Unilever and Accenture Partner to Establish New Industry Standard in Generative AI-Powered Productivity

Unilever and Accenture have announced a strategic partnership to set a new industry standard in generative AI-powered productivity. This multi-year program aims to simplify Unilever's digital core and apply generative AI to drive efficiencies and improve business agility.

Unilever plans to leverage Accenture's GenWizard platform, which includes over 350 patents and various tools, to accelerate technology and digital product development¹. This collaboration builds on Unilever's existing AI initiatives, which already include 500 AI applications¹. The goal is to scale effective use cases that deliver cost reductions and operational efficiencies globally.

Hein Schumacher, CEO of Unilever, emphasized the potential of AI to reach new levels of efficiency and performance¹. Julie Sweet, chair and CEO of Accenture, highlighted that this partnership will enable Unilever to create targeted AI solutions that can drive competitive advantage¹.

This collaboration builds on the 2023 announced effort to explore applications to scale gen AI across Unilever’s business operations. Since then, Unilever has focused efforts on identifying and testing new AI concepts, designs and projects from its “Horizon3 Labs.”

Former Senior Unilever Execs Launch Authentic Food Company FairPlum; Raise $2 Million

Founding Team - L-R (Mayank Tandon,Rupesh Kumar Agarwal & Mitesh Thakkar)

• Round led by Unicorn India Ventures
• Reputed angels Vivek Sirohi, VP-R&D, Unilever, Amith Agarwal, Co-Founder & CEO at Agri-Bazaar, Dinshaw family office, Anisha Subandh also participated in the round
• FairPlum has launched 5 brands Street Food Karvaan, Rollz Karvaan, Kebabi Karvaan , Unmarried Kitchen & Crafted
• FairPlum plans on setting up 100 Cloud Kitchen locations, a physical experience center and 5 – 10 kiosks within 2022 starting from  Delhi NCR and Mumbai

Rupesh Agarwal, Mayank Tandon & Mitesh Thakkar have announced the launch of their entrepreneurial innings with FairPlum, a food company which will deliver authentic food to consumers without compromising on health and hygiene. Rupesh Agrawal and Mitesh Thakkar are ex Unilever, have worked in leadership roles across functions like Finance, procurement, manufacturing, product development and personal care. Mayank Tandon, is an F&B specialist and entrepreneur who has led, built and scaled hospitality brands at Reliance Retail, Sanjeev Kapoor Restaurants, Future Group Cloud Kitchens. He has managed a diverse portfolio of building restaurants, large commissaries, cloud kitchens and food retail, in India and in International markets.

FairPlum has raised $2 million in a seed round led by Mumbai-based early stage focused VC Unicorn India Ventures. Reputed angels Vivek Sirohi, VP-R&D, Unilever, Amith Agarwal, Co-Founder & CEO at Agri-Bazaar, Dinshaw Family Office, Anisha Subandh have also participated in the round.

FairPlum was founded in 2020 with the ambition to create products & brands which the consumers love, a food company that delivers authentic flavors and food nostalgia to customer doorsteps in less than an hour.

Fairplum is working with the regional/ local authentic & heritage food brands of India and taking nostalgic dishes from their kitchen and making it available to consumers sitting anywhere by using food technology, food science and a supply chain network of cloud kitchens.

FairPlum products are deployed through a phygital model of cloud kitchens, e-commerce, experience centres and channel sales platform. The food company has partnered with popular food brands and food entrepreneurs from across India to make available authentic food specialties they miss through the brand concept “Food Karvaan”.

FairPlum plans to have 100 Cloud Kitchen locations, 1 Physical experience center, 5-10 kiosks within 2022 starting from Delhi-NCR & Mumbai. The food company operates in 17 locations and has confirmed 10 more cloud kitchen locations and 1 Physical Experience center in Thane along with Bikanervala which is expected to go live in the next 2 months.

Anil Joshi, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures, says, “FairPlum leverages technology to enhance efficiency and preserve the taste of the food which will be delivered in under an hour. Their ability to adopt the changing trend driven by technology has made the world closer to the consumer. Today, the consumer wants what they see and with immediate fulfilment. The food industry is undergoing a significant revolution especially with its creativity, innovation and cutting edge technologies. We saw a strong pipeline of user base and business traction addressing food nostalgia which is why we decided to invest in them further"

Rupesh Agrawal, Founder & CEO, FairPlum, says, “Fairplum wants to make foods/brands accessible by bringing authentic foods from across the world at great quality, and value. Our vision is to run a network of hundreds of cloud kitchens/ physical experience centers on which we will ride our most authentic and iconic foods and their brands from all over the world. The purpose is to deliver food products to consumers by preserving goodness in a healthy and hygienic manner. We will use the fresh funds to improve consumer experience with innovations in technology and upgrade the infrastructure with expanding the platform to other strategic territories.”

