For India’s busy professionals and convenience-seeking consumers, Quick Commerce is a much-loved lifeline, with CareEdge forecasting India’s Quick Commerce orders to be worth roughly $30 billion by 2028.
Quick Commerce is popular, but it isn’t perfect. Harmful additives are seen in products across the most popular platforms, and overwhelming product volumes are leading to choice fatigue.
FirstClub is pioneering a better kind of Quick Commerce. One that brings greater quality and trust into the experience without compromising on speed. It’s proving a huge hit.
A new standard to shake up Quick Commerce
After over 11 years in leadership roles at Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart, Ayyappan R saw an opportunity to launch FirstClub, a commerce platform that places an absolute premium on product quality, ingredient transparency and consumer well-being while delivering quick delivery speeds.
Inspired by the Costco model of selling quality products at consistently fair prices, Ayyappan and team have established partnerships with brands and manufacturers that pass rigorous independent quality tests and are free of banned additives. “Clubhouses” (FirstClub’s label for dark stores, large fulfilment centres for online orders) are used to distribute high-quality packaged foods, fresh produce, bakery, dairy and nutrition goods across the city.
FirstClub launched in June, with four clubhouses now operating in Bengaluru. Firstclub’s quality-first service is resonating with Bengaluru residents. Average order values are coming in at double that of adjacent Quick Commerce platforms, and repeat purchases are high.
With an 185-strong team and a robust in-house supply chain and tech stack, FirstClub is primed for growth. More clubhouses are set to open in the coming weeks, putting FirstClub on track to serve all of Bengaluru by Diwali. But the team isn’t stopping there.
Seizing the moment
With such strong momentum, FirstClub is raising capital to hit even greater heights. This includes plans to open 35 new clubhouses in the next six months, launch new features like daily subscriptions, open new product categories, and accelerate hiring with a focus on young talent.
We’re proud to back Ayyappan and team with this capital in leading FirstClub’s $23M Series A funding round with Accel. You can read more about that raise in TechCrunch.
Commenting on the Series A, Nishit Garg, Partner at RTP Global said: “In a world of overwhelming product choices and confusing ingredient labels, FirstClub is closing the trust gap for Indian consumers. Ayyappan’s leadership, deep operator experience, market and category understanding are evident in the way the team has achieved early operational excellence and strong consumer love within just months of launch.”
Indian consumers rightly expect high-quality products as well as reliable delivery. A new era for Quick Commerce is required to meet this demand. It takes an experienced operator like Ayyappan to rise to such a task and reimagine the norm. His foresight is paying off with FirstClub enjoying growth at a blistering speed.
We’re proud to be on this journey and help deliver a better vision for India’s Quick Commerce: where households get better quality, better taste and no compromises on quality.
