If you want to wish your mother on her day, we would like to help you. We have selected some special products check them here: http://www.aporv.com/promotions/mothersday.html. We are offering 15% OFF on these products till 13th May 2012; use code MD2012 at checkout. In addition to these to make it really special we will send her a special handwritten note on your behalf. Tell her you remember.

Gift these today to make sure they reach on time. Make her day special and see her remember all the good old days.

If you like these and would like to purchase Kondapalli Products: http://www.aporv.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=kondapalli

You may also view our other videos at Aporv YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/AporvCrafts/feed?feature=context

2011 is here and we thought of saying good bye to everyone the Aporv way. Also thought of updating all about our progress in the last 6 months. For the ones who have not heard about us, read more about us here. We launched on 5th June 2010 on World Environment Day. A little over 6 month after, we have

1. won the Manthan Awards South Asia 2010
2. Partner with 2000+ artisans
3. 80,000+ pageviews
4. Visitors from 90+ countries
5. Retail and Corporate orders

What do we have in store for the coming year:

1. International Launch in Jan 2011 – You will hear from us soon. Sign up for Newsletter to learn more about it
2. More partnerships

Check out the  Aporv interview with Mint & Wall Street Journal:

Have you signed up for our Newsletter. Look at our Dec 2010 Newsletter.

Aporv_Dec2010_Newsletter

Much like the unique handicrafts he sells, Sudip Dutta is fashioning his ow life with rare strokes. Just last year he was living out an Indian expatriate engineer’s dream, handling IT sales at a technology firm in the Silicon Valley for US and Asia Pacific region. Now he spends nearly seven days visiting small villages in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu discovering talented artisans to put in place a supply chain for Aporv, the web site he co-founded to facilitate linkages between Indian artisans and global community. 

Launched in June 2010, Aporv, which means ‘Unique’ in Sanskrit, wants to go beyond providing artisans a decent market to sell their products. Dutta, who moved to Bengaluru last year after five years in US, says the richness of their venture lies in the stories woven around each handicraft on sale. The storytelling, he says, helps renew interest in neglected crafts, and creates a socially conscious customer base that will help preserve our craft traditions. 

Aporv already retails a range of products – leather painitings, Madhubani art, black pottery, wood parquetry – from across India. Its products range includes home accessories, decorative items and jewelry. Dutta points to the immense opportunities available. “Research reports that handicrafts are a $28 billion industry globally. The handmade products market is a $200 billion market worldwide. China has 30% of this market, India just 2%” 

Unfortunately most artisans have little idea of the markets available to them and even less of the prices they can command. Educating artisans, Dutta says is the mission although he is quick to add Aporv is firmly a “for-profit” enterprise. 

“We never bargain with our artisans. We give them the price they ask for” says 33-year old Dutta. And before you can ask if those rates are really fair trade price Aporv Gaurantees, he rushes to explain. “On their price we factor in our logistics, marketing and other costs to arrive at the sale price. A percentage of the difference between our sales price and the price they sold to us goes back to them. This enables them to understand the true ‘value’ of their product.”

Eventually, Aporv wants its artisans to log into the website directly and put up products for sale. “Its important that the sale prices are not a secret to our crafts people. It helps build trust.” says Dutta, who says he was always creatively inclined as a child but engineering won over in choice of a lucrative career. An engineer from BITS Pilani, he worked with Infosys and Larsen and Toubro before going to US. He co-founded Aporv with his partner Subhra Banerjee. They are supported by two key members, Shashikant Khandelwal, a BITS Pilani -Stanford alumni who designed the IT infrastructur, and Deepak Kumar, an IIML and Wharton graduate who helps strategise on the business outlook. They continue to live in US and work for Aporv part time. 

Dutta quit his job to move back. His passion is catalyzing results. In five months Aporv has been in business, it has gotten over 45,000 page views. It already has 75 registered customers. He admits they are looking at breaching break even on their “some of tens of lakhs” of investment, mainly self funded within the next 12 months, ahead of schedule. 

They have also signed up with Infosys as a customer and working to expand the corporate customer base. The response tha been encouraging, Dutta says, “Comapnies like us because we help them meet their CSR objectives. And our products all handmade are genuinely green.”

