A new variant of quick commerce is here in India, targeting the ones above a specific income group. Former Flipkart Senior Vice President Ayyappan R has come up with ‘FirstClub’ for the top 10% of the country’s population.
Founded as a ‘members-only delivery startup’, FirstClub has raised $8 million in the latest round of funding, according to a MoneyControl report.
This comes at a time when the quick commerce segment has seen rapid expansion and is predicted to swell up to $40 Billion by 2030.
Major investors in the startup include Accel, RTP Global, Blume Founders Fund, Quiet Capital and 2am VC.
Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, Myntra co-founder Mukesh Bansal, Groww’s Lalit Keshre and Curefoods’ Ankit Nagori, who are all former colleagues of Ayyappan, also invested in the company along with Cred’s Kunal Shah and others.
FirstClub is the third quick commerce start-up that Accel has invested in after Swiggy and Swish. For 2am VC, this is the second investment in the space after exposure to Zepto.
What is FirstClub?
FirstClub will start by selling packaged foods, fresh foods, bakery, dairy, nutrition, and more and its target is the consumers who choose premium over mass-market.
The start-up will cater to largely metro city households with an annual income of over ₹15 lakh.
“These are the users, who will be willing to become FirstClub members, who don’t mind paying a 20-30 percent premium for products if they get fresh produce which are of the highest quality,” the start-up’s founder Ayyappan R said in an interview with MoneyControl.
For the first 12 months, the company will only focus on Bengaluru. Delhi and Mumbai are their next target. In the first year, FirstClub will open a total of 10 dark stores and two offline stores that will double up as experience centers as the company aims to operate as an omnichannel business.
The company will also work in the 30-minute delivery channel instead of the 10-minute one which is where the likes of Zepto and Blinkit operate.
