of hundreds of orders to get into business. And this was what, like inventory-led model? Yeah, you were working with traders.
00:13:08
Speaker
So how did it scale and what happened at My Green Work?
00:13:22
Speaker
The business was doing well, scaling well. This is going to be mostly a capital-led play.
00:13:38
Speaker
In the sense, I think the consumer has a capital led player. It is still capital led. So that is when we were carrying a lot of exit. So basically, I think my green box within a year of its inception ended up getting acquired by gophers. You got cash or you got equity in gophers?
00:14:09
Speaker
You were literally like a co-founder in a way. You had equity also, you were the CTO there.
00:14:15
Speaker
I think that entrepreneurship will be able to satisfy that. I think that again I spent the year with them. It's one of the bigger charters that I had and those were done. And during that phase, the B round, the C round, all of that happened.
00:14:58
Speaker
And specifically in the context of fruits and vegetables. So then after exiting, I said, let's spend some time at the farm gate and seek
00:15:00
Speaker
It was a pretty stable situation and it was a pretty stable situation.
Understanding Agricultural Supply Chains
00:15:12
Speaker
And that was very, very insightful in terms of how farmers are growing, how things are coming. There was a huge gap, quality growth, big differentials. Price markups are crazy. The more the perishable commodity, the more the markup between
00:15:42
Speaker
to consumer. So that was when after spending time at the farm gate, I realized, there's a lot that can be done in this category. Did you have some family connects at the farming side? I did. For example, if one of
00:16:11
Speaker
one of our team members here you know our founding engineer so he was with me at my green box and he comes from a you know a very you know a farming background only so I spent just at his farm in Western UP and then similarly found you know other people that
00:16:32
Speaker
And it's not that hard. You know, you just go and spend time there and see other areas. But Apko, it's basically interesting. You know, you are a techie and what drew you to this place?
00:16:56
Speaker
So, I would say two or three things. Agree types, you know, has become more known. Look where no one is looking.
00:17:31
Speaker
So it's like you essentially wanted to create some sort of a logistics tech kind of a play to get fresh produced
00:17:41
Speaker
to the consumer's plate. Was that the idea? I think a failure that was very simple. It just seemed like an opportunity is quite big. So that was the, I would say, the starting point. And B2B made, the first natural thing for me was the pharmaceutical supply. Big basket took up there. Let's supply it to be something.
00:18:10
Speaker
And so, then we also supplied to the Horeka segment. There were hotels, restaurants, caterers, etc. So there were some challenges. The challenges are that hotels, restaurants and caterers usually have very extended payment terms. You won't know whether you should be happy or you should be sad.
00:18:40
Speaker
So that was a problem and when supplying to you know go for big basket so what you know the other learning that was there was he see farmers
00:18:56
Speaker
in economy and the number of entities that can consume in terms is very few. You can count them on your fingers and then the monkeys. So the marketer works cute in favor of the fewer number of entities that can consume such big quarters.
00:19:15
Speaker
And if you are basically serving any one of them, you realise that after buying these recipes, which is specific, you have to do this. And then from the perspective of the farmers that you are working with, the challenge that you run into is key.
00:19:34
Speaker
The farmer says that the demand was sporadic. So it's not, you can't really give them a proposition. So those were the challenges. Then we started aggregating demand from small-moment population. So that was the other thing, that tech rule
00:20:00
Speaker
It's I would say more for bookkeeping, but love just tracking the order I get or deliver. Oh, yeah. Bookkeeping. So you know, didn't seem to know that was the I would say another challenge.
00:20:24
Speaker
We raised both angel and around, which was led by Pravega Ventures. This is our only place. And how much did you raise? There was a billion puts around the city. You had your CTO, Joab Quesad, my green box.
00:20:43
Speaker
He was your co-founder. And how did you acquire these institutions? Like you hired a sales team?
00:20:54
Speaker
Do you change like Reliance, Big Bass, they are very few. So that didn't take us very long. So that didn't take
Streamlining Order Systems
00:21:05
Speaker
us very long. So that didn't take us very long. So that didn't take us very long. So that didn't take us very long. So that didn't take us very long. So that didn't take us very long. So that didn't take us very long. So that didn't take us very long. So that didn't take us very long. So that didn't take us very long. So that didn't take us very long. So that didn't take us very long. So that didn't take us very long. So that didn't take us very long.
00:21:17
Speaker
Now coming to the moment pop to Mahape to learning we that was very interesting in the sense, he took out a drink fruits and vegetables retailer with Anna would typically coffee get them much how that literate me when I say much how So, for example, you know when we would deliver oranges to him or look mortis like that, so he will be able to look at it and say, you know, tomorrow I got in prana team.
