The Story of Gyanendra Bharti, Co-founder of Badho Part #2: When Badho became the Indian Retailer’s new BFF

In Part #1, you read how Gyan, as he is fondly referred to, found his calling in the space that connects FMCG and tech. 

For any brand, cracking Tier 1 cities is a piece of cake, because there is both demand and volume. However in semi-urban and rural areas, brands face a lot of challenges, so we thought let’s expand our operations in cities like Kanpur, Varanasi first, because they also have robust distribution networks but not enough brands tapping it.

While entering Tier 2 and 3 cities, we also were simultaneously experimenting with FB ads and Google Ads etc.. which surprisingly (or rather unsurprisingly in hindsight) generated a lot of interest from Tier 1 cities. We saw that many Delhi retailers were downloading the Badho app, which gave us the confidence to eventually launch the Badho app in Delhi, the first Tier 1 city for us. 

This milestone helped me realize a crucial insight—retailers and distributors want to earn better, operate more efficiently, and stock products that customers demand. But often, they can’t. Either their outlet isn’t listed in the brand’s retail universe, or their distributor doesn’t carry those brands. So, we focused on building features that made their lives easier, such as:

• Direct Retailer orders

  Retailers can place orders directly on the Badho app, explore new products and brands, discover current schemes and promotions etc for a better product assortment and higher ROI
  
  

• Priceless PO for Distributors

  For distributors of cooking oils, a lot of time was wasted every day because they had to call their retailers daily to communicate that day’s rates, because oil, being a commodity, was prone to daily price fluctuations. With Badho, we have given them the option of a priceless PO where a retailer puts in the demand, think of it like a quotation, and the distributor puts that day’s rate on it and proceeds to fulfil it.  

By this time, we already had about 50,000-60,000 retailers with us, but we knew we didn’t want to stop at just having the retailers on our platform, we wanted to complete the equation as well. If demand (retailers) is with us, why not the supply (FMCG brands)?  

Of course there was a lot of scepticism. Saurabh felt that it was too early to partner with brands directly and felt that we should onboard more retailers and build a stronger network there. So I decided to take a different route – I talked to the brands anyway!  And guess what happened?

Akash Agarwalla Zoff Spices was ready to come on board immediately. Even the team at an industry giant like Haldiram’s said that they loved the concept, and wanted to know more about how they could benefit from Badho. So we went into beast mode, hiring a crackling sales team and onboarding FMCG brands partners.

And as they say, the rest is history. 

Badho looks at the Brand-Retailer problems with a shiny, new Lens

Sometimes I would ask a brand, “Why is your data showing no visits in this area?” and they would say, “Because we don’t have any distributors in that territory.” This was a common challenge for ‘newbie’ brands as distributors were a little hesitant to onboarding brands that were yet to prove themselves in the market. This is only part of the challenge, the other part is that it is not easy setting up a distribution network. Operating costs are high, which often deter the brand from entering new markets at the drop of a hat. 

This is where I pitch Badho as the bridge that connects them with thousands of retailers and distributors in every state.  Here are some ways how Badho helps:

• Find the right distributors for a brand’s category

  Sometimes, even well-established brands need new distributors. For example, a leading Basmati rice brand with a strong distribution network wanted to explore new options because some existing distributors in certain regions weren’t agreeing to their terms. Badho made that switch seamless.
  
  

• Expand into high-demand areas

  Often, retailers from Tier 2 and 3 cities place orders for brands that don’t even have a presence in their state. Capturing this demand helps brands pinpoint where they should expand next and set up distribution accordingly.
  
  

• Streamline distributor onboarding

  Traditionally, onboarding a distributor was a slow, cumbersome process—especially with GST verification and documentation approvals. With Badho, this happens in minutes, as KYC documents and GST details are already in the system. For example, a fast-growing D2C baked chips brand wanted to scale into new territories, and Badho enabled them to quickly establish a large distributor network across Tier 2 and 3 cities.
  
  

• Directly communicate schemes, QPS, and promotions to retailers

  Brands often struggle with ensuring awareness, adoption, and proper reward dissemination. Badho simplifies this. For e.g. when Goldiee Masale, a major regional player in the spice market recently launched a detergent brand, Double Engine, it had some key questions: Would their existing spice retailers stock detergent? Which new distributors should they partner with? How could they effectively communicate this new category to retailers? Badho provided answers instantly, helping them launch smoothly.

Today the processes on the Badho platform are more or less set. We have a great network of distributors and retailers. But what next? What is the next logical step? To monetize that network of course. And how do we demonstrate that we have that network, and that Badho is truly making a difference? 

By amplifying it. 

When we went to Aahar on 2024, we barely had 50-60k retailers live on our platform. That year, Rishi and I went as a visitor, because we didn’t have any brand sales team at that time and the brand partnerships we actually had, we could count on one hand.  

In August of 2024, we took the plunge and exhibited at the World Food India, even though we weren’t very sure how successful we will be. We also went to the UP International,  even though it was a trade show, so we were aware that we would have less success there. But with just these 2 events, we were able to close almost 50 new brands!

Today, sitting in March 2025, we have crossed 1 million downloads, 10,000+ distributors and 150+ partner brands associated with Badho! 

Brands love our sales team, and by the grace of god, we have also managed to hire firebrands who have a passion for sales. As Saurabh says - “Tumhe 5 saal tak kuch nahi sochna hai.. 5 saal tak lage rehna hain”. And that’s exactly what we are doing. 

Hustling, innovating, building partnerships, refining our approach, and scaling relentlessly. So that one day, when people talk about FMCG in India, the first name that comes to mind is Badho.