 "Binny Bansal unveils new venture Opptra to tap consumer brand growth")
After co-founding and exiting Flipkart, Binny Bansal has now come out with a new venture Opptra, a franchising business which aims to help consumer brands expand in Asia markets.
Backed by a team of former Amazon and Flipkart executives, Opptra is building a portfolio of franchising businesses, each with deep category expertise in local markets. It will enable them with centrally-developed technologies and shared global supply-chain infrastructure.
“Many consumer brands have the potential to scale globally, but navigating new markets is tough. Cultural, infrastructural, and regulatory differences make it complex, especially in a rapidly evolving retail landscape. Opptra unlocks Asia for brands by combining deep market expertise, cutting-edge tech, and a powerful supply chain. But Asia is just the start, our longer term vision is to take brands from anywhere to everywhere around the world,” said Bansal, founder and chairman of Opptra.
Bansal was the co-founder of Indian ecommerce marketplace Flipkart, which he exited in 2019 after the company was sold to Walmart. His mission at Opptra is to help brands realise their growth potential on a global scale and this means equipping them to thrive in a retail landscape that is continuously evolving due to digital disruption.
Opptra’s franchising businesses will have end-to-end capabilities to adapt product ranges, ensure import compliance, manage omni-channel distribution, and manufacture when needed. The company said what sets them apart from other expansion partners is their ability to drive faster launches and smarter long-term growth. This is done through advanced systems such as AI-driven localisation, digital first brand building, rapid fulfillment, and robust data analytics.
Two of the businesses are already in operation. Exporio, which caters to fashion and lifestyle brands expanding to the GCC region, and Terraspan catering to home and kitchenware brands entering India, the GCC and Southeast Asia. More franchise businesses covering electronics, sports, baby care and general merchandise are currently being incubated. The vision for each business is to become the partner of choice for brands in their category to launch in any Asian market.
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Opptra has recruited several top industry leaders including Ranjit Babu, a retail veteran who has held senior positions at Nokia, Apple and Amazon India. He is now Opptra CEO of electronics and general merchandise.
Technology is being led by Giridhar Yasa, formerly at Lendingkart and Flipkart, and Anand Raj will lead supply chain, having previously worked at Flipkart and Swiggy. Puneet Khanna is vice president and head of Exporio GCC, who brings experience from Apparel group. Rahul Gupta, formerly with Amazon and Upscalio, is vice president and head of Terraspan.
At Opptra, each franchising business will collaborate with brands as a master franchisee or licensing partner and will be fully invested in their success. Unlike conventional distribution partners that prioritise brick-and-mortar channels, they will leverage their advanced ecommerce expertise to accelerate market entry.
To support its portfolio of franchise businesses, Opptra is building advanced technology that spans the full value chain. This will power accelerated market entry, smarter product decisions, streamlined operations, and sustained brand growth. At its core will be a tech-powered global supply chain that will integrate robotics, automation, and smart logistics at scale. It is built on Bansal’s experience scaling Flipkart into one of the world’s largest ecommerce ecosystems.