Payments & Checkout
India's real-time interbank payment system, managed by NPCI. Enables instant bank-to-bank transfers via mobile apps using a VPA (Virtual Payment Address). Processes over 22 Bn transactions per month.
UPI is the dominant D2C checkout payment method alongside COD. Every percentage point improvement in UPI success rate at checkout directly recovers lost revenue.
The fee charged by a payment gateway or acquiring bank to a merchant for processing a digital transaction. Expressed as a percentage of transaction value and varies by payment method (card, UPI, net banking) and merchant volume.
UPI P2M MDR is currently zero by government mandate, but MDR on cards and EMI products can be 1.5–3%. A D2C brand's payment method mix directly affects net margin.
A short-term credit product that lets consumers make a purchase immediately and pay in instalments, often zero-cost for the consumer. The merchant typically pays a higher MDR to offer BNPL at checkout.
BNPL can increase AOV by 20–40% on higher-ticket D2C categories. The cost-benefit calculation for merchants depends on AOV uplift versus incremental MDR paid.
A payment method where customers pay in cash when the order is delivered. Still accounts for roughly 45% of D2C and ecommerce orders in India, particularly in Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets.
COD raises return rates and delays working capital by 3–7 days. D2C brands actively work to shift customers to prepaid through discounts, nudges, and easier digital checkout.
Technology infrastructure that connects a merchant's checkout to banks, card networks, and the UPI system to process and settle digital payments. Examples: Razorpay, PayU, Cashfree, Paytm PG.
Gateway selection affects success rate, settlement speed, MDR, and checkout experience. D2C brands should audit gateway performance, particularly UPI success rates, monthly.
Funding & Capital
The annualised value of a brand's revenue run rate, calculated by multiplying the most recent month's revenue by 12. Used loosely in D2C to describe scale, though technically a SaaS metric.
When D2C brands claim "₹200 Cr ARR," verify whether it's actual trailing twelve-month revenue or an annualised monthly figure, the difference can be material in early-growth phases.
The initial document filed by a company with SEBI before a public listing (IPO). Contains financial history, risk factors, business description, and intended use of proceeds. Made public for investor review.
D2C Brief tracks DRHP filings as a leading signal of brand health, the prospectus discloses unit economics, customer concentration, and platform dependency data that brands rarely share otherwise.
Institutional equity funding rounds at successive stages of growth. Series A typically funds product-market fit validation (₹10–50 Cr range in Indian D2C); Series B funds scaling; Series C funds expansion or pre-IPO positioning.
Round labels matter less than the underlying metrics that support them. A Series B investor expects meaningfully different unit economics than a Series A investor.
A business funded entirely from founder capital and operating revenues, without external equity investment. Bootstrapped D2C brands retain full ownership and are under no external pressure to grow beyond profitable unit economics.
Bootstrapped brands are increasingly attractive to PE firms, which can take majority stakes at later stages. The Phitku deal (Edition 008) is a recent example of a bootstrapped D2C brand receiving a PE majority buyout.
Investment firms that acquire significant or majority stakes in established companies, typically using a combination of equity and debt. PE is distinct from VC, it targets companies with proven unit economics and prefers control or co-control positions.
PE is increasingly active in Indian D2C as brands reach ₹100–500 Cr ARR with strong repeat economics. PE capital typically funds distribution expansion and operational efficiency, not growth-at-all-costs.
A scheme granting employees equity or options in the company they work for, typically vesting over several years. An ESOP liquidity event lets employees sell vested options for cash before an IPO or exit.
Companies running frequent ESOP liquidity events outside a normal annual or pre-IPO cadence are often signaling either sustained valuation confidence or an active retention play against talent poaching.
A funding round where an existing investor puts in additional capital, distinct from a new round led by a new investor. Often smaller than the original round and doesn't necessarily involve a new valuation negotiation.
A follow-on from an existing investor usually signals operating confidence more than it signals a step-up in valuation, existing investors already have the numbers, they don't need a new pitch.
