Good sleep can do wonders for one’s body and mind. A good sleep can help you improve immunity, increase concentration and even helps you stay in shape and look younger. However, not all are lucky enough to have a good sleep. A world wide survey for ranking sleep pattern has revealed that Indians fall under the most sleep deprived segment. In order to improve such a condition and provide a relaxing time and a quality sleep to the people, Wakefit.co was established. Wakefit.co is a Bengaluru based startup which operates with an overall objective of bringing sleep into more and more Indians’ consciousness and help them take steps to improve their sleep health by accessing better products. Get to know more about their Origin, Competitors, Funding, Revenue, Challenges and many more in this article ahead.
| Startup Name | Wakefit |
|---|---|
| Headquarter | Bengaluru |
| Sector | Sleep Wellness |
| Co-founders | Ankit Garg and Chaitanya Ramalingegowda |
| Founded | 2016 |
| Parent Organization | Wakefit Innovations Pvt. Ltd. |
| Website | Wakefit.co |
About Wakefit.co and How it Works
Mattress Industry in India
Founders of Wakefit.co and team
How was Wakefit.co Started
Wakefit.co - Name, Tagline and Logo
Wakefit.co - Business Model and Revenue Model
Wakefit.co - User Acquisition
Wakefit.co - Startup Challenges
Wakefit.co - Funding and Investors
Wakefit.co - Awards and Achievements
Wakefit.co - Acquisitions
Wakefit.co - Competitors
Wakefit.co - Future Plans
Wakefit - FAQs
About Wakefit.co and How it Works
Wakefit.co was launched in March 2016 as a sleep solutions startup, with an aim to revolutionize the quality of sleep among Indians. The Wakefit.co team believes that quality sleep is a basic need and not a luxury, which motivates the entire Wakefit team to focus on innovation in product development, efficiency in processes and cost optimization and excellence in customer experience. This makes Wakefit’s superior quality products 40- 50% cheaper than established brands.
Currently, Wakefit.co has two variants of their core product - an Orthopaedic Memory Foam Mattress and a Dual Comfort Mattress. Unlike other companies which constantly release a new variant product so as to reach wider audiences Wakefit.co has committed to these two variants. Talking about the same, co-founder Chaitanya Ramalingegowda says, this decision is made to avoid decision fatigue.
With the plethora of decisions a person has to make in a single day, we want to simplify consumer's life by helping them make at least one less decision.
In line with this philosophy, as the firm transitioned from a mattress firm to a sleep solutions company, it launched one bed frame, one set of pillow, a back pillow and one mattress protector. Although mattresses and their protectors come in different sizes, they have only one design. To complete the sleep portfolio, the firm, by the end of this year, will launch a maternity pillow, a nursing pillow, a pet bed and a baby bed.
In its current capacity, Wakefit is able to produce around 500 mattresses a day and ship 7500-9000 mattresses in a month. The machinery is imported from Europe and the Middle East so as to ensure world class quality in terms of consistency and chemicals used. Manufacturing is done in Bengaluru, and quality checks take place in Europe. Wakefit is certified under Certi-PUR process (for foam). The chemicals used are certified by Greenguard, an environmental institute that aims to reduce human exposure to pollutants. Wakefit invested profits into German manufacturing equipment, which provide high efficiency and low cost.
Wakefit.co conducted a survey and it was found that in India, 48 percent people complained of back problems, and 80 percent people reported feeling sleepy at work one-three days a week. To solve the increasing number of sleep-related problems, Wakefit included many innovative features while designing their products. Wakefit claims that its mattresses are made of proprietary "open-cell structure" for cool summers, and that its high-density foam gives complementary support. Body contour is another factor they have focused on. Wakefit claims that its mattresses’ memory foam provides pressure relief.
Also, since immigrant millennials in metro cities may prefer renting, Wakefit has tied up with online furniture and home appliances rental platform Rentomojo (to provide Wakefit’s mattresses along with their beds). In the B2B space, Wakefit is also in talks with more players.
The company now delivers products all across India. Wakefit only sells its products online through its own website and e-retailers such as Amazon, Flipkart, and Pepperfry. It currently ships about 300 mattresses a day but sales does goes up to 800 during sale period. 75 percent of its sales are from top eight metros and the rest from tier-2 and tier-3 towns.
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Mattress Industry in India
With an estimated size of INR 10,000 crores, the Indian mattress market is expected to grow to INR 14,000 crores by 2021, according to market reports. While a few brands have been operating in the space, it is largely dominated by unorganized players. The overall market has seen very little innovation in the past few decades. With the entry of new-age players, the mattress market is seeing a revolution, with products designed and customized to suit customer needs and comfort.