00:21:47
Speaker
I have three days to sell the oranges, right? Because that is the shelf life, ambient temperature. So if out of those three days, let's say one day you took, then I only have two days left. Now, if you tell me to sell the same commodity as two days, and I know I won't be able to sell as much. So he said,
00:22:20
Speaker
important shelf life is, you know, in this category. And in order to solve for this, we basically manage the backend system, say, we streamline them to optimize them for speed, you know, things come and things go. And there is no inventory holding that happens as such. And order placement, was it through an app or something?
00:22:49
Speaker
Even the chela wallas used to place it on an app only. We used to encourage them to place on the app only. So it was happening, all of it would happen on the app. And was it like demand-driven procurement? Like, if Joe orders you, then you procure. Yeah, with procurement, anyway, if you would only display Joe, he would only procure. Like, what do you want?
00:23:14
Speaker
So, what could happen is that we would predict that we would be able to predict that we would be able to predict that we would be able to predict that we would be able to predict that we would be able to predict that we would be able to predict that we would be able to predict that we would be able to predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we would predict that we
00:23:51
Speaker
Okay. Okay.
00:23:57
Speaker
So, how much did this scale up to? So, 2017, you started. So, this was 2017, and types don't look at the other issue.
00:24:13
Speaker
And so, you know, over a period of two years, the problem still however was the sustainability did seem middle, I would say, because margins were not that high. And then
00:24:36
Speaker
You know, there is... Because it's a prediction-based system. So... From the perspective of sustainability, it didn't seem to be sustainable as such. Okay.
00:25:06
Speaker
What is the 5x margin because of the logistics cost, the wastage cost, and the correction cost? Actually, 5x margin is the same. The thing is, but the consumer is going to sell it to retailers. Retailers typically have 35-40% margin. So that is the problem.
00:25:30
Speaker
So then what did you decide to do? So then I would say towards you know towards the end of 2019 was when you know another interesting development happened where you know we had a few retailers who were FMCG retailers because FMCG retailers are used to keep goods up to them you know they don't go to the particular
00:26:01
Speaker
So, you know, they were very happy. A company like Rofam exists to say they can order, they get the goods in the morning, and they can serve their customers. One of the challenges that, you know, these folks would run into is, they say, you know, they don't have money, they don't have money. So, you know, the next day, you know, the next day, the next day, you know, the next day, you know, the next day, you know, the next day.
00:26:26
Speaker
So now what will happen is next day they'll order less and then mix the milk and put it together. Now when consumers come, they'll say, yeah, they'll eat fresh milk. They'll eat fresh milk. They'll eat fresh milk. They'll eat fresh milk. They'll eat fresh milk. They'll eat fresh milk. They'll eat fresh milk. They'll eat fresh milk. They'll eat fresh milk. They'll eat fresh milk.
00:26:55
Speaker
Then after a while, we need to do fruits and vegetables because that is a food folder. Then these cycles keep happening. So what we recommended to them was you have a consumer base on the tea. And you have a consumer base on the tea.
00:27:19
Speaker
So basically, you don't stock anything. So consumer wise, because you're not stocking, we guarantee you 10% income and your shelf space are filled up to sell your FMC. This is an additional revenue stream. So when we did that,
00:27:57
Speaker
So it worked out in that respect also. That worked very well. We started brainstorming on it and then, I would say March type split launched at the other end. And it reached a couple of hundred orders very quickly.
00:28:09
Speaker
And what they would do is get bags, so they won't parallelize.
00:28:16
Speaker
Okay. And if you lost a separate customer mobile app, how would they link it to the Kirana? How would they link it to the Kirana? How would they link it to the Kirana? How would they link it to the Kirana? How would they link it to the Kirana? How would they link it to the Kirana? How would they link it to the Kirana? How would they link it to the Kirana? How would they link it to the Kirana?
00:28:45
Speaker
And this was launched by the name OTP. And the reason for this is that OTP is very commonly used for onions, tomatoes and potatoes. May later OTP means one-time password.
00:29:06
Speaker
And the idea was to have something which is also resonating with what you use on a day-to-day basis. So in 2019 you were essentially a Delhi-based organization. You had some warehousing facility and you had a
00:29:27
Speaker
supply chain in place, farmer's warehouse, warehouse packing to the mom and pop stores. This was what it was in 2019. And then you launched this consumer facing business out of this infrastructure. And the packets were already printed.
00:29:48
Speaker
Okay, okay. And then once the COVID thing happened, so suddenly, you know, the Mondays ran into a problem because the lockdown was problematic.
