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#027 Why we invested in Karomi (ManageArtworks)

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 07:39:01 GMT

Cornerstone Ventures

Cornerstone Venture Partners Fund I invested in Karomi (goes by the brand name - ManageArtworks), a brand asset management platform that digitises and automates end-to-end designing and artwork process for brands

Core to our Fund’s focus, ManageArtworks is a pure play Enterprise SaaS solution for Brands to enable them take products to market quickly – delivers >80% reduction in design verification, regulatory validation, and multi-stakeholder iteration process!

Who needs this product?

Currently most relevant for any manufacturer of packaged products. Products that we consume on a day to day basis (broadly covered in these 5 segments – Food and Beverages, cosmetics, personal care, pharma, chemicals) come under the regulatory scanner FSSAI in India, FDA in US and the likes. In the near future, we believe the platform could be leveraged by any brand of any kind – including D2C brands, digital native brands, etc.

Why is this a complex problem to solve?

While it may seem that Artwork is limited to the logos, and taglines, the real estate on these labels and packs carry multiple parameters that can go up to 150 data points that are aggregated from 18+ sources across the organisation. If we pick up a packet of lays, or a strip of medicine, a toothpaste or a bottle of disinfectant, each packaged product in different sized SKUs has detailed information on Ingredients, nutrition panel and claims, Allergen panel, manufacturing date and manufactured by with address, marketed by, net wt. and regulatory parameters like License no, redressal contact information, bar code, batch number, best before. The complexity to address this comes in since the source data of this information is not unified for a brand. All these parameters also need to be fitted in to smallest package SKU with limited real estate

Complexity of the problem is magnified with regulatory compliances that mandate the font size, spacing, and location of this information on the packaging artwork

How ManageArtworks helps save the day?

Brands struggle with new product launches / new activation launches, shuttling between multiple stakeholders trying to get their artwork complete and complaint. In this hyper-competitive market, ManageArtworks empowers the brand with solutions that help them manage their packaging content, print and packaging specifications, and automate the artwork journey while helping them stay compliant across geographies and regulators. ManageArtworks suite of solutions has helped some of the world’s leading brands reduce their time to market by 80%.

We love how easy it is for brands to manage this on ManageArtworks platform. An overnight small change / addition by a regulator can lead to a logistical nightmare for brands. ManageArtworks is able to annotate changes which make manual checks redundant and reduce absence time from market shelves.

Impact on Customers: While ManageArtworks enables quicker time to shelf, and reduce recalls which help revenue realisation (reducing time from conceptualisation to realisation), it also impacts bottom line by bringing in efficiencies in the entire process. On the platform – (1) their brand asset manager can build new designs for activations within minutes through their automation engine, (2) the recommendation engine ensures compliance through annotation eliminates the need to physically verify copies, (3) their intelligent claim verifier ensures compliance – e.g. if the label has a vegan symbol on the front pack for marketing, while the ingredients list contains milk – this can be flagged off by the system to avoid making such lapses, (4) automated 3D renditions enables pre-market design and (5) insights on impact created by creatives on top-line, that has always been a black box for brands
Continuous Relevance: ManageArtworks’ Data Asset management platform helps brands to maintain true copy of their artwork and info across print and digital (e-commerce portals) in GDSN complaint formats
Large & Growing Market: With the advent of new D2C brands hitting the market in all segments, inherent brands and conglomerates are under huge pressure to bring new products to appease customers and maintain their market share. With an ‘industry-first’ tech and data solution built on AI and ML to optimize artwork design – a new or an update product can be done in minutes
Clear Category Leader: Productized and serving multiple stakeholder, ManagArtworks with intelligent platform is able to cater to multiple geographies with not just its multi-language offering but also multi-geography automated and real-time compliance management

We are excited to be on this journey with Vilva (Founder) to scale the company further globally, in the US and Europe and continue innovating for category leadership.

~ Nanika

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