The Sleep Simplifier Kabir Siddiq discusses how he entered the mattress business and the way forward for his startup, SleepyCat.

In 2017, Kabir Siddiq, who was working in strategy and business development for a furniture and mattresses production company, identified a problem in the way we buy our mattresses. "Buying a mattress is a painful process. The traditional mattress markets are confusing. They have a lot of options that may not be the best but seem to be, making it difficult & time consuming for the consumer to decide on what's right for them. There are so many loopholes in the traditional mattress markets like overhead costs, inflation and material information that confuses more than it informs," he shares. The quest of solving this issue led Siddiq to the creation of a digital-first brand - SleepyCat that would make the experience of mattress buying simple, enjoyable and affordable. The aim was to offer a premium 'all-in-one mattress' product with a direct 'factory-to-consumer' model.

"We've always been innovative, being India's first 'mattress in a box' in 2017 to now, launching India's first mattress with CoolTEC fabric & DeepTouch Pressure Technology. We pride ourselves on using technology and innovation to create truly relevant sleep solutions," Siddiq asserts.

Parallel to SleepyCat's expansion was the expansion of the mattress market as a whole in India. From 2019 to 2022, the mattress market has grown at a rate of 8.5% CAGR online. The addressable market is valued at INR 1,300 Cr within the online segment. For mattresses, it has grown to 50% CAGR. "We've grown approximately 100% from 2021 to 2022, as compared to our revenue in 2020-2021," Siddiqi comments, however adding that the pandemic was tough for the company in terms of business. SleepyCat has raised INR 390 million in 2 rounds of funding till now, the last of which came in August 16, 2021.

"The traditional mattress market continues to dominate the industry in India. Earlier, people didn't have much opportunity to really think about which mattress they'll be spending 1/3rd of their lives on. With the online market, this thought process is changing. We aim to bring quality to every piece we create as a D2C brand. It's not just about buying a mattress, it's about investing in your sleep health. We aim to create a habit change in how deeply you think about what your mattress has to offer you," he adds. The company has recently taken all of their manufacturing in-house to ensure great quality, better prices. This posed some challenges.

"The biggest challenge for us has been to set up our own manufacturing unit and scale-up. With the help of our incredible investors, we've been able to overcome this challenge and accelerate our growth rate. Moreover, investment has enabled us to focus on developing cutting-edge technology to create truly innovative products, as well as scale up our communication efforts to build the brand," Siddiq highlights.

The company is looking to grow more than double Y-o-Y. "For FY 2022-23, we aim at launching 20 - 30 new products and 5 to 8 retail outlets across India," the founder confirmed.

· Bestseller: Original mattress.

· Total SKUs: 150+

· Team size: 50+

· Online platform resulting in maximum revenue: Brand website (https://sleepycat.in/)

· Split between offline and online sales: No offline stores yet. We plan to launch experience stores across India in 2022