Anil Thontepu

Building @SuperK_Stores, Ex-Product and growth guy @kaodim @hikeapp @byjus @phonepe_

[Anil Thontepu @tnpanil]

@kushalbhagia was the first investor in SuperK through First Cheque and has been a constant support since then.
I was genuinely surprised by the now-deleted post. Founders he invested in and founders he didn't have consistently spoken highly of his honesty and candid feedback.

[Kushal Bhagia 🇮🇳 @kushalbhagia]

Woke up to find this (now deleted) post attacking us for honestly I dunno why. So I checked my chats and mails -

> We have passed quickly- wished him the best and readily admitted we are ofcourse often wrong.

> Made intros to other funds and angels who maybe be able to help him.

> He’s even pinged me for advice on a termsheet he got and then to get into an event we had organised.

> accused us of not having a big vision but he’s himself pivoted AFAIk from the idea he actually pitched us.

What hurt you so much bro @cosmicanuj ? There are better ways to do engagement farming.

Anyways - to founders reading this - please feel free to reference us with founders we have actually backed. If we haven’t invested in someone they haven’t actually received the full @All_IN_CAPITAL package 🤷🏻‍♂️

[Anil Thontepu @tnpanil]

It was fun sharing SuperK's journey with @trdessai and team.

[Filter Coffee ☕️ @FilterCoffeeHQ]

What does it take to build a retail giant for small-town India?

We took Filter Coffee off the internet this week and hit the road. Our first stop: Kadapa, a quiet town in Andhra Pradesh where India’s next retail story is quietly unfolding.

At first glance, it looks like any other small Indian town: narrow lanes, dusty kiranas, handwritten bills. But step inside a SuperK store and you’ll see something different, clean aisles, digital billing, and branded goods stacked like a metro supermarket.

We caught up with SuperK’s co-founder, Anil Thontepu, to see why he believes India’s retail future will be built in small towns, not big cities.

Full story here 👇
https://t.co/LvtN1N5xu4

[Anil Thontepu @tnpanil]

@rishabhkaul @goonj I think they can, you can check with their local team in Hyderabad.

[Blume Ventures @BlumeVentures]

Ever felt out of place and overwhelmed shopping at a local Kirana store while finding comfort in the familiar brands and streamlined aisle experience of modern trade stores?

Home is Where The Mart Is

Neeraj Menta (@neerajmnt), Co-Founder of SuperK (Blume Fund IV co), experienced this during a visit to his ancestral town near Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh.

He saw a wave of modernization - traditional barber shops became chic salons, old bakeries turned into trendy cafes, and local medical stores evolved into organized chains.

People wanted a more modern, comfortable shopping experience.

Yet, the daily retail sector lagged.

Bridging the Retail Gap

Traditional stores run by older generations struggled with inconsistent pricing and unstandardized products, disappointing shoppers.

The demand for a better retail experience was clear, but major players like Reliance and D-Mart find it challenging to enter smaller markets due to high operational costs and complex staffing needs in small towns.

Neeraj and his cofounder, Anil Thontepu (@tnpanil), seized this opportunity, launching the first SuperK store in Kadapa in 2019.

They launched with an OYO-like franchise model, leveraging local expertise and keeping costs low. However, they faced early resistance from local store owners who were skeptical of SuperK's ability to enhance their operations and revenue.

To build confidence, SuperK launched a few company-owned stores to prove their business model's viability and gain trust.

What further helped them build trust was their decision not to raise prices during the pandemic to support local retailers.

Once trust was built, SuperK rapidly expanded from ten stores in Kadapa to 100+ stores in 5 districts.

Resilience in Retail

While the brand was gaining popularity, the pace of growth presented challenges. Infrastructure, people, and process gaps affected customer experience and store success, along with increased operational burn.

They made a strategic decision to focus on deep business improvements before growing the store count. This hard work has started paying off, with a 20% sales increase and a robust operational setup.

Vikram Gawande (@vikramg05), from the Growth Investments team at Blume Ventures, says, “Non-metro India is as aspirational as Metros, presenting a huge opportunity. Neeraj and Anil’s insights into non-metro shopping behaviors allowed them to build a massive network of 100+ SuperK stores. They’ve created livelihoods for hundreds of families and delighted thousands of customers.”

To focus on loyal customers, SuperK recently launched a Costco-like membership model offering cashback to shoppers, which is already gaining strong traction.

Though it’s early days for the Bengaluru-based company, they’ve made impressive progress in building efficient operations and proving their model’s potential to work at scale.

At Blume Ventures, we’re proud to be partners in this journey and excited to see them become one of India’s most exciting retail brands.

@BKartRed @AshishFafadia @sajithpai @sanjaynath
@arpiit @riashroff @saritaraichu @mehtaalok
@mitul_am @SeekingN0rth @DeepikaDakuda @gauthamsiv @shreevz

[Anil Thontepu @tnpanil]

@gopinadhdadi Hi @gopinadhdadi you can send us an email to [email protected] and team will take it up from there.

[Anil Thontepu @tnpanil]

It was only today that I realised @mythun existed on Twitter. A few weeks ago he wrote a brilliant article about us. Do give it a read if you keen to know what we do.