Empowering Women as Community Leaders
00:30:02
Speaker
So the supply impact, and that is when another interesting development happened that a lot of, I would say, you know, women who were facing challenges in their neighborhood. So they said, can you become your
00:30:15
Speaker
We call them partners now. So they would then say, we are a community leader for our society and we'll take orders and we'll take care of the bags. We'll either do it ourselves in the society or get a driver or a maid or employ someone to quickly give out the bags in our society.
00:30:41
Speaker
And they would earn something, these women? 8 to 10 percent. Okay. And about how did this conversation start? Yes, the COVID-19 was yesterday, we saw a lot of people say battery and they were like, you know, we can become your community leader for you. And we'll do it in our society. So you basically multilevel marketing approach here, like these women can earn extra income by tapping their network.
00:31:12
Speaker
Correct. And we call them, you know, community leaders. And essentially, when this channel started to this actually even bigger than the mom and pop shop network that we're building in like just two, three months from now, rapid scale-up. When did this women community leader thing start? Last year, April, May, 6th, and
00:31:44
Speaker
Okay, so you were like 5-6 million pre-COVID run rate, right? Okay, so how much do you estimate this year your turnover will be?
00:31:55
Speaker
See, we are already touching 10 million dollars plus, we are already touching it. You are already at double of last year. What we were never able to reach now, we do business in this, we reached in like almost a year's time. So, what is the...
00:32:21
Speaker
the geographical area till Delhi Gurgaon? I would say Delhi NCR, so that is NCR that we are doing in its entirety. We also launched in Tiwadi, which is a small town towards the south of NCR. So as it goes to satellite towns, we are also going to try. But there also it is going very well. Okay. And have you raised additional funds?
00:32:51
Speaker
How much was that?
00:33:09
Speaker
That was also a million habom. One of the years has also just seeped to Tamil after Pravega's round. And then with OTP, we raised a $2 million round, which was led by Reflection Point Ventures, IPV. And last month we announced a $10 million round that we raised with SIGM.
Funding and Expansion of Crow Farm
00:33:33
Speaker
Okay. Okay.
00:33:34
Speaker
And what is the 10 million raise for? Like what will you use this for? Like more infrastructure? I assume you would have to invest in the warehousing. There's a lot of work on technology that is happening to warehouse infrastructure, technology, people, as soon as other are joined. And then obviously expansion to others, other areas.
00:33:54
Speaker
How would you mechanize the warehousing?
00:34:25
Speaker
Then even if, and in fact I'll share a video of our warehouse with you also. And then there is also a digital room in the way we do
00:34:37
Speaker
Picking and dispatch. There is some level of mechanization. I would say intelligence that we have already put. So for example, when a picker goes to pick the items, those items which are in, which are what we call high penetration. For example, if you are in season 1, if you are in season 2, if you are in season 1, if you are in season 1, if you are in season 2, if you are in season 1, if you are in season 1,
00:35:06
Speaker
So, you know, when you are picking, you design the layout such that you have a high-frequency layout. So, give warehouse automation solutions that are available off the shelf. Yeah. Like you have to like design them. Yeah, because our packaging and all is also very unique. The whole warehousing system is very unique. So, that has also been developed in-house. To conventional warehousing systems and they, you know, our inventory,
00:35:32
Speaker
They are designed keeping in mind that you are going to stock inventory. Your system is more about sorting and packaging.
00:36:02
Speaker
What other automation are you working on besides warehouse level? We are also working on how can we get better tools to our community leaders for distribution. There are some of our community leaders in Kiva Tharpteep disorder.
00:36:22
Speaker
So there will be tourism and tourism, but they will be able to sort quickly. They want to sort it, you know, tower-wise. They say they're excited about the tower. So they're able to do their job quickly and more efficiently. Color-coded stickers or something like that. Correct. Correct. So it's going to be difficult for them. If may customer satisfaction click on responsible, Agar?
00:36:52
Speaker
Do you have any issues with the customer? How do you handle it? The way we look at it is that it's a joint responsibility of the community leader and us. So we would issue the funds but I would say it is a joint responsibility of the community leader and us to make sure that the consumer experiences
00:37:20
Speaker
But what is the flow like? Community leader will raise the request and you will approve it. By default, you will check and then approve. It was both ways. A lot of people will just contact the community leader and the community leader will then, you know, have a corresponding relationship with the customer. And in the case of consumer complaint, we have to direct it. Okay.
00:37:48
Speaker
And how are you looking at the growth strategy? Are you also looking at adding more products?