A ledger showing who owns what percentage of a company, founders, employees, and investors, across every funding round. Tracks equity dilution over time as new rounds are raised.
A messy or heavily diluted cap table can complicate later fundraising or an IPO, investors scrutinize it closely to understand founder control and prior investor rights.
Loans to venture-backed companies, sized against revenue or receivables rather than hard assets, usually raised alongside or after an equity round. Cheaper than equity when funding predictable spends like inventory or retail rollout.
The default 2026 structure for funding offline distribution. Open Secret's ₹50 Cr package layered institutional debt over family-office equity instead of diluting further.
The investment arm of a wealthy family, deploying its own capital with no external LPs and no fund clock. In Indian consumer, marquee examples include Sharrp Ventures (the Mariwala family) and Mirabilis (Infosys co-founder K. Dinesh's family).
Family offices wrote several of this week's consumer cheques (Naturis, Open Secret). They hold longer than VC funds and often bring trade relationships, not just capital.
A transaction where current shareholders sell their stake to new investors and no fresh capital enters the company. Covers everything from block deals in listed stock to promoters selling part of their holding in private M&A.
How early money exits without waiting for the company to sell: Temasek's ₹1,940 Cr Lenskart trim and phase one of the Recode-Aflairza deal are both secondaries.
The maximum percentage a stock is allowed to move in a single trading session on Indian exchanges before trading is automatically halted, commonly 5%, 10% or 20% depending on the stock. Hitting the upper circuit means the price rose by its full permitted limit for the day.
BlueStone shares hit the 20% upper circuit after its Q1 FY27 results, the maximum move possible in a single session, a sharper read on investor reaction than the percentage gain alone conveys.
An independent research firm that advises institutional shareholders such as mutual funds and pension funds on how to vote on company resolutions, and flags governance or compliance concerns to regulators. InGovern, IiAS, and SES are the most active in India.
InGovern’s complaint to Sebi over Meesho’s GST treatment of its logistics arm Valmo shows how a proxy advisor can put a listed D2C company’s core unit economics under public regulatory scrutiny, not just its board decisions.
Logistics & Fulfilment
Outsourced logistics providers that handle warehousing, order picking, packing, and last-mile delivery on behalf of D2C brands. Examples: Delhivery, Shiprocket, Shadowfax, Xpressbees.
D2C brands typically use 3PLs until fulfilment volume justifies in-house infrastructure. The Delhivery-Ecom Express consolidation has reduced 3PL competition and increased pricing pressure on brands.
A retail location closed to walk-in customers that functions purely as a fulfilment hub for online and q-commerce orders. Stocked with fast-moving SKUs and located within 2–3 km of dense consumer clusters.
Q-commerce platforms operate networks of dark stores. A D2C brand's ability to get shelf space in dark stores in a city directly determines its q-commerce reach in that market.
A small-format, high-density warehouse typically under 5,000 sq ft, positioned close to urban demand clusters to enable fast fulfilment. Flipkart has scaled to 1,000+ MFCs across India to power Flipkart Minutes.
The MFC build-out by Flipkart and Amazon signals a structural shift in ecommerce infrastructure toward near-instant fulfilment, which eventually raises consumer expectations for all D2C delivery.
The final leg of the delivery journey, from the nearest hub or dark store to the customer's doorstep. Last-mile is the most expensive and logistically complex portion of fulfilment, typically 40–60% of total delivery cost.
Last-mile cost, delivery speed, and COD handling quality directly affect D2C return rates and customer satisfaction scores. Carrier selection by pincode is a frequently under-optimised lever.
A large-format warehouse where a brand's full SKU range is stored, orders are picked and packed, and inventory is managed before dispatch to 3PL carriers or dark stores. Distinct from a dark store in scale and function.
D2C brands typically begin with a single fulfilment centre and expand to regional FCs as volume grows and shipping time-to-delivery expectations tighten. FC location decisions directly affect speed and cost-per-delivery by region.