PRIKