This Indian startup wants you to stop giving the same boring gifts over and over again

India’s youngsters are much more exposed to the global market than their parents. This has provided entrepreneurs in the country a chance to jump on the evolving tastes of young consumers. One such idea shaking up the boring presents that most people give, like pens, clocks, or diaries.

Delhi-based startup Mufubu, which started last August, conceptualized its idea of premium gifts with a quirky product range better suited to India’s younger citizens. The company is the brainchild of Varun Rastogi, who got the idea while working overseas in a product distribution role. “I knew the kind of products that were being sold in the UK but not available in India, and my objective was to bring this home,” Rastogi tells Tech in Asia.

Mufubu’s target market is young adults to 40-years-olds. It is also going after corporate sales to change the old fashioned way of gifting branded letterpads or USB sticks. Mufubu sells bar, kitchen, office, and bathroom accessories. There’s stuff like a customizable teddy bear made from waterproof and rip-proof paper, which allows the buyer to paint and draw on it to make a personal gift. There are also baseball-bat shaped rolling pins, dinosaur cookie cutters, and electronic dictionary bookmarks.

Mufubu launched its products on various estores this year, like Flipkart, Amazon India, eBay, and FirstCry. Its products are also available at airport stores and high street stores. Currently Mufubu is distributing products to Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. It is also on its way to launching its own website before the end of the month.

Breaking the stereotype

Rastogi says that some of the products are so new that “the primary challenge is educating the customers of its use.”

Websites like PropShop24, HappilyUnmarried, Chumbak, and WhySoSerious? also deal with ‘young-at-heart’ merchandize in India. Mufubu, however, has a different business model.

That business model allows it to commit to the brands that manufacture the products and provide them every sales channel available, be it ecommerce, corporate sales, or channel sales. “Websites that sell these products work on a small scale and don’t stick to fixed sources, but we select the manufacturing brands and help build their sales in India,” said Rastogi. The sources are mainly based in the UK, Europe, and the US.

Going ahead, the team plans to launch an app and to increase its product availability in more stores by mid 2016. “We are now focusing on the availability and placement of the products and once that is fixed we will invest in developing the technology platform,” added Rastogi.