A biotechnologist by profession and an ardent lover of nature, Supriya Donthi, set up Leafy Affair in 2016. “I’ve always loved plants and animals and at some point in my life, my passion stuck to that sector,” Donthi told Entrackr. And she’s used her love for nature and translated it into jewelry. Â
The Indian costume jewelry market was valued at $1.78 billion in 2019 and is likely to hit $2.12 billion by 2027 growing at a CAGR of 7% from the period of 2019 to 2027 as reported by the Allied Market Research.
Within this massive market, Leafy Affair is targeting the botanical lifestyle and jewelry sector which is very niche. “Our target market is maybe 10% of the entire market,” Donthi, the founder and CEO of the company said.
Bengaluru-based Leafy Affair is a preserved botanical lifestyle brand that primarily offers jewelry — the flowers used undergo a preservation process and are made into jewelry pieces. It additionally offers stationary and plans to add a collection of home décor items as well.
The design of each item is ideated in house and then shared with the manufacturing team when the product comes to life. Most of the botanicals used for these products are hard to find in India. Majority of the raw materials undergo the preservation process by the vendor and are imported internationally from Southeast Asia, US, and the UK. Certain small materials are imported from China as well.
The platform currently has about 150 products. These are shipped pan India as well as internationally as per the order that are received. The company has shipped its products to customers in the US, UK, Singapore, Dubai etc. New designs, botanicals, and flower preservation processes are selected and launched on the company’s website on a monthly basis.
The website receives around 7000 visitors daily and about 1500 orders monthly. “We saw around 1 lakh visitors on our page last month and received 6000 orders,” said Donthi. The company saw such a huge number owing to its airing on Shark Tank the previous month.
This bootstrapped IIMB NSRCEL incubated company plans on growing its monthly orders to 4000 in the coming months.
The D2C company has very few direct competitors like Alankaara due to its niche nature. Its indirect competitors include companies like Melora, Giva etc.
Apart from plans to grow its revenue, the company aims to add a variety of new products to its stationary line and to launch its new home décor line. Opening an offline store — Leafy Affair Studio — in Bangalore remains one of its long term growth plans.