As per internal estimates, Wakefit.co owns 2-3% of the overall mattress market, but with respect to the online sleep solutions space, they command a market share of almost 35-40%. As sleep health becomes a pertinent topic among wellness and health circles and as people start understanding the role of sleep in one’s life, the market is pegged to grow at a rapid pace and the team at Wakefit.co are confident of contributing to making India sleep better, every day.
Founders of Wakefit.co and team
Wakefit.co is founded by Ankit Garg and Chaitanya Ramalingegowda.
Ankit Garg, is the Director & Founder at Wakefit. He is a chemical engineer, graduated from IIT-Roorkee. He was featured in the Forbes 30 under 30 Young
Entrepreneurs list 2019. He worked as a management trainee at Bayer Material Science for 4 years before setting up Wakefit.co
Chaitanya Ramalingegowda is the co-founder of Wakefit. He has done MBA from ISB and has been working closely with startup industry since 2012.
The growth that Wakefit. co has achieved is because of the vision provided by the two young founders and committed team of more than 250 employees, who work tirelessly to make the customer sleep better, every day.
Taking care of everything ourselves was hard, as was finding the right people at the right time. We found the team through referrals and LinkedIn.
How was Wakefit.co Started
The motivation to start-up was born out of Ankit Garg’s personal experience of buying a mattress. He comes from a strong ‘foaming’ background, having worked with a German multinational in the space. This gave him a detailed understanding of the raw materials that went into a mattress and the cost at which these materials were bought and sold. When he experienced the journey of buying a mattress through the traditional business model, he realized that there was no innovation in the product that was being sold, it was highly overpriced and the sales representatives of retail stores had no knowledge of the science of sleep. This sparked the drive to change the way Indians accessed sleep products in the country.
One day over a cup of coffee, Ankit and Chaitanya Ramalingegowda decided the time was ripe to revolutionize sleep and make good quality sleep products accessible to larger masses in the country by bringing in efficiencies in the business model. The growing popularity of D2C brands fuelled the idea to start an online model where products were manufactured at a centrally located plant and shipped directly to customer households.
Before launching Wakefit officially, in 2015, Ankit bought a few hundred mattresses and sold them on Amazon to understand the unit economics. He made a profit of Rs 60 lakh in this trial period.
Wakefit initially experimented with four types of mattress, including spring, latex, foam and memory foam. Currently based on customer preferences, the company is manufacturing only two types of mattresses, 'orthopedic memory foam mattress' and 'dual comfort mattress'.
Wakefit.co - Name, Tagline and Logo
Wakefit.co works with the vision to let people improve their sleep health. Their scientifically designed mattresses makes the user feel well rested and wake up feeling active and fit, and hence the name 'Wakefit'
Wakefit.co - Business Model and Revenue Model
Wakefit follows a D2C business model so as to rationalize costs. They operate in the e-commerce space and all the products are listed on Wakefit's website, as well as on Amazon, Flipkart and PepperFry. They deliver to more than 19,000 pin codes in India through these channels. With 3x growth in revenue, since inception, they have also maintained profitability since 2016.
The flagship product, Orthopedic Memory Foam Mattress, starts at INR 8000 and above and the Dual Comfort Mattress starts at INR 6000 and above. The product portfolio includes Orthopedic Memory Foam Mattress, Dual Comfort mattress, pillows, bed frame, comforter, mattress protector, neck pillow, bedsheets and back cushion.
"We want to democratize sleep and for that it is important to ensure affordability. To reduce manual labor and increase efficiency, we are using vertical cutting and compression machines. Our customer acquisition cost is Rs 800-900, and our average ticket size is Rs 11,000, so there is no cash burn,” says Ankit
Since they have no middlemen, Wakefit is able to provide prices that are 50 percent lesser than their competitors - between Rs 5,000 and Rs 26,000.
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Wakefit.co - User Acquisition
For the first 100 customers Ankit and Chaitanya undertook the deliveries themselves, so as to closely understand and learn in terms of customer behavior, attitudes and pain points.
“Internet adopters were our first users. We visited homes for our first 100 deliveries, and did video interviews for feedback."
Ankit shares that those experiences taught them how to improve their product in terms of longevity, aesthetics, packaging, thickness (soft/medium/hard), and helped them understand customer pain points better. The direct feedback received from the customers aided a lot in the development of the core offerings that Wakefit provides today.