00:37:58
Speaker
butter and milk and eggs and all these, like allied products. So like I said, all perishable class of products is made from the bakery and dairy, which is one of the products. In fact, even this is a fresh chakki kata, things like that. Very naturally fitting with the whole freshness proposition. So basically, how do I grow for a complete career? When I grow for a complete career,
00:38:28
Speaker
And for example, all in all, if you look at companies like Amazon, e-commerce, etc. So that is how business is built up.
00:38:54
Speaker
So basically then the future for you is like a grocery and perishable platform, e-commerce for grocery and perishable. But instead of direct order, the orders will come through an intermediary. Like the delivery will happen through
Emphasizing Freshness and Efficiency
00:39:22
Speaker
The way to look at it is that she has OTP, VE, want to be known as being synonymous with fresh because freshness is what are USP's and that is what the whole supply chain is writing on. And one of the big things that we are creating for us is that we are creating a very physical, physical company. So, we are creating a virtual company.
00:40:10
Speaker
So essentially a platform for planned purchase of pericables and fresh products.
00:40:19
Speaker
Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So this is like a pretty big opportunity. So this is like, you know, like multi multi-billion dollars kind of an opportunity. Actually, remember when I was telling you when starting, I was like, you know, you can, whether the horizon is quite big and you can keep going for a long, long time.
00:40:49
Speaker
But if you are competing with very well-funded people like Big Basket, Grover, and then smaller players like Super Daily and Milk Basket, they are all chasing that same end customer. Your distribution method is different. Their distribution method is different. But you are essentially chasing that same end customer.
00:41:18
Speaker
See, I tell you one thing that is, I would say, significantly different is like I was saying, a lot of these companies that we talked about, like the big baskets, so they rely on conventional supply chain, you know, items come in the warehouse, they are inverted, then you see them on your app, you put them for the following day or the day after. So, you know, I would say that is a, you know, one
00:41:47
Speaker
big edge that we have in terms of the speed at which our supply chain can move. So what do you think will be your competitive edge against these other players going forward? So I would say two things. So one is key Joe's supply chain differential in terms of freshness that people experience and the
00:42:08
Speaker
The natural advantage that we have is that we don't think of ourselves as we would directly be competing with a big basket or group of birds. But we will enable our community leaders to compete with them. So, we have to be humble about it.
00:42:40
Speaker
Basically, instead of having a team which is your employees, your team is now like an unlimited team. All these entrepreneurs are part of your team, part of your distribution channel. And instead of paying them salary, they're getting like a revenue, a share of revenue. Amazing.
00:43:05
Speaker
If you get an acquisition offer for this, will you take it? Because this space is very hot. Amazon itself is trying to crack this. My view is that, firstly, if you ask me, I think this is a business that has its own destination of its own.
00:43:41
Speaker
And the other supply chains, they say, they have operated less than half of this. So it is, in itself, it is sustainable. In itself, it is capable of becoming an independently big business. Now, having said that, acquisition offers to the cohort.
00:43:49
Speaker
Um, and you know, I feel, uh, sorted, like for example,
00:44:02
Speaker
Have you got acquisition offers?
00:44:15
Speaker
exploring that and not exploring that, I would say it's, I think the business is, you know, at a point where we are seeing good traction, it is well funded. But then again, you know, situations, if you get something with you,
00:44:37
Speaker
tend to at least have an internal discussion. So a lot of factors come into picture, but I would say as of now, we are on a very good trajectory. What are the turnovers of like big basket growth? And like geographically expansion plan.
00:45:06
Speaker
By next year, how many cities do you want to be in? And what do you see that as? Afterwards, I would say early next year, we will kickstart that process, multi-city, voila. And I think, by and large, we will do with that same theory on Wiki, target the bigger cities first, where
00:45:29
Speaker
I would say the potential for the market size is bigger. So, current is the automation, and early next year, it's a very good start. Okay, okay. And how big is your team now? We are about 250 people directly employed, then another 250-300 indirectly employed.
00:45:56
Speaker
We have a third party day and then labor, labor, labor, then about the 4,000, 5,000 plus community leaders. Again, that is not directly employed, but people who rely on us and then about 10,000 plus farmers. And then lags, lags of household.
00:46:26
Speaker
How many are at corporate level pushed to warehouse and logistics level? Correct. Warehouse level pay, coffee, we have a tele-sales team, customer care teams. But if you just talk about sheer headcount, the on-ground sales team, tele-sales team and then
00:46:56
Speaker
the customer care team and then the operations team. This was the spotlight presented by the podium. To listen to more such interesting conversations log on to the podium.in