Aporv also offers its customers the bells and whistles of a modern, retail experience – a seven day, no question asked return policy, gift packaging and home delivery facilities across India as well as detailed product specifications complete with multiple pictures views to help make an informed choice. Plans are a foot to start shipping internationally by November 2010. 

But, challenges abound. Dutta confesses corporate bulk orders will not be a cake walk. “Because we are fair trade, our products are priced higher. The corporate range begins from Rs 200 to Rs 250. We need to educate our customers on why they pay higher, why they do more than just buy a product. And how they might be playing a role in preserving a 16th century art form.” 

Finding interesting products has been easy, says Dutta. Each village has a different craft with unique differences. But convincing artisans to partner with them was more difficult than they had initially thought. Artisans are hesitant to talk for themselves because they fear bypassing the middlemen or the broker. Despite this, Aporv has grown its community of artisans to nearly 500 across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Mizoram, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other states. They also work with Self Help Groups and NGO’s to broaden their supply chain. 

“Artisans don’t need sympathy or pity. We need to give them work, appreciate their skills. They are capable and willing. If we don’t give them work, we are killing our art.” says Dutta. Fortunately though, Aporv has spotted the riches that can flow from keeping Indian crafts alive. It;s a fortune likely to throw up more than just great profits

Every craft holds secrets, myths and faiths that have transferred through generations either by the craftspeople or through people related to this field. Travel to the interiors of any state in India and you will find talented people spending all their lives creating beautiful handicrafts, generation after generation. These handicrafts are to die for, but does that make the makers of these rare crafts any richer? No. Exploited to their bones, these artisans are so poor that their next generations are shying away from the age old professions. In an attempt to conserve the art and the artisans a few individuals from got together at started APORV. Samarpita Mukherjee-Sharma spoke to Sudip Dutta to know more about this initiative… 

After agriculture, handicraft is the second largest occupation in India with close to 23+ million people. Aporv is first of its kind hybrid model across the globe to help create market linkages for the artisans and craftspeople of India with the global audience through its e-commerce platform. www.aporv.com is the online destination for Indian Handicrafts – from searching for handicrafts, researching for them, buying them online and getting them delivered to your door step with premium service and making a Social Impact. Aporv brings many differentiators to the market place with it model and is revolutionizing the sector with these differentiators.

Who?

Sudip Dutta, is the founder and CEO of Aporv. He is an Engineering Graduate from BITS, Pilani and has worked primarily in the IT sector in India and US for over 11 years. He returned to India in mid 2009 to start work full time on Aporv. “We are an enthusiastic bunch of individuals working to bring about a social change, at the same time working to make sure that the products we sell are as unique as you are. Our varied experience ranges from the Indian craft sector to Information Technology, from Hospitality to Luxury Management and Management Consulting. Our team members also have prior associations with corporations like Bain & Company, Infosys, Trident-Hilton and Oberoi Hotels. We have a wide educational background that covers premier design institution, BITS-Pilani, Stanford, Wharton Business School, INSEAD,” he said, with evident pride.

Being an online player, they practically have presence across the globe. Currently they ship only in India and will be starting to ship their products across the globe from December 2010. Aporv’s head office is in Bangalore, India.

Why?

The idea germinated from their own need to find unique handcrafted products. “We found that either the products were very expensive (because they exchanged many hands) or the quality was not good or not easily accessible. At the same time we wanted to do “social good”. Thus we created Aporv that would help global appreciators to find unique handcrafted gifts at an affordable price with good quality and at the same time be socially responsible and do social good,” informed Sudip. Aporv, in Sanskrit means “unique”.

Aporv brings to its appreciators, unique and authentic products from across India. At the same time Aporv also works towards making the artisan an entrepreneur in its own right by being entrepreneur focused rather than labor focused. Because of its online platform, Aporv has been able to reach out to the global audience in 80+ countries across the globe, bringing the rich cultural heritage to all these people. Using online social media to reach out the wider audience has been very well appreciated by the users as they can share their experiences openly. In this field of crafts, visual appeal is very important and so is reaching out to the audience. The Aporv team has been able to do that with their 12 differentiators to this segment.

Sudip spoke about a few of them,

“Story rather than the product – Our fundamental belief is that given an opportunity we all love to make an educated buy. That’s exactly what we are providing to our appreciators. We bring to our appreciators the story on how the product is made, where it is made and the history of the products which add intrinsic value to the product and provide them the tools to make an educated buy.

Authentic products – Our own search led to the conclusion that this is one of the most important points to tackle.

Unique artifacts from across India – Where does one go to find Indian Handicrafts which have historic significance and help you make an educated buy. Our answer is www.aporv.com. We bring to our appreciators artifacts from all over India.

Open Evaluation – We are trying to revolutionize this sector by opening up the artifacts evaluation by everyone and we call it ‘Open evaluation’. Each artifact on our site can be evaluated on 4 parameters – Skill/ History/ Aesthetics/ Uniqueness.

Premium Service – We all would love to get a service that we can think of. Aporv aims to provide you just that. We have a policy if you have an unanswered query for 72 working hrs the mail gets directed to the CEO. Yes, we are that serious with our service.

Returns – To build consumer confidence we currently have “No Questions Asked 7 day return Policy”. We believe that you should be satisfied with our products else we will be glad to take it back, No questions asked.”

Mission?

The mission or the mantra of the organization is two-fold:
Educating the customers
Uplifting the Indian art and craft

“Our model is to try to bring to our appreciators unique hand crafted products with a story as easily as possible. To do that our team partners with artisans from different parts of India and get the products. We also have designers who provide design inputs to the artisans group. Thus we try to provide new age designs to these artisans who can create products from their traditional craft, but at the same time we also make sure that we do try to maintain the traditional old craft forms. There are different models of partnerships we form with different groups and provide help to them in different aspects. With individual artisans we don’t negotiate on the price and take it at the price they wish to offer us. Once the product has been sold a part of the profit goes back to these individual artisans community,” informed Sudip.

Speaking about the popularity of the concept, Sudip said, “It has exceeded our expectations. We have been honored by the overwhelming response we have received from both our appreciators and media alike. We launched Aporv on June 5, 2010, i.e. World Environment Day and since then we have received 65,000+ page views from people across 80+ countries! We have more than 2,000 fans on facebook (http://www.facebook.com/aporv) have been covered by both domestic and international media. Based on these numbers we think that the concept and the uniqueness of the idea has been very well received. We have also partnered with one of the largest IT company, Infosys for their Corporate Gifting Solutions.”

The inspiration has come from within and surroundings. “I know the answer is vague but that is the truth. We wanted to do create a model that is both profitable and at the same time makes a social Impact and we have been able to create that. What keeps us motivated is the fact that we are first of its kind hybrid model in India and we have a long way to go. The customers who visit us, their kind words and constant feedback keeps us motivated. The appreciation mails our customers write motivates us, when we speak to the artisans and they feel happy about the sales of their products that motivate us,” said Sudip.

Challenges?

Challenges were 2 dimensional, artisans at one end and customer who are not used to buying artifacts online. The Aporv team successfully tackled both.

For starters, there are not many players in this space. So the team had to think through the model, revolutionize the way people think and bring out the issue people faced and tackle them head on. Authenticity and finding products from all over India are just a few of them and we successfully tackled them.

“We in India are not used to service in this industry and policies like; returns are new to the Indian market. We are revolutionizing this space through such premium service. We brought to this market the Unique “No Question Asked Return Policy”. We are confident that you will like our products and if you don’t we will be glad to take them back. This is our way of saying Thank You to our appreciators. Secondly, if your mail doesn’t get answered in 72 working hours it gets directed to the CEO. This would give you an idea on how serious we are about our service,” I was informed.

Convincing the customers about the social impact that they are making was challenging, but they have been able to do so with their unique model. Through their mantra on educating the customers, they have been able to achieve it to a large extent, which is clearly visible in the kind of support they are getting from their appreciators across the globe.

Next problem was language. On an average any Indian who has traveled a bit speaks 4-5 languages, which are close to 20% of the official Indian languages. Thus communicating with artisans gets a little difficult unless you know their language and this hampers an effective conversation.

Social Responsibility Mission – To make each artisan an entrepreneur.

Mantra – To ensure that correct choices are made. The artisan’s choice to sell the products at a fair value and your choice to make an educated buy.

Aporv was founded to make a difference in the world by educating people about lifestyle choices affecting personal development and environmental responsibility. We progress with the vision that, given a choice, people will choose a lifestyle filled with products that are unique, educational and life enriching — for themselves, their surroundings and planet Earth.

