💡What is Deep Rooted?

🫚About the Company

*https://deeprooted.co/about-us

** https://www.livemint.com/companies/start-ups/agritech-startup-clover-launches-d2c-app-11614260583045.html

***https://entrackr.com/2023/03/accel-backed-clover-ventures-gmv-grows-over-3x-in-fy22/

🛗Elevator Pitch

🤔 Did you know that today, there is nothing 'clean' about eating clean? Did you know that leafy greens like Spinach are generally grown using sewage water or contaminated lake/river water? The fruits & vegetables that you are eating today may have over 50X the permissible limit of toxic heavy metals like Cadmium, Nickel, and Lead!

🧑‍🌾 Introducing you to Deep Rooted - Enjoy the freshest, cleanest, and contamination-free fruits & vegetables, delivered to your doorstep.

🪴We believe in nature and nurture - We use technology such as hydroponics and greenhouses in our managed farms and ensure quality control at every step - from farm to fork. Drip irrigation, precision farming, and other advanced practices are employed to build the foundation of sustainability.

🫛 We have redefined 'Fresh' - We grow our produce within 150km of a city so that you can receive them within 20 hours of harvest!

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Our team of agronomists works with small farmers to help increase their yield, produce the cleanest fruits & vegetables, and increase their income.

🚨 Not all fresh produce is created the same so don't settle for generic produce whose origin is unknown. Join the Deep Rooted revolution in farming - consume safe, fresh & clean fruits & vegetables.

Value Proposition

The value proposition for the consumer is the supply of fresh, clean (contamination-free), and consistently high-quality fruits & vegetables at their doorstep, every day. Growing in greenhouses ensures that seasonal variations in fruits & vegetables are controlled and true consistency in the perishable category is possible.

What is the product solving for?

Peri-urban (areas adjacent to cities or urban areas) agriculture is broken. Many farmers rely on sewage water or industry effluent-contaminated lake/river water for irrigation. In addition, uncontrolled use of pesticides and fertilizers contributes to the toxicity of fresh fruits & vegetables. Certifications and lab test results still hide the truth and are beyond the average citizen's comprehension.

https://deeprooted.co/blogs/heavy-metal-contamination-in-vegetables-lets-unearth-the-truth

https://jhs.iihr.res.in/index.php/jhs/article/view/589

Recently, research in Bangalore showed heavy metal contamination in fruits & vegetables found in local stores to the extent of 50X!

(https://www.deccanherald.com/india/karnataka/bengaluru/research-flags-heavy-metal-contamination-in-vegetables-across-bengaluru-2740180)

Deep Rooted solves the above by owning or monitoring the value chain end-to-end. They manage farms (seeds & other inputs, monitoring, harvesting) with the help of an expert agronomy team. They use technology wisely in the form of greenhouses and hydroponics and finally control delivery to your doorstep with the right post-harvest care and use of refrigerated vehicles.

Product Insights

1. The product has a strong WoM and is definitely delivering on its value proposition. Below is a word cloud created by taking all reviews from Google Playstore:

The word cloud shows good+vegetable+fruit+quality+experience - all part of their value proposition.

2. The product has a very interesting and differentiated feature - elastic search with different languages and the ability to see descriptions in many different languages. This is important since most people generally do not know the English names of many fruits & vegetables but do know them in their native tongue. This was also highlighted by 2/8 users during the calls. Images for comparison can be seen in the link here: https://whimsical.com/deeprooted-screens-ATjh5sizdnSZcJ1fJEm49A

Why Deep Rooted?

Personal Story:

I have seen Deep Rooted pivot from being a B2B player (Clover Ventures) to B2C over the last 3 years. My household runs on deep-rooted fruits & vegetables and I am fully familiar with the product. I have also interacted with the founders.

Is Deep Rooted ready to acquire customers?

Has Deep Rooted achieved PMF?

1. Are users jumping on the product? - Yes. An increase in organic traffic is a good indication

2. Repeat usage without incentivization:

All users during user calls reported that they are using Deep Rooted for their fruit & vegetable purchases consistently. In addition, Google Play store reviews in recent times are very positive indicating strong retention

3. Bragging about the product or pay for the product

Most users during user calls reported that they came to Deep Rooted due to WoM. While inherently Deep Rooted is not in the category of products that may be bragged about on social media, referrals indicate that users are bragging about the product. The Play Store word cloud is also a signal of bragging.

