Toy Manufacturing Startup

Toy Manufaturing Startup

Kreeda - Vinita Sidharth

Vinita Sidhartha, is the woman behind Kreeda(started 2002), the Chennai-based venture which strives to keep our traditional games alive.

                   

The research team at Kreeda spends a lot of time and effort – even visiting old age homes and interacting with the elderly to learn more about a game – to recreate the games of yore. They promise that these games will provide one with a lot of benefits such as improved motor and sensory skills, hand-eye coordination, memory and mathematical skills as well as life skills such as learning to handle success and failures, how to be a team player and leadership skills.

Pallanguzhi and parama padam sound like Greek and Latin to the children of this generation. Many of the traditional games that our grandmothers played served to train the mind and teach concepts as well as tell interesting stories that brought together and involved the whole family. 

TOIING - Kartik Talwar

Simon, 37, had co-founded Camphire – a marketing agency – in 2011 with Kartik Talwar, 34, (another IIM-K MBA) which in 2015 was in the process of creating its own brands under a new name ‘The Bucketlist’. This team was well-poised to address the gap in children’s toys with its design and innovation capabilities.

Toiing was launched in 2016 with its 3D DIY Ganesha Craftoi. Within 15 days of launch, they sold 6000 units.

DIY Paper Craft with an Indian touch is Toiing's USP. Lagori is one among Toiing's more popular products

He claims that its  products – which spans craft kits, board games, party games and outdoor toys - are designed based on innovation, ‘Indian-ness’, and collaboration. They have invested close to Rs 2 crore in the business till date.

Targeting parents of three-eight year olds, Toiing aims to be an accessible brand with premium quality. The average price range is between Rs 300-400, and products straddle price points from Rs 20 to Rs 1499.Toiing’s range of toys and games will help develop social and emotional intelligence in children through play, popular  in Tier 1 and Tier 2 towns.

Arrios - Vasant Tamilselvan

Tamilselvan, 36, an entrepreneur, co-founded Ariro with his wife Nisha Vasanth, 30, a Montessori teacher, two years after their daughter Nakshatra was born. She was their inspiration. When Nakshatra developed a reaction to plastic toys as a baby, the couple tried to find wooden alternatives, but few were locally available. “So we decided to make some,” Tamilselvan says.

              

A Pikler triangle,  by Ariro from naturally aged neem wood.

Chennai-based Ariro’s all-wood play furniture that helps develop motor skills and keeps tots under 8 busy. .“People were looking for toys and tools to keep their kids engaged and away from electronics while they worked from home. We hit our ten-thousandth sale in October,” Tamilselvan says.

Vasanth researched designs and Tamilselvan got to work sourcing the wood. They decided to use neem, known to have anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties, and reached out to a carpenter on simple teethers and rattles for their daughter. For the actual moulding of many of their toys, Ariro works with traditional toy-making communities in Channapatna in Karnataka and Etikoppaka in Andhra Pradesh.