IMPACT – Your purchase from aporv.com helps preserve ancient art, helps artisan and the environment.

Aporv supports individuals and select organizations in one of the following ways: Individual artisan receives 50% pre-financing, funds from sales supports education or training, funds from sales supports healthcare and clean water, artisans use techniques used by earlier generation and partner with organizations who are environmental friendly.

With this they ensure that they preserving the ancient craft, educate and empower artisans, provide better nutrition and healthcare for artisan community, ensure that no animals harmed and create eco friendly products trying to prevent ecological destruction.

“In this industry, logistics is the key and is the biggest challenge that we faced. Through our business model we have been able to not only overcome it but also provide the cost benefit to the customers,” said Sudip before signing off

Apart from its information technology prowess and Bollywood films, India is also widely known for its age-old arts and handicrafts; testimony to its ancient civilization and culture. Sadly though, thousands of artisans tend to give up their vocation mainly due to lack of market avenues. To somewhat fill this gap, a team of dedicated professionals recently decided to give up their cushy career to build www.aporv.com , an online marketplace and a showcase for Indian artisans. 


The driving force behind it is Sudip Dutta, founder and CEO, who has made the site a truly unique experience for visitors (Aporv in Sanskrit means ‘unique’). Visitors can shop for bags and purses, jewelery, pottery and showpieces, lamp shades, wall and floor decor, silk stoles, paintings, necklaces – the list is endless. Interestingly each product has a tale to tell – what are their origin, materials that are used to make them and the designs that are adapted. Imparting knowledge with the actual buying experience has not come easy. Dutta has traveled extensively to build contacts with artisans and groups spread all over the country. 

To widen its reach, the site has begun tapping corporate clients for external and in-house gifting. Though currently, it serves orders only in India, it is planning to go global soon. A visit will convince you that the site has a bright future

Aporv.com is an online start up that connects rural artisans to consumers through their E-Commerce portal. The purpose of the website is to provide consumers a better way to buy exquisite handcrafted products.

Handicrafts by rural artisans in India reflect diverse regional and socio-cultural profiles of the country. Frequently, craft traditions communicate important cultural concepts and function beyond their basic role of ornamentation and cultural expression. To add value to Indian handicrafts sector and the artisans, Sudip Dutta and his team, launched aporv.com in June 2010 which gives handicraft lovers easy access to an exquisite collection of ancient and contemporary Indian art and handicrafts. 

Talking about this unique initiative, Sudip says “What got us started was the fact that we couldn’t find a place that sold authentic Indian handicrafts; also my own interest in creativity helped me set up Aporv.com. I saw a huge gap in the handicrafts sector and we needed to bridge that gap. Aporv is a culmination of my interest in creativity and the need to create a platform to showcase the varied art of rural craft persons,” 

He further adds, “The second largest occupation in India, after agriculture, is craft. This sector is highly disorganized due to various reasons, and we at Aporv felt the need to restore the confidence and uplift the age old Indian art and craft tradition. Every 7-10 years, 10% of the craftsmen leave their craft in search of better opportunities. If this trend continues, the Indian craft will be lost in a few decades from now. We decided to take tackle problem head on,” 

Sudip and his team took almost a year, looking to tie-up with artisans and various organizations across India. The website has handcrafted products from all over India. They have a wide-range of products like terracotta lamps, Kalamkari paintings, Madhubani paintings, Rajasthani toys, Kinaura jewellery, sarees, and other exquisite art. . Another unique aspect is that, all their products are sold as a story rather than on the face-value of the product. They give details like history, art and how the craft was made which adds intrinsic value to the product. 

Aporv, in Sanskrit, means unique and the company is trying a unique model in partnership with the Artisan Community. “Our mantra is to ensure that correct choices are made. All the products from the artisans are bought at a fair value, and more importantly a percentage of the profit goes back to them. Aporv through its business model will have a direct impact on the livelihood generation. In the future we also plan to help the artisans with education and healthcare. Aporv’s goal is to make each artisan an entrepreneur,” he says.