[Mithun M @mythun]

@trdessai Did a deep dive on them a few months ago

https://t.co/qzShxCtVuB

[Anil Thontepu @tnpanil]

@harishkgarg @trdessai Making people unlearn and learn is tough so we prefer setting up new outlets ground up with enthusiastic entrepreneurs who are welcome to new ways of doing business.

[𝐀𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐮𝐗𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 @arivuexpress]

@osd_cmkarnataka @DrVaishnavi14 @DgpKarnataka #malinikrishnamurthy @blrctp Hope today's meeting with the concerned dept regarding the Jammer will bring our lives to normal. Read this story below. Why is the #karnataka prison dept and #malinikrishnamurthy not worried abt PPL 1/4?

[𝐀𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐮𝐗𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 @arivuexpress]

@DgpKarnataka @DrVaishnavi14
@osd_cmkarnataka #karnataka prison dept installed a jammer with high frequency affecting the life of 20000 residents nearby parappana agrahara. Residents don't have swiggy, Zomato, or any deliveries, no OTP, no emergency services like ambulance 1/3

[Blume Ventures @BlumeVentures]

Anil Thontepu (@tnpanil) and Neeraj Menta (@neerajmnt) are on a mission to revolutionize small-town grocery shopping experience.

They founded SuperK brands in 2020, which takes existing small-format stores under its brand and helps them with standardized pricing, discounts, cashback, and digital billing. In just a short time, SuperK has scaled to 125 stores and achieved a staggering 100 crores ARR.

Blume Ventures led their latest $6M round and we are proud to support their mission and zeal of redefining how India shops

Neeraj Menta said, “At SuperK, our vision is to bring a better grocery shopping experience for the small-town customers who are currently stuck with a subpar experience provided by their neighborhood kirana store."

Karthik Reddy, co-founder and managing partner at Blume Ventures, added, “We were tracking this space for a couple of years. While the market was hot for Tier 3-4 towns retail enabled by a tech supply-chain backbone, we were convinced about it when we saw SuperK’s dense approach in Andhra Pradesh paying off dividends and delivering store level profitability. We think it’s the right way to build modern trade for Bharat. We are excited to back the next phase of scale before we eventually tackle most of South India.”

Watch the video linked below to see how SuperK is turning the tides of small-town shopping. 👇🏼

@BKartRed @sajithpai @AshishFafadia @arpiit @sanjaynath

[Inc42 @Inc42]

SuperK , a tech-enabled franchised grocery retailer for small towns, has raised $6 Mn (around INR 50 Cr) in a Series A funding round 👇

The Kadapa-based startup plans to use the fresh funds for tech development, hiring and scaling the platform to connect digital native brands with SuperK customers.

According to the startup, its customers are moving from unorganised kirana stores to a branded, organised retail experience where a majority of customers go through a self-service store for the first time.

SuperK also aims to create a modern grocery experience for small-town customers at transparent and affordable prices. It has a full track of customer behaviour by collecting granular data at every purchase.

To read more in detail, click here: https://t.co/4CIEpR8qvV

#startups #fundraising #customers

[Anil Thontepu @tnpanil]

@subodhkolhe @dharmeshba @neerajmnt Will be happy to share some interesting insights from building @SuperK_Stores for the last 4 years

[Sai @saiandchai]

We @SusquehannaVC are hiring an Investment Professional in the Bengaluru office. Looking for someone to join the investment team covering SaaS, FinTech, and Consumer Tech.

Apply here: https://t.co/d4Ec40caG6

[Anil Thontepu @tnpanil]

@abhinav And when we didn’t know what to answer -> ‘Jai Maata Di’

[Anil Thontepu @tnpanil]

@rushabh_mehta @kaushalvshah @SuperK_Stores @erpnext We started with a service provider but the team built enough expertise to build it ourselves. And have been mindful of the customisations that we build to strike the balance of desire and need.

We have a lot more modules that we use than the WMS so would appreciate some help.

[Anil Thontepu @tnpanil]

December 2019 - 1 Store | 1 Town | 1.7K walk-ins | 0.5Cr ARR
December 2022 - 100 Stores | 80 Towns | 200K walk-ins | 100Cr ARR

3 years of @SuperK_Stores 🚀 🚀 🚀

[Anil Thontepu @tnpanil]

@rushabh_mehta @kaushalvshah @SuperK_Stores @erpnext We have built our WMS on @erpnext and it was good but the amount of work that we had to do in learning what the best WMS should do and customizing for the same was time taking, so now we are in the process of onboarding onto a proper WMS tool. Similar story with modules too.

[Anil Thontepu @tnpanil]

@rushabh_mehta @kaushalvshah @SuperK_Stores @erpnext The platform has been good, but now it is becoming difficult to use as the customizations that we need are taking time to build and even after we invest time the product that we are developing isn’t solving all the use cases. Also the not so mobile friendly UI is also a challenge

[Anil Thontepu @tnpanil]

@kaushalvshah @SuperK_Stores @erpnext @eVitalRx DMing you