mid-day's 42nd anniversary: Biz born amid COVID helps restaurants survive, Thrive

Hashtag Loyalty’s timely metamorphosis into a food ordering platform solved a pressing problem and created a new biz model for its three owners

Thrive
Dhruv Dewan, 30 Karan Chechani, 31 Krishi Fagwani, 30
Launched Thrive, the online ordering platform that allows restaurants to reduce their dependence on aggregators

A loyalty programme established by three entrepreneurs from the western suburbs took an unlikely turn last year just as the company was getting its boots off the ground. Hashtag Loyalty, the brainchild of Dhruv Dewan, Karan Chechani, and Krishi Fagwani, was in danger of shutting shop even before the shutters were lifted, all thanks to the pandemic. But timely thinking and the lack of an alternative to food delivery apps led the trio to launch Thrive, an online ordering platform that allows restaurants to directly reach their customers. 

Fagwani said, “The pandemic confined us to our homes. Hashtag Loyalty’s business model revolved around brick and mortar stores and offline consumption. Our business hit a wall. We understood that the reality for our business and the industry we serve was changing rapidly. In April 2020, we first deployed Save Local, a platform where customers could purchase gift cards of their favourite businesses, thereby giving them much-needed cash flow.”

“We also went back to the drawing board,” said Dewan. “We spoke to our customers and their customers to understand how this ‘new normal’ would shape up.”

“The fixed monthly subscription from each store stopped as none of our partners could serve their customers offline. Thrive was born out of pure necessity not only for us but also for the F&B industry. In July 2020, we had our first restaurant partner in Mumbai,” Dewan said.

Chechani said: “A key change has been dining out. In the new normal, restaurants adapted, survived and thrived with home delivery.” With only deliveries came another caveat — commissions to aggregators like Zomato and Swiggy — which went up to 20 per cent to 30 per cent per order excluding discounts. “These commissions are no longer sustainable, neither is the duopoly that these apps have on customer data,” Chechani said.

The trio saw the need for a sustainable food delivery ecosystem that was fair to restaurants and restauranteurs. An online ordering platform, Thrive, fulfils this need and empowers restaurants to reduce their dependence on aggregators. 

Thrive charges a six per cent commission per order and provides restaurants complete ownership of their customer data.

Food outlets/restaurants took to Thrive, run by a team of 15, like a moth to a flame. “At Thrive, we define success by the value we’ve added to our customers, that is restaurants. Every direct order completed is a win for us, because that means the restaurant has been able to achieve a higher profit, control the delivery experience and engage directly with its customers,” said Dewan, adding: “Although we’re the third-largest market in the world for food delivery, it’s still 1/10th of the market in the US and China. Here, it is still in its early stages, with penetration as low as six per cent. Looking at developed markets, we definitely foresee huge growth in India, especially with increasing digital penetration across tier-2 and tier-3 cities.”

The trio places emphasis on value-creation and attributes their initial success to pure focus. 

“We’re a restaurant-first platform. Food delivery is more complex than standard e-commerce with a delivery turnaround time of 30 minutes. Each element is dynamic and needs to be controlled in real-time. You need a strong focus on the right problems. Otherwise, you can be obsolete pretty quick,” Fagwani said.

Over 3,400 restaurants use Thrive to deliver directly to their customers and reduce their dependence on aggregators. “We’ve helped restaurants save Rs 3 crore so far in commissions. They can utilise this money to not just survive, but also thrive,” Chechani said.

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Rs 3cr
Amount Thrive has helped restaurants save in commissions

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