Aporv’s hybrid online model creates a sustainable socio-economic system that encourages community growth by stimulating the demand for handmade items. With this model, they are able to help these artisans grow their business and sustain, by just concentrating on the thing they do best – believe in their ‘aporv’ creation. Aporv helps them reach out to the global audience by focusing on all other aspects of market linkages as well. At the moment, Aporv.com ships only in India, but they plan to change that by November, they will also launch in international markets. They are also exploring the corporate gifting option and plan to tie-up with IT Companies

Past life

Sudip Dutta, 33, graduated as an engineer in 1999 from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, and worked in India for six years before moving to the US. After working there for five years with the sales department of a technology company, he returned to India with the aim of starting Aporv.com, an online platform that sells handicrafts made by artisans across India. In Sanskrit, Aporv means “unique”. 

“Having been involved with BITS.aid, the first college-based volunteering organization in India, it was clear to me at the start that any venture (I start) would have (a) social angle to it,” he says. “And the profit-making factor of the idea had me single-minded in thinking in this direction.” Dutta adds that they aim to make Aporv.com the one platform for all things Indian and handmade. His core team comprises three friends, Subhra Banerjee, Shashikanth Khandelwal and Deepak Kumar, who are currently working pro bono for Aporv, and are based in the US.

Eureka moment

Having dabbled in sketching and painting for a long time, Dutta says the idea seems to have been in his mind all the time.

Genesis

Dutta moved to Bangalore in 2009. He travelled to various places to meet artisans or contacted them through middlemen and non-profit organizations, consulting his US-based partners over email and telephone. They eventually tied up with 350 artisans and groups. After a year of strategizing and working on the website, they were ready to launch on 5 June. They have had around 42,000 visits to the website since.

Apart from online orders, the company has also landed its first corporate client, Infosys Technologies. “Infosys has given us orders for corporate gifts and in-house gifts as well. Doing business with such a recognized name at such an early stage is good news for us,” says Dutta. The start-up does not have a retail store and believes that its online presence will have a wider reach than any retail chain can hope to have.

At the moment, Aporv.com ships only in India, but they plan to change that by November. In time, they plan to set up Aporv.org, a non-profit organization. “Part of the profit from Aporv.com will be diverted to Aporv.org, which will work on health, education and water for villages,” says Dutta.

Reality check

Artisans are often apprehensive about business deals, and more so if a middleman they have worked with is eliminated. It took a lot more convincing than Dutta had imagined.

Plan B

If it doesn’t work out, Dutta has the option of going back to a day job. But having packed up from that world and invested his savings in this venture, he’d rather call it Plan D, while B and C are to make Aporv work.

Secret sauce

Handicrafts is the second biggest occupation in India after agriculture, so the production rate is proportionately high. Judging from the number of clicks the site gets, they know it is safe to assume that there is a huge market demand. To counter the touch-and-feel factor that retail stores have, Aporv.com has a no-questions-asked return policy. “If you don’t like it, send it back to us,” says Dutta, pointing out that this is a unique experience for most Indians

Aporv.com is an online marketplace that gives handcrafted product lovers easy access to a unique collection of ancient, modern as well as contemporary Indian art. Sudip Dutta (founder), talks to us about the challenges in sourcing such artifacts and the tough trials faced while marketing it.


Q. What’s your business all about?

A. Aporv.com is a means for artisans and organizations to get access to a global market. We provide a platform for Indian artisans who wish to sell artifacts to customers who are willing to purchase authentic works of art. We work towards uplifting Indian art by educating the customer and only sell handmade products. Many times we hunt hard to find unique forms of art that are lesser known. We work directly with artisans and also join hands with other organizations and self-help groups.

Q. How did you get the idea?

A. After graduating from BITS Pilani with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, I wanted to volunteer with an NGO. But I was unable to find an organization of my choice. Soon, I realized that most people faced this difficulty. So I founded BITS.aid – an online portal that reached out to projects looking for volunteers and mapped volunteers to the organizations they wanted to partner with. I soon developed an interest for the social sector. Later, I went abroad to work in a software company and traveled a lot to China. I realized that the history of China and India are similar in some ways. I started research in India in the handicrafts sector and spotted a gap in market linkages for artisans. And we decided to create a business model to cater to this.

Q. How old is your business? Team-size?

A. We started work in June 2009 and launched in June 2010. Our team has one full-time person and two part-timers. We also have consultants who are helping us with industry knowledge.

