Mr. Beast in India, Maruti's 1st EV & Swiggy's medicine delivery 🥹

What a week it has been so far.

We are back with our new newsletter edition, which covers three important business topics in one go. Today, we discuss the “why” behind Mr Beast’s Feastables launch in India, Maruti’s EV entry, and Swiggy’s medicine collab with PharmEasy.

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GrowthX’s four-week live growth program begins on Sunday, December 1st.

Applications are open, and we are down to the final two rounds of selection for the cohort. This is the program to learn from if you want to improve your skills in the four key pillars of growth: customer acquisition, onboarding, retention, and monetisation.

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Why is Mr.Beast betting on India? 🍫

First, quick context.
Mr Beast - YouTube’s biggest creator with 330M subscribers, has launched Feastables (his chocolate brand) in India along with other creators, Logan Paul & KSI, who launched Prime Energy Drinks. Feastables came out in 2022 and did $100M the first year as is expected to 2X to 5X this year.

Why India?
One word—“product-market fit.” Beast has ~330M subscribers on his channel, of which the second-biggest pool of audience is from India. The TG demographics fit perfectly. India’s under-20-year-old population is 30 Crore vs. the US’ 8 crore.

Can they make $200M in India?
The answer is “YES!“ The Indian chocolate market is worth $3B, while the U.S. market is around $23B. But the customer count can make up for it.

Let’s break it down.
India has ~30 crore households, with 10% contributing to half of the country’s consumption. Feastables need to acquire 10% of these & sell a bar twice a year to every household - that’s ~6 Crore $5 bars = $300M in sales

Fun Fact.
The Indian launch is at a $1.50 premium per bar (60gms at $5) compared to the US price (60gms at ~$3.5) as it’s being imported. By the way, this is still way cheaper than Ferrero Rochers, which makes ₹1,500 Crores (roughly $200 million).

Indian chocolate D2C folks pay attention. We can definitely have homegrown brands. By the way, a brand in Hyderabad called Manam Chocolate is building a solid premium chocolate bar brand.

Maruti “finally” enters EV; why?

First quick context.
Maruti, India’s 4W leader with a 40% market share, stayed cautious on EVs while Tata seized a Tesla-like monopoly with 70% of the market. Now, Maruti is finally bringing its EV bet with E Vitara (EVX).

Why it didn’t for so long?
India's EV penetration in cars is just 2% —the lowest among vehicle categories. Why? For cars, the “total cost of ownership” advantage just isn’t there, especially beyond the ₹15 Lakh price range. Maruti, the quintessential "Bharat" brand, didn’t see mainstream adoption happening anytime soon.

But, CNG prices are skyrocketting.
And 30% of Maruti’s automobile sales are CNG cars, driven largely by B2B and cab fleet demand. The Maruti Swift remains the company’s second-best seller.

Maruti is trying to capture the premium Janta.
What it did with “Nexa” sub-brand, its doing with EVs now. Its’ 1st electric vechile isn't in the classic under ₹10L price (unlike Tata Punch) but rather at ₹20L. Maruti wants to only sell premium EVs - with the feature sell of EVs.

I doubt Maruti will do well in the premium car market. No wonder they have taken two bets simultaneously by launching the EV and the new Desire (CNG).

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Swiggy wants to deliver meds now 🚑

First quick context.
Swiggy is entering into quick medicine delivery with Instamart, planning to offer both OTC (over-the-counter) and non-OTC meds delivered within 10-15 minutes—starting with a pilot project in Bengaluru. This is happening in collab with PharmEasy, which holds the rights to sell medicines online.

But, there has been a little pushback.
Despite pushback from the All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) over prescription verification and misuse concerns, this move feels inevitable.

As Victor Hugo said, "No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come.”

Why will it work?
Quick access to medicines is a growing need, and users already buy other essentials like shampoos and toothpaste during their pharmacy visits. By adding medicines to Swiggy, it becomes an intuitive choice for users, boosting average order values (AOVs).

Fact.
Swiggy could even introduce a “select tablet count” feature where you can select 4 crocins instead of a pack of 10 and have a pharmacist available in the dark stores to keep things regulated. Pharmeasy is setting up mini dark stores within Swiggy’s dark stores to make this happen. A solid dark store network is an unfair moat.

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We launched the latest episode of GrowthX. Wireframe during the next hot startup IPO battle.

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