Anil Thontepu

Ever felt out of place and overwhelmed shopping at a local Kirana store while finding comfort in the familiar brands and streamlined aisle experience of modern trade stores? Home is Where The Mart Is Neeraj Menta (@neerajmnt), Co-Founder of SuperK (Blume Fund IV co), experienced this during a visit to his ancestral town near Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh. He saw a wave of modernization - traditional barber shops became chic salons, old bakeries turned into trendy cafes, and local medical stores evolved into organized chains. People wanted a more modern, comfortable shopping experience. Yet, the daily retail sector lagged. Bridging the Retail Gap Traditional stores run by older generations struggled with inconsistent pricing and unstandardized products, disappointing shoppers. The demand for a better retail experience was clear, but major players like Reliance and D-Mart find it challenging to enter smaller markets due to high operational costs and complex staffing needs in small towns. Neeraj and his cofounder, Anil Thontepu (@tnpanil), seized this opportunity, launching the first SuperK store in Kadapa in 2019. They launched with an OYO-like franchise model, leveraging local expertise and keeping costs low. However, they faced early resistance from local store owners who were skeptical of SuperK's ability to enhance their operations and revenue. To build confidence, SuperK launched a few company-owned stores to prove their business model's viability and gain trust. What further helped them build trust was their decision not to raise prices during the pandemic to support local retailers. Once trust was built, SuperK rapidly expanded from ten stores in Kadapa to 100+ stores in 5 districts. Resilience in Retail While the brand was gaining popularity, the pace of growth presented challenges. Infrastructure, people, and process gaps affected customer experience and store success, along with increased operational burn. They made a strategic decision to focus on deep business improvements before growing the store count. This hard work has started paying off, with a 20% sales increase and a robust operational setup. Vikram Gawande (@vikramg05), from the Growth Investments team at Blume Ventures, says, “Non-metro India is as aspirational as Metros, presenting a huge opportunity. Neeraj and Anil’s insights into non-metro shopping behaviors allowed them to build a massive network of 100+ SuperK stores. They’ve created livelihoods for hundreds of families and delighted thousands of customers.” To focus on loyal customers, SuperK recently launched a Costco-like membership model offering cashback to shoppers, which is already gaining strong traction. Though it’s early days for the Bengaluru-based company, they’ve made impressive progress in building efficient operations and proving their model’s potential to work at scale. At Blume Ventures, we’re proud to be partners in this journey and excited to see them become one of India’s most exciting retail brands. @BKartRed @AshishFafadia @sajithpai @sanjaynath @arpiit @riashroff @saritaraichu @mehtaalok @mitul_am @SeekingN0rth @DeepikaDakuda @gauthamsiv @shreevz

Anil Thontepu (@tnpanil) and Neeraj Menta (@neerajmnt) are on a mission to revolutionize small-town grocery shopping experience. They founded SuperK brands in 2020, which takes existing small-format stores under its brand and helps them with standardized pricing, discounts, cashback, and digital billing. In just a short time, SuperK has scaled to 125 stores and achieved a staggering 100 crores ARR. Blume Ventures led their latest $6M round and we are proud to support their mission and zeal of redefining how India shops Neeraj Menta said, “At SuperK, our vision is to bring a better grocery shopping experience for the small-town customers who are currently stuck with a subpar experience provided by their neighborhood kirana store." Karthik Reddy, co-founder and managing partner at Blume Ventures, added, “We were tracking this space for a couple of years. While the market was hot for Tier 3-4 towns retail enabled by a tech supply-chain backbone, we were convinced about it when we saw SuperK’s dense approach in Andhra Pradesh paying off dividends and delivering store level profitability. We think it’s the right way to build modern trade for Bharat. We are excited to back the next phase of scale before we eventually tackle most of South India.” Watch the video linked below to see how SuperK is turning the tides of small-town shopping. 👇🏼 @BKartRed @sajithpai @AshishFafadia @arpiit @sanjaynath