Can organised grocery retail scale in India’s smaller towns without replicating the capital-heavy, large-format model built for metros? SuperK, founded by two BITS Pilani friends, is betting that the answer lies in putting the infrastructure of organised retail behind the local entrepreneur.
When Anil Thontepu and Neeraj Menta started SuperK in 2019, they brought together technology and retail instincts that were unusually complementary. Both were BITS Pilani batchmates and friends for more than 15 years. Neeraj’s extended family had run kirana stores for three to four decades, while Anil’s family was in rice mills and supply businesses. They had therefore seen small-town grocery from both the retailer and supply sides.
Their starting point was not that the kirana was outdated. It was that the kirana entrepreneur was under-equipped.
The founders spent a year researching the opportunity and then did something unusual for a technology-led startup: for the first two years, they relocated to Kadapa and ran the business from there. The objective was to understand the economics and behaviour of the small-town grocery customer first-hand.
Build the system, let the entrepreneur own the relationship
SuperK developed a FOFO — Franchise Owned, Franchise Operated model. The company provides the brand, store format, technology, procurement, inventory systems, assortment, training and operating support. The local partner provides the store, local knowledge and customer relationships.
A typical SuperK store is around 900 sq ft, with an investment of Rs 12–15 lakh covering equipment, inventory and training. A new store can typically be trading within 30–45 days.
The logic is straightforward: the individual entrepreneur cannot economically build a sophisticated procurement engine, technology stack and supply chain, while a large chain may find it difficult to make a conventional company-owned store viable in a small town. SuperK attempts to sit between the two.
Density Before Geography
The model began scaling in Andhra Pradesh. In 2021, when SuperK raised Rs 6 crore in seed funding, it had crossed 20 stores and was serving more than 40,000 families. By March 2022, after a $5.5-million pre-Series A, the network had reached around 50 stores. A $6-million Series A in 2024 provided another expansion leg.
Its Rs 100-crore Series B in July 2025, co-led by Binny Bansal’s 3STATE Ventures and Mithun Sacheti, with participation from existing investors and cricketer Shubman Gill, marked a new phase. (Moneycontrol)
At the time of the Series B, the network stood at 120 stores. Today, according to the founders, it has crossed 180 stores across roughly 120 towns in 10 districts, primarily concentrated in and around Rayalaseema in Andhra Pradesh.
That concentration is deliberate. Rather than scattering stores across states, SuperK has built dense clusters where procurement, logistics, fill rates and route economics improve as the network deepens. In its oldest cluster, several stores operate within a few kilometres of one another.
For SuperK, density is an economic strategy, not simply an expansion strategy.
When Customers Pay for Loyalty
The company’s most unconventional experiment may be its Gold Membership.
At Rs 300 for six months, Gold offers cashback and coins, member-only pricing and brand-sponsored offers. The founders were told that Indian customers would not pay for grocery membership, particularly in small towns.
Their counterargument was frequency. A grocery customer shops dozens of times a year, making a modest upfront fee easier to justify than in categories where customers shop only occasionally.
The proposition appears to have gained traction. A Gold member visits approximately four times a month, with a monthly basket of Rs 2,500+, and 75%+ of store sales now come from paying members.
The commercial significance goes beyond loyalty. Membership gives SuperK a clearer view of recurring demand, which feeds into assortment, inventory and promotions.
A New Layer of Visibility for FMCG
This is where SuperK’s technology becomes particularly interesting for food and FMCG companies.
The company has developed its own POS and proprietary Retail OS, connecting stores, inventory, procurement, suppliers and customer transactions, along with a consumer app.
The system captures what customers buy, how frequently they return and, according to co-founder Neeraj Menta, even whether a household switches from one brand to another.
That is a very different level of visibility from conventional general trade, where the trail can effectively end with the distributor or stockist.
SuperK says the platform enables coordinated launches, targeted sampling, centrally managed promotions and post-campaign measurement. Over the past year, it has been running such programmes with brands and says it has taken a challenger brand to meaningful share against an entrenched regional leader in at least one category.
For FMCG companies looking for a more measurable route into smaller towns, this could become one of SuperK’s most valuable propositions.
The Private-Label Battle is Different
SuperK’s private-label strategy is also rooted in local consumer behaviour.
Its initial focus is on pulses, grains and packed commodities — categories traditionally dominated in small towns by loose products.
So the competition is not necessarily another branded packet on the shelf. It is the open sack.
SuperK buys directly at source, processes and packs in-house and uses its Retail OS to manage inventory. The company says customers regularly report two to three times the usable shelf life from its packed staples compared with loose products purchased from local kiranas.
That gives private label a different role: not simply a margin or pricing tool, but a way of converting an unbranded category into a differentiated value proposition.
The Economics Have to Work for the Entrepreneur
The other critical part of SuperK’s model is the franchisee.
An established partner takes home approximately Rs 45,000–50,000 a month after operating costs. The network includes salaried professionals returning to their hometowns, first-time entrepreneurs, retirees, people from unrelated businesses and housewives running stores as a primary household income.
The model therefore attempts to make modern grocery retail accessible to people who may have no conventional retail background.
But the corporate economics remain a work in progress.
FY25 financials filed with the Registrar of Companies show Rs 96.3 crore revenue, Rs 117.5 crore total expenses and a Rs 21.1-crore net loss. The founders say FY25 was deliberately focused on improving store-level economics, contribution margins and revenue per store before returning to faster network expansion.
The next challenge is therefore much bigger than opening stores: can SuperK turn store-level economics, membership, data, private label and network density into corporate profitability at scale?
The Next Test for Bharat Retail
The opportunity is substantial. India’s grocery market is estimated at around $600 billion, while small-town grocery remains overwhelmingly dominated by kiranas.
SuperK’s proposition is that the next generation of organised grocery retail does not necessarily need massive stores, expensive real estate or metropolitan catchments. It can potentially be built around a small store, a local entrepreneur, centralised procurement, technology, membership and data.
The company has already raised Rs 100 crore in Series B capital to strengthen its organisation and expand into new towns and adjacent categories. Its stated expansion plan covers Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka.
The bigger question is whether the model that works in dense clusters of Andhra Pradesh can be repeated across hundreds and eventually thousands of towns.
If it can, SuperK may prove something important about Indian retail: the future of organised grocery in Bharat may not be about replacing the neighbourhood retailer. It may be about giving that retailer the power of a modern retail network.
Read the complete SuperK cover story in the September issue of Business of Food.
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And hear Anil Thontepu and Neeraj Menta share more insights at India Food Forum, September 22-23, 2026, Jio World Convention Centre, Mumbai.
