Fixcraft- curing the dents and scratches of Indian cars
Driving on Indian roads requires a very unique skill set. One not only needs 360-degree vision but also highly alert senses for the next thing to bump into your car could come from anywhere. Left, right, straight ahead, from behind, potholes or even from the sky!
And if you are lucky, it might just scratch the surface and leave dents.
But that is exactly what happens, all Indian cars are usually dented, bruised, and scratched from at least one of the sides.
Some of them even from the top, thanks to monkeys, dogs and debris from construction sites!
But ask yourself this question- If there is a dent or a scratch on your car, what would you do?
As we understand it, you have two options.
Go to the expensive authorized dealer. But their sky-high prices could never be justified for a scratch or a paint job.
Go to the local garage but finding a good one requires local connections and even after that trusting them requires immense optimism.
Fixcraft sees a vast market opportunity between these lines. They want to do what CCD did for coffee pan India- build a network for trustworthy repair centres across India where cars from all segments have their paint and dent work done. Add to this the cashless claims facility* across all insurers and suddenly Fixcraft seems like the sweetest option to an Indian car owner.
The founder Vivek Sharma, an IIM Bangalore graduate, is a seasoned professional who knows what he is doing.
Vivek has also gathered a great team at Fixcraft including Abhishek Goyal: ISB- Seimens-DuPont- Agnee (Startup in Renewable Energy Space) and Inderjeet Rao: Technology leader- Infosys- Knowlarity (core team)- AntKraft- Autoninja
Moreover, Amara invested in Fixcraft through a syndicate on Angel list led by Rishab Malik from Madison Capital who was a co-founder of Droom (a unicorn company) and Vivek’s chief.
Here is what Rishabh had to say about Vivek. “I’ve worked with him as an advisor for the last 2 yrs and seen Fixcraft grow from an idea to where we are today. Having seen Vivek move from a growth stage business development & P&L role at Droom, where he was one of our best, to a Founder & CEO at Fixcraft has been an absolute pleasure, and I’m delighted to be investing behind him and the founding team he has put together”.
With a team and background like this, Fixcraft has a definite advantage that would enable it to navigate the minefield of OEMs.
To expand upon why Amara invested in Fixcraft-
# 1 The founder-market fit is awesome.
Vivek is the kind of founder that is rare to be found. Leaving a cushioned life of corporate executive and choosing to work on a startup requires a great deal of courage and grit. Two attributes that we at Amara highly value.
# 2 The problem is worth solving
Just take a walk on Indian roads and you will see that just about every car has dents and scratches but the cost of getting it repaired is prohibitively expensive in terms of money and/or trust.
# 3 The market is ready
The urban customer is price and quality conscious. He would prefer something better than to deal with the unregulated and fragmented market of local garages but the company workshops become too expensive for such jobs. A sweet spot is what Fixcraft is.
# 4 There is user-love
Although it has only one workshop in the NCR at the moment, you should look at its reviews and ratings. Also, Vivek’s direct involvement with the customer makes the user love skyrocket.
# 5 Fits our thesis
We invest in underdogs- When it comes to cars and garages, Vivek sure is one.
To build exciting products- Getting your car fixed without losing your sleep or creating holes in the wallet does seem exciting to Indians.
That grow exponentially- Since its inception in less tahn 24 months it has grown 20 times but post-lockdown also it has grown 15–20% MoM.
And create wealth- India is a land of unique opportunities for wealth. This is one of them.
Moving ahead, Fixcraft is working on a simple-to-use app for pickup to drop, and everything in between is for the customer and the operations side including tie-ups with insurance companies.
In the future, they will be expanding their services to more cities and also from one vertical to another once they’ve built trust by providing high-quality work in this vertical.
They sure will be faced with a lot of challenges. Having fewer repeat customers (owing to the nature of business) and high set up costs for each workshop would be the first ones to deal with. But then, which startup didn’t have some?!
Finally, what is your take on Fixcraft’s future? Where do you think are its greatest bright spots and blind spots? Would love to know your opinion about the industry in general and Fixcraft in particular.
Lastly, if you have a great idea/company and are looking for investors who can help you navigate through thick and thin, do write to us at hi@amaraventures.co.
*Contrary to common knowledge, an OEM authorised workshop may not have cashless facility for all insurance companies.
