Shugah FZ-LLC

Shugah is an one-stop platform for any celebration requirements whether it be getting a gift, throwing a party or simply satisfying a sugar-craving. We connect customers with vendors ranging from bakeries, party shops and event planners allowing people to pick cakes, desserts, flowers, balloons and gifts from one or multiple vendors and have everything conveniently delivered to their or their loved ones doorstep.

The platform (app and website) is already live since Mid-2019 and we have already managed to obtain over 5K users as well as earned revenue worth USD 55K thus far.

We cater to over 150 orders a month and are growing rapidly on a month on month basis since our launch in August 2019.

Pertaining to B2C, while any one looking to gift or throw a party is our customer. We usually aim specifically for women (usually mothers) in the age group of 25-35 who are looking to order for family related occasions or for their friends.

As for B2C we cater to HR and Sales Heads who want to manage staff birthdays or order corporate gifts for their key clients and partners.

Our clients are those who require a one-stop solution for all their celebration, gifting and sugar-craving needs.

Most clients find it difficult to string together anything for celebrations as they run around getting a cake from one place, balloons from another and gift from another. It is also difficult to find the best chocolate cake in town or get reviews on a particular product which makes comparing celebration related products to make a decision based on ratings and prices.

Our platform (app and website) lists several products from various celebration-oriented vendors (bakers, florists, party shops and event planners) allowing users to either choose from their favorite vendors or make their own combo. Whether it be a cake and gift delivered to their loved one's doorstep or all the party related items to their own home, we allow the user to search, compare and order from their favorite bakers and shops. People can search through a category (such as cakes), vendors (like bakeries), occassions (like anniversary related) or simply search based on whats trending, whats on offer and key word related search. They can also compare based on rating, price, time to get ready and shop.

We also give the clients free party planning tools such as eCards, shared calendars and wishlists as well.

Our main competitors are Joi Gifts and Ferns N Petals. However they do not have the same variety, transparency and ability to deliver in such short time. They are also not able to provide the full celebration based solution as they are gifts focused and usually charge very high delivery fees.

1. We are transparent on us being a marketplace and allow people the flexibility to choose from the vendor of their choice
2. We provide quick delivery with very low delivery charges
3. We allow users to customise each product depending on their preference and vendor size plus topping guidelines
4. We allow users to submit a cake design or a specific party requirement if one is not available on the app and we provide them with quotes from our various partners
5. We have a sophisticated chat bot and search engine to cater to specific requirements
6. People can choose celebration products from multiple vendors to throw the perfect party or get the perfect gift combo
7. We provide the user with free party planning tools ranging from eCards, occasion based reminder calendars and wishlists
8. We provide solutions to both B2C and specialised B2B corporate celebration needs as well
9. We not only have a website but our app is much more advanced than that of our competitors
10. We have a special character by the name of Shugah Man (if required) who can make deliveries exciting with his famous skits at the time of delivery

Our revenue streams include:
1. Commission from every transaction (20-25% per transaction)
2. Delivery Fee charged to customer (AED 10-35 per transaction)
3. Mark-up on party items (65-75% per transaction)
4. Advertising Fee charged to bakers to be featured on the app (AED 1K to AED 3K per month per vendor)
5. Additional assistance to bakers such as direct deliveries (AED 35 per vendor) and baking supplies (AED 500+ per transaction per vendor)

Our business model is a celebration focused marketplace which allows users to find cakes, desserts, flowers, gifts, balloons and other party / event related products and services which vendors provide. We aim to be a one-stop platform for all celebrations by providing users with a lot variety and also the ability to execute or order all at one time. Recently we have also introduced several party related tools so that we are the go-to place for our users.

Our delivery system is a hybrid of both in-house vehicles and outsourced delivery partners depending on the arrangement however the business model allows us to scale at a very rapid rate as we are simply a marketplace with a streamlined and verifiable model.

Majority of the money will be spent on marketing costs to obtain higher users while a small portion will be used for the upkeep of these additional users via operations staff and any assistance with technology development.

We spent 1 year building the technology and 1 year operating the app, since then we have skimmed our costs at a huge margin and operate at very low costs. We have also learned a lot with experimenting on growth hacks and various online mediums. We now have a very analytical approach on how we will get the higher numbers of downloads and orders

We are willing to raise from one or many investors collectively with our aim being to either:
A. Obtain the minimum required funds to grow and run our business over time with a total investment of USD 70K for 4.5% of the share in the business
B. Obtain a mediocore investment amount to further grow the business with a total investment of USD 140K for 10% of the share in the business
C. Raise a high level of investment to push our growth at a much more rapid rate with total investment of USD 280K for 21% of the share in the business

We need to maintain a high volume of orders per day which can be challenging considering celebrations are not as frequent as lets say food deliveries, however we have created various free tools and growth hacking strategies to tackle this.

On another note, delivery with items such as cakes and desserts can be quite sensitive with high chance of spoilage and can be time sensitive as well. Being late or mishandling can hurt our reputation.

Our competitors are established for quite sometime, our innovative approach may or may not be adapted by users who are used to their model

We are one of the few startups who were invited to and now form part of the in5 tech program. We get a highly subsidised rate for our office, visas and other operational costs which helps us run at very low costs and get access to certain additional resources.

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