About the Startup:
INDIEDRINKS.DIRECT is a partner driven web platform for drinks producers to bypass distributors and access a ready made network of international markets using a sustainable supply chain.
Business Stage:
Post-MVP/testing with operations growing in Estonia and expansion into two more markets early 2023.
Management Team:
Alex Klaos - CEO, Founder, 28 years experience in drinks industry, brand owner, serial entrepreneur, experience in brand building, global exports and local distribution in Europe.
David Ghani - COO, Co-Founder, 17 years experience in drinks industry, serial entrepreneur, brand building, distribution, e-commerce platform in South East Asia.
Our third team member is Dmitri Timakin - CTO, AI/ML specialist, tech entrepreneur. However, Dmitri is currently on the contract with willingness to join full time after the SEED round.
Problem and Opportunity:
Independent drinks producers/brand owners have difficulties finding distribution channels in foreign markets. It may take them several months of cold calling or thousands of Euros in expenses to find an importer. Sometimes relationship with an importer does not work out and producer/brand owner will have to start the process from the scratch.
Our solution allows producers/brand owners to launch their product in the market we operate within three months and at zero market acquisition cost. With us producers/brands will know who exactly buys their product, we allow full control of the pricing policy and marketing budgets. Furthermore, our solution also offers reduction of costs associated with logistics as well as reduction of the negative environmental impact of logistics (both long-haul and last-mile) through its optimisation.
What makes our startup unique?
Our uniqueness is in our vision of the drinks industry being transparent and giving a fair chance to every brand regardless of the size of their wallet.
Our startup is all about optimisation and streamlining of the processes and removing unnecessary links in the supply chain. We are giving control over the brand back to the brand owner.
We do not invest money in any of the brands which allows us to stay independent, but we control both supply chain and the money flow that allows us to keep control over operations.
Our go-to-market plan:
Our go-to-market plan is multi-faceted as being, essentially, a two-sided platform we need to attract both suppliers as well as buying customers.
Attracting suppliers will become much easier more suppliers we have and more markets we open. However, initially, we are targeting existing contacts and producers/brand owners who participate in the trade shows. Our plan is also to utilise opportunities that targeted digital marketing campaign on LinkedIn can add in recruiting new suppliers.
Our plan to attract buying customers is based on partnering with one existing small and ambitious distribution business in every market where we open our platform. This partner will already have an existing customer base that we plan to built on by combining digital marketing campaigns with various regular events that traditional distributors cannot do and utilising some more traditional methods like using sales people. The main difference is that cost of all of these activities will be covered by brands themselves rather than the local platform.
Traction & Milestones:
We re-started our operations in Estonia in April 2022 after lockdowns were lifted and our aim was to test the platform and its features. Currently we have 10 supply partners from seven countries and 40 buying B2B customers, however, we are currently onboarding five new suppliers and negotiating with more than twenty wile our expectation is that by end of 2023 we will have in region of 400 new B2B customers.Sept'22 we joined Startupbootcamp Mobility & Transportation acceleration program and in late Oct'22 we launched our €250k Angel II Round of which we already have in the region of 50% subscribed.
€1M SEED round is planned early 2023.
Q'1 2023 we are launching platforms in UK and Thailand and by end of 2023 plan to have in the region of 1.2k buying customers.
Early 2023 we plan to build Supplier interface and giving access to the live stock information, sales, customer data as well as analytical tools.
Funding:
Alex Klaos personal funds €70k, Magnusson Law - €25K in legal services, Toomas Bergman - €15k cash, Startupbootcamp - €15k cash, PTE OÜ - €25k first tranche of the Angel II Round in cash with further up to €125k cash to come by end of 2022. Same investor indicated that they are willing to additionally invest in the region of €450k during the SEED round.
Raising:
Angel II Round up to €250k (convertible) and SEED round €1M, although, we may be open to raise up to €1.5M.
