Smytten raises $6 million from Fireside Ventures, others

Smytten, a sampling and engagement platform for D2C brands, on Tuesday said it has raised USD 6 million (about Rs 44.4 crore) in funding led by Fireside Ventures. The series A round also saw participation from Sharrp Ventures (Mariwala family office), Survam Partners (Suman Kant Munjal family office), and Waao Partners (Pratul Shroff family office), a statement said.

Existing investor Roots Ventures also participated in the round, it added.

The fresh infusion will primarily be used for scaling up the user base and building tech and data solutions to optimise the marketing funnel for D2C brands, starting from new product development to consumer acquisition and retention, the statement said.

The platform will also invest heavily in creating a best-in-class servicing infrastructure across the country to widen the product trial touch points and strengthen the online service delivery to better the pre-purchase buying experience for consumers at scale, it added.

Founded by Swagat Sarangi and Siddhartha Nangia, Smytten has more than 5 million users. The platform allows users to try products at minimal or no cost before they decide to buy them. Smytten hosts over 700 D2C brand partners on its platform across varied categories, including Mamaearth, Plum and mCaffeine.

Pre-purchase buying experience will be the biggest enabler and will fuel the burgeoning Indian D2C market, which is projected to touch USD 100 billion in the next 4-5 years, Smytten co-founder Swagat Sarangi said.

“We believe this sampling-led tried-and-tested method of customer engagement will change the way D2C brands and consumers interact, making it more immersive and experience-based,” Sarangi added.

Smytten is poised to re-craft the standard playbook of brand creation with the deep tech solutions we are building based on the trial intent and feedback from millions of consumers, Smytten co-founder Siddhartha Nangia said.

“It will empower the next generation of D2C brands with actionable insights and a captive audience to scale their business very fast. We are very delighted to partner with all our new investors on board as they bring in a wealth of experience on consumer brands that will help us create a robust D2C ecosystem, he added.

Smytten had earlier raised an investment of USD 1.5 million in its pre-series A from Roots Ventures.

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Smytten’s revenue has grown 8X since the time we invested…It also has a great product-market fit for large international markets like Southeast Asia and the Middle East, making them the first port of call for every consumer brand,” Japan Vyas, Managing Partner of Roots Ventures, said.

Smytten also counts some marquee angel investors such as Rajan Anandan (former MD of Google India and South East Asia) and many other industry veterans as its early backers.