Nitesh Arora, President, Credence Family Office, says, "The sole advisors to the deal, adds, "Today's generation has very specific tastes and would highly appreciate the fact that their favorite food is made available at their doorstep. I believe this could be a very large & scalable opportunity for FairPlum.”

FairPlum has launched Kebabi Karvaan which is a sub brand of Food Karvaan that makes Iconic Foods Accessible and Unmarried Kitchen, a brand aimed at bachelors. The Company has also launched Street Food Karvaan, Rollz Karvaan and Crafted.

Unicorn India Ventures is a Mumbai-based early stage fund house started in 2015 by Anil Joshi and Bhaskar Majumdar. The Fund has also launched a UK India cross border fund for funding UK startups looking to enter India. From its first Fund, UIV has invested in 18 companies like Inc42, Sequretek, Pharmarack, Genrobotics, NeuroEquilibrium, SmartCoin, Open Bank, Open app to name a few. Unicorn India has also announced Fund II, which is a Rs 300 crore fund launched in 2019 which has invested in 19 companies so far.

About FairPlum

Fairplum was started by IIT Delhi alumni Rupesh Agarwal in Year 2020, with the ambition to create products & brands which the consumers love. The first stint was a joint venture with Rossari Biotech to create ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) for Personal Care products,. Rupesh was leading the set-up as Co-founder and CEO. He created a capability of Product Development in IIT-Mumbai, Manufacturing in Silvassa & a sourcing team. The Team delivered Rs.20Cr. ARR within one year of operations with deployment of 250+ products across customer bases of Purplle, Amazon, Shoppers Stop, FirstCry, Faces Canada etc. Partnership was then sold to JV partner Rossari Biotech on July-21. 

FMCG 2025 Highlights the Need for Increased Opportunity amidst Competition

FMCG 2025, was hosted by a global supply chain decision-making platform, Locus late last week in Mumbai. The event saw participation from supply chain bigwigs of leading FMCG players like Unilever, Dabur, Tata Starquik, Godrej Consumer Products, PepsiCo India, Nestle, Mondelez, VLCC Personal Care and eminent professors. The event was an opportunity for industry stalwarts to discuss strategies, innovation, and revolutionary technologies in the FMCG supply chain with an industry outlook for 2025.

Mr. Nishith Aggarwal, Director of Customer Development, Route to Market South Asia, Unilever, said, “Omnichannel has promising opportunities in E-commerce given the seemingly viable economics of the model. From the FMCG distribution perspective, while the efficiency of operations has always been intrinsic to model, the key differentiator among players is how effective you are. On being asked about rising competition, Nishith opined, “Competition has always been there in the industry and is good for innovation. The key point is to remain focussed on consumer needs and trends and not get carried away by only competitive response.” Mr. Aggarwal comes with 17 years of experience in Supply Chain and Sales Operations in distributive trade context in leading organizations.

K. Radhakrishna, Co-Founder at Tata Starquik, added, “FMCG companies have innovated in distribution channels that has worked fairly well. What e-commerce has done is empowered the customer, an unparalleled feat."

Krishna Khandelwal, Chief Business Officer, Locus, said, “E-commerce has instilled a sense of fear of missing out in the FMCG fraternity, and all the increased action is helping the ecosystem grow."

Key topics covered were ‘How E-commerce is Disrupting the Consumer Market Space’ focusing on the rise of e-commerce, which has raised questions on the existing operating model of FMCG companies. E-commerce companies have radically shortened the delivery cycle, and even though they are currently about 10% of the market, the growth rate of 24.8% signifies the disruption created in the industry.



Another trend discussed was ‘Rural India - The Future of the FMCG Industry in India’ with the metro markets saturating giving rise to opportunities to tap into high potential and fast-growing semi-urban and rural segments. This panel discussion was addressed by Shivinder Singh, Head, Trade Marketing for Home & Personal Care, and Sales IT at Dabur India and Dr. Harvinder Singh, Chairperson – Marketing Area, IMT Ghaziabad followed by a Q&A session.

Dr. Harvinder Singh said, “Accessibility, awareness, and affordability are the significant elements required to address a rural market, be it for a startup or conglomerate."

Shivinder Singh said, “Kirana stores in rural India will place orders on the app to replenish their inventory; however, this will take at least a decade to function smoothly. Impact of technology to show benefits will require the consumer to move using the app from an awareness generation tool to an order placing mechanism.”

The event saw an amalgamation of business insights led by Krishna Khandelwal, CBO, Locus and a dash of humor added by the special host Shashwat Maheshwari. Locus is all set to organize similar round table conferences for different industry segments.