The co-founders of Very Much Indian – a brand of Ethnic Handloom Sarees, captured the sharks’ attention with her very first line! She enticed everyone with a 2000-year-old story of India when the love and pride of Paithini sarees were real. Paithini is known as the queen of silks, the heritage of India, and the pride of Maharashtra. She further explained how these treasured handlooms were more than just assets, they had an entire sea of emotions when passed from generation to generation in families.
Although Kanjeevaram weave and Banarasi weave are popular Indian handloom sarees that most know about, the Paithini weave has somehow lost its significance in modern India today. Very Much Indian brand has launched itself into the Indian market after noticing this gap in the scattered and unorganized 38,000 crore market of traditional sarees. They dream of reviving the traditional Paithini sarees along with a few other forgotten ancient handlooms.
The Pitch
The co-founders, Saloni Gambhir and Manish Kshatri felt that there is no e-commerce domain currently in the Indian market that revives ancient traditional handlooms and brings them to the target Indian audience. They bring authentic weaves right from the weavers to the customers. They have the vision to make this brand one of the most trusted Indian brands for authentic handloom sarees. They pitched in asking Rs. 50 lakhs for 3% equity.
About the Founders
Saloni Gambhir and Manish Kshatri are the founders of Very Much India. Saloni is from Yevla. This small town has around 4000 to 5000 weavers who only specialize in Paithini weaves. She hails from this town as their family business of fabrics is also based in Yevla. Although she is an engineer and an MBA, after working for 12 years, she decided to come out of her comfort zone and pursue this dream. She last worked in the communications and marketing department in MWH company.
She met her co-founder Manish Kshatri when they were both studying MBA in 2003. They both had a dream of doing some business in exports-imports. They married in 2008 and have a 13year old son. His major role in this venture is of providing financial and moral support to his wife. Manish Kshatri is a Cluster Head and a Banker with around 12 people reporting under him. When asked by the sharks whether he wants to quit his job to pursue this saree venture, his wife jokingly said that the day she will be able to give him a salary, he will join her full-time.
In an emotional moment, Saloni Gambhir also explained how her family got into this business. She explained that during the partition of India and Pakistan, her grandfather somehow landed in Yevla and started this work. She recalls her hardships when she decided to continue with this legacy after quitting her job. She started by selling these sarees from door to door and was not given a lot of respect as a result.
Discussion with the Sharks
The pitch and discussion get even more interesting when the co-founders introduce their oldest weaver on board Vishnu Bhagirat Bhalere, with the intention of explaining the art of Paithini weaving practically. He beautifully demonstrated the method of weaving and explained how proud they are of this ancient heritage of their town.
Saloni explained that this job is quite tough and labor-oriented. A single saree weaving can take around a week to a year to get completed. They believe in giving the full due amount to the weavers for their hard work. They started with a group of 25 weavers and have now scaled to around 400 weavers teams. She also explained the difference between original and duplicate Paithini weaving.
Revenue and Business Growth
The very first year, in 2018, they managed a sale of around 16 to 17 lakhs. They managed to get a sale figure of around 15 to 20 lakhs in the initial 2 to 3 years. Their sales boosted to around 65 lakhs during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. In 2021 to 2022, they managed their highest growth and sales of around 1.5 crores. They have a projection of around 2 crores for the current year. The average ticket size is around Rs. 10,000, with a gross margin of 35%. They manage to save around 10 to 15% in net profits.
Offer
Namita Thapar was excited to crack the deal in this venture right from the very beginning. She offered to give Rs. 50 lakhs for 10% equity for a valuation of 2 crores as she felt 3% was very less. But, she projected a valuation of 5 crores, i.e. more than 2.5 times their gross sales.
Peyush Bansal exited the offer saying that the co-founders are already doing a fantastic job and Namita has made a good offer. So, he felt that he was not needed at present.
Vineeta Singh also exited the offer saying that their brand required a lot of social media advertising and Namita would be an excellent person for that.
Anupam Mittal wanted to know the reason for their asking for funds. They explained that they needed funds to buy stocks. Very Much Indian manages to sell 100 sarees in a month, and they can easily sell around 1000 sarees in a month, but the biggest challenge they are facing is that people are not too keen to buy a costly saree online from a new brand. The founders were facing a big challenge of trust. They felt that once the sharks joined them, their trust value would scale up rapidly. Anupam exited the deal saying that he currently does not have any interest in this field.
Aman Gupta requested Namita to let him also come in the offer together, to which they jokingly said that he will now have to pitch into her. Aman Gupta convinced Namita Thapar to do it together as he would help in brand building.
Counter Offer
Manish Kshatri made a counter offer of Rs. 75 lakhs for 10% equity for a valuation of 7.5 crores. But Namita explained that there are many obstacles and challenges in the path ahead and they should accept their offer, to which they agreed.
Final Thoughts
A beautiful thought, a beautiful pitch, and a beautiful venture is all that we could say after watching this heart-warming episode of Shark Tank India season 2. We wish them all the best for their coming future!!