ICP Definition

Insights from User Interviews

Interviewed 8 users for this project. All of them were from Bangalore. 2 were async and the rest were through the phone.

ICP

ICP Prioritization

Hence, Primary ICPs are ICP1 and ICP2

Market Study

Market Overview

The fruit and vegetable market in India is ~$170Bn in 2023 growing at ~9% CAGR. From a B2C perspective, most differentiation is seen in efforts to make produce 'better' rather than faster or cheaper. The segment relevant to Deep Rooted is the 'Differentiated F&V' space. The following are the levers to differentiate:

1. Organic - growing fruits and vegetables without synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers
2. Residue-free/Contamination Free/Clean - growing fruits and vegetables with well-controlled amounts of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers
3. Ozone Washed - ozone can be used to disinfect produce
4. Non-GMO - produced without genetic engineering

References:

1. Vegetable Market Size - https://www.statista.com/outlook/cmo/food/vegetables/india
2. Fruits Market Size - https://www.statista.com/outlook/cmo/food/fruits-nuts/fresh-fruits/india

Competitor Analysis

Based on searches of keywords such as 'buy spinach online' and the above affinity analysis (only the top 2 are relevant rest are not in the same category), Deep Rooted's primary competitors are follows:

1. Pluckk (~$5mn Revenue FY'23)
2. Farmizen (~$2Mn Revenue FY'22)
3. Gourmet Garden (~$2.74Mn Revenue FY'22)

Traffic analysis clearly shows Deep Rooted dominating especially considering that every competitor is present in at least 1 more city than Deep Rooted.

All of the above point towards Deep Rooted enjoying a large market share in the differentiated F&V space.

TAM, SAM, SOM

TAM:

The total TAM is 49,87,561 households.

SAM:

The total SAM is 38,26,718 households.

SOM:

The total SOM is 9,56,679 households

Acquisition Strategy

Channel Selection Framework

Deep Rooted Traffic Analysis:

Referral

Present Referral Flow

The present referral flow and some shortcomings can be found here: https://whimsical.com/deeprooted-present-referral-SkztLmjAunE3k17pcbVGW4

1. Bragworthy Factors

The following are brag-worthy factors of the product that were observed through user conversations and Play Store reviews:

1. Quality
2. 100% Safe to consume
3. Delivery experience (packaging, timing, fill rate)
4. Helps farmers - Deep Rooted has not leveraged this yet but reviews of competition show promise

Platform Currency

The platform currency for Deep Rooted is as follows:

1. Care for friends & family
2. Social signaling of altruism (Helping the small farmer)

Who do we ask for a referral?

---> Deep Rooted presently does not seek ratings post-delivery of an order.

Hero products of Deep Rooted are leafy greens, exotic greens, and fruits. So, we will ask for a referral to customers who have ordered at least 1 of - leafy green, exotic green, or fruit AND has rated the order >= 4 stars/5.

Also, based on the insight that the probability of things going wrong is high in F&V, the referral program needs to be visible based on the customer experience of the most recent order only.

How will the user discover the referral program?

How will the referee share the link/code? What will the communication and design look like? How will the referral invite look for a non-user?

How will the referees track their referrals? How do we ensure they keep referring?

Product Integrations

Product integrations is the most important acquisition channel for Deep Rooted. A couple of things to note:

1. It has strategic importance other than the short-term growth in users - Deep Rooted is present only in Bangalore & Hyderabad. While the company's strength is supply and can quickly setup supply for other cities, scaling demand from 0 is a herculean task. Product integrations with pan-India products would help scale quickly on the demand side when they enter a new city.
2. The effort required for product integration, especially for applications with commerce enabled is super low. The problem here is on physical fulfillment - the risk for the product with which Deep Rooted is integrating is on customer experience since fulfillment will mostly be by Deep Rooted

Product Integration Decision Framework:

Considering that the effort for integration is low for all channels and also that MyGate, HealthifyMe, and Cult.Fit seems to have an e-commerce play, we will go ahead with integration with all 4 products.