Experts opine that the comfort and adaptability to a mattress can only be judged by an individual once they sleep on it and experience it for at least 14 days. A cursory visit to the store cannot give an indication of the quality. This is why Wakefit provides a 100 day free trial with 100% return policy. This helped build confidence in the online channel of buying as well. Such insights helped Wakefit.co model their organizational structure such that the customer pain points are adequately addressed right from a product development stage till the post-sale customer experience stage.
Wakefit.co have now built a community of over 4 Lakh customers and have garnered more than 12,000 positive reviews online that have propelled the business forward. The company has not yet done any heavy spending on advertisement. Word-of- mouth marketing has been the most potent tool that has helped the Wakefit team build the business in a steady and sustainable manner. The firm also does a lot of online content marketing on the importance of sound sleep and health.
Wakefit.co - Startup Challenges
The major challenge in the mattress industry is the lack of awareness among the general public about choosing the right kind of mattresses and prioritizing sleep wellness. Wakefit is committed to bridging this gap by sharing trustworthy, first-hand information about choosing the right kind of mattress as well as building knowledge around the science of sleep.
Another challenge is making the most of the consumers’ need to touch and feel the mattress. The Wakefit team believes that the right kind of mattress cannot be chosen merely by means of ‘touch-and-feel’. So the company offers a 100 day free trial policy, which allows customers to test the mattress for themselves in the privacy of their homes and gauge whether it is the right choice for them.
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Wakefit.co - Funding and Investors
The four-year old start-up has raised Rs 65 crore in the first round of funding in December 2018 by Sequoia Capital for a 31 per cent stake. The funding was enabled the company to experiment with product innovation and build up the R&D capability by buying automated machinery. They bought three machines for temperature and pressure mapping and for stress testing to understand how foam reacts to different body postures. Currently, they are selling the 15th version of their products.
Wakefit.co - Awards and Achievements
- Won Startup of the Year at Small Business Awards 2019, conducted in collaboration with Economic Times & Entrepreneur magazine.
- Wakefit won the Business Today Coolest startup 2018 award.
- Won ‘Startup of the Year - Home and Lifestyle’ at India Retail and eRetail Congress 2019.
- Won Amazon Aces Gold as Bestsellers in 2019
- Won Best Customer Service Award in 2019 at an Award ceremony organized by Entrepreneur India Magazine.
- Nominated for SABRE awards for its innovative ‘One India One Wakefit’ campaign
Wakefit.co - Acquisitions
Although mergers and acquisitions are common in e-commerce, Wakefit wants to continue as an independent entity and not be acquired.
Wakefit.co - Competitors
Several other start-ups such as Cuddl, Sunday Mattress, SleepyCat and Wink&Nod have entered the fray in last few years. In spite of the competition from start-ups, unorganized players and biggies such as Kurl-On and Sleepwell, the firm has been growing. It closed FY 2018-19 with revenues of Rs 81 crore, a whopping 200 per cent jump from last year. They are targeting Rs 200 crore by FY2020.
Wakefit.co - Future PlansWakefit's revenue has grown constantly from Rs 6.5 crore in 2017, to Rs 81 crore in 2021. The team is now gearing up to achieve a 3x annual growth rate for FY 2020 and achieve a revenue of INR 240 crores.
Also, Wakefit's factory area has, over the years, gone from 3,000 sqft, to 5,000, 30,000, and now 70,000 sqft. The startup currently has four warehouses, one each in Pune, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad, and plans to set up six more by the end of 2019.
Wakefit - FAQs
What is Wakefit?
It is a sleep solutions startup, that offers comfortable mattresses and other related products like pillows and comforters.
Is Memory Foam bad for your back?
Normally, Memory foam mattresses are recommended for back pain. The memory foam uses the body heat to soften and mould to the body shape, thus providing support and comfort.
How big is the Mattress Industry?
As per a research report published by the Zion Market Research, the Global Mattress industry is growing at a CAGR of 6.5% between 2018 and 2024. India’s overall mattress market has grown at a CAGR of 11% over last five years, with an estimated size of INR 10,000 crores in 2019.
Where is Wakefit’s Manufacturing Unit?
Wakefit has its unit located in Bangalore, India.
What is Wakefit's turnover?
It closed FY 2018-19 with revenues of Rs 81 crore, a whopping 200 per cent jump from last year. They are targeting Rs 200 crore by FY2020.
Link : https://startuptalky.com/wakefit-success-story/
Author :- Chayanika Goswami
July 04, 2020 at 12:36PM
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