Rising Bharat Summit 2025: Bharat has more paying capacity than urban consumers, say founders of consumer brands

Rising Bharat Summit 2025: Bharat has more paying capacity than urban consumers, say founders of consumer brands

Consumers in non-urban markets in India, also known as the Bharat consumer cohort, are willing to spend more than their urban counterparts, but for products specifically tailored to their needs and wants, said founders of consumer brands like Lahori Jeera, Wiom, and STAGE, during a panel discussion at the News18 Rising Bharat Summit 2025 in New Delhi.

This comes at a time when new-age sectors like quick commerce and food delivery are struggling to scale past urban markets due to reduced demand and a lower total addressable market (TAM) beyond the top eight markets amid an ongoing slowdown in consumption.

Vinay Singh, co-founder and CEO of STAGE – a regional OTT platform- said that India’s startups have shown “stepchild behaviour” with people in Bharat, opting to instead target customers in top markets.

“People who say India doesn't pay for content, their information is coming from bad sources. It is most probably a lazy statement made from an air-conditioned office because they don't have it in them to go on the ground and find out that people are ready to pay,” exclaimed Singh.

STAGE, through its content offerings in local languages like Haryanvi, Rajasthani, and Bhojpuri, has amassed four million paying subscribers who are shelling out as much as Rs 800 a year on the platform.

Concurring with Singh, Saurabh Munjal, co-founder and CEO of Archian Foods, said: “People (founders) are not making an effort to find a reason for why (consumers) will spend. Bharat has far more (disposable) wealth (as a cohort) that they are ready to spend vis-à-vis the folks who are sitting in ACs and filing income tax returns."

According to Munjal, the new-age entrepreneur ecosystem is targeting the 12-15 crore affluent customers who are filing income tax returns, leaving out a large population of about 100 crore underserved customers in Bharat.

Archian Foods, known for its popular beverages like Lahori Jeera, Lahori Nimboo, and Lahori Shikanji, has quickly risen to prominence by offering local drinks at the affordable price of Rs 10. The firm is also in advanced stages to raise Rs 400-450 crore in fresh funding from Motilal Oswal’s private equity arm, Moneycontrol exclusively reported in February.

To cater to this large, underserved consumer cohort in Bharat, the founders called for products that are “born in India” rather than “built in India.”

“Built in India (products) were actually seen in the US, copied in Europe and then built out in India. But if you want to make a product specifically for India, it has to be born in India,” explained Satyam Darmora, founder and CEO of Wiom – a telecom startup that offers its users unlimited internet starting from Rs 5.

He added that, to target the masses, the price point of products offered is a critical factor.

“It is not about the cost, it is about the context you need to get right. Most of the time, the conversation goes to cost because it comes from a very western concept of how businesses are evaluated. In the US, you buy more to save more. In India, you save more so you can buy,” Darmora concluded.