D2C brand Koparo, which offers home cleaning products, has raised a Pre-Series A funding of $1.5 Mn led by Saama Capital. The round also saw participation from Fluid Ventures and M Venture Partners along with new angels Rajesh Sawhney (founder and CEO of GSF Accelerator), Sridhar Sankararaman (Multiples PE), and Ramesh Menon (ex-Future Group, Hypercity). In addition, existing investor DSG Consumer Partners also participated in the round. 

Koparo stated that the funds will be used for strengthening offline presence, building brand and dive product innovation. The startup claims that since the last funding round of $750K last year, it has grown 10x. 

Commenting on the funding round, Simran Khara, founder, Koparo, said, “The modern Indian home is ready for new cleaning products that are effective yet not laden with harsh chemicals. Several sub-categories within cleaning are already responding well to our proposition. With the backing of some of the best consumer investors, we feel confident of executing well on our category defining play at Koparo.”

Founded in 2020 by Khara, the D2C brand offers a range of 15 products in the core cleaning, specialty cleaning, and accessories categories. It earns 40% of the overall revenue by selling products through its own website, while the other channels include leading e-comm sites and 70 stores of Reliance Retail and Modern Bazaar.

Sensing the increasing demand for its products, Koparo plans to launch variants of its top selling products to offer a wide range of cleaners catering to modern Indian cleaning needs, and introduce complementing kitchen and home cleaning accessories. 

The startup aims to grow faster in the laundry vertical as well and aims to launch pet friendly laundry products soon. It has also launched a kennel wash for the pet homes. In the next 18-20 months, the startup aims to grow its revenue by 8x, by focusing on its core range, expanding distribution points, and introducing products in newer sub-categories.

Koparo notes that according to an IMARC report, the household cleaning market in India reached $7.5 Bn in 2022 and the projected growth rate in the next five years is 18.9% CAGR. in the mentioned market, the startup competes with conglomerates such as Reckitt, Hindustan Unilever, BB Homes etc.

The Indian D2C market is home to over 50,000 digital-first brands. Though the funding winter affected the whole startup ecosystem of India, the D2C brands saw positive growth. In Q2 2022, funding raised by bridge-stage D2C brands grew 101% QoQ to $26.4 Mn.

Inc42 found that the market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 24% between 2021 and 2030. The study further found that the total addressable market opportunity of $300 Bn by that year