Q. How do you earn your revenue?

A. Our revenue comes through sales and premium service. We want each artisan to become an entrepreneur. And knowing the worth of the product is the first step towards it. We let artisans price their own product. Suppose the price they quote is less than market price, we buy it at that rate and if the item is sold at a higher rate, a percentage of the sale goes back to the artisan community. We are in touch with approximately 200 artisans directly or through our partner network.

Q. What were the difficulties you faced while starting up?

A. We had a tough time conversing with the artisans in the interior villages where Hindi or English is not spoken. In Andhra Pradesh, one artisan could not comprehend anything that I was saying. Finally I had to use sign languages. And it worked! We had issues with customers too. Once, a person liked an artifact online. But he was skeptical as he had never shopped online before. We called him up to explain the procedure and how he will get his money back if he didn’t like the purchase. He found the procedure tough, but was thrilled to receive the beautifully packed product.

Q. Who is your audience? How do you reach them?

A. It is anyone who loves Indian art/ culture and people who are looking for unique products. Suppose you wish to gift something unique, you would physically go to a store, buy it, package it, go to the courier office and snail-mail it. You spend 2-3 hours doing this. Whereas with Aporv, you browse through the collection online, make a purchase and have it delivered at the specified address. And the time spent is 15 – 30 minutes. Customers can read online about how the product was created before buying it. We also ensure that the receiver gets a brief history of the product and how it was created, along with the package. This way you make an informed purchase

Indian art and handicraft is widely appreciated all over the the world. Nearly 10 per cent of the 23 million artisans across the country,however abandon the pursuit of traditional craft handed to them over generations every 7-10 years. To save the rich heritage of Indian handicraft from becoming extinct, a team of motivated youngsters with diverse work experience ranging from IT, hospitality, Management Consulting, Design and Luxury Management decided to quit their cushy jobs and launch an online marketplace that connects connoisseurs of art from around the world with an eclectic collection of ancient, modern and contemporary Indian art & handicraft from artisans across the country. Aporv.com was launched on June 5th, (World Environment Day), received 27,000 page views in the first 60 days and already has 500 dedicated fans on popular social networking sites. 

The categories of handcrafted products on offer range from home décor, jewellery, handbags to gift items, natural silk stoles, sarees and hand-embroidered bedsheets that are priced between Rs 95 to Rs 9,900. “Aporv is Sanskrit for ‘unique’ and we make it a unique experience as each handcrafted product is sold as a story rather than for its face value. Every craft holds secrets, myths and fables that have become a part of it through generations.We bring these stories to connoisseurs of handcrafted products” said Sudip Dutta, Founder & CEO, aporv.com. 

The zoom-in feature on the site allows one to see closeups of products. One can read the story of the product — where it comes from, ingredients that go into making it and a link to the artisan who makes it. “If you click on the black pottery teaset on aporv.com, you will find that it is known as Longpi Ham pottery, which originates from the Thangkhul Naga tribes of Manipur, is made up of hard serpentine rock and was traditionally used by noble families of Manipur to cook and serve meat dishes during marriages and festivals. We have unusual pieces of of wood marquetry, created exclusively for Aporv by a master craftsman, Vasant from Mysore, who mastered the craft from his father. Marquetry is the art of creating decorative designs and pictures by skillfully utilizing the wood grain, figure and colours of thin veneers and sometimes other materials such as shell or ivory” said Sudip. 

Artisans get their due for every work of art or craft that they produce and have access to a global market for their masterpieces as Aporv partners with Self Help Groups, NGOs and artists who are national award winners as well as freshers to promote their work. “Dying crafts get a fresh lease of life and art lovers get authentic handcrafted products with a story attached to each. We also partner with designers to combine the ancient art form with new designs” added Sudip. All the products come with a certificate of authenticity from a panel of experts in Aporv. Customers can evaluate and rate products based on skills, uniqueness, aesthetics and craft form. “We offer a noquestions- asked, 7-day return policy if customers are not satisfied and undertake personalised packaging and messaging for customers in case of gifting. Shipping cost of products vary from Rs 50 to Rs 350” said Sudip, who is confident of breaking even in 18-24 months. The self funded company is now ready for the second phase of expansion to ramp up its sales and marketing, logistics and warehousing facilities. 

While 50 per cent of Aporv’s customers are from Indian cities, 32 per cent are NRIs from the US who gift to friends and family in India and the rest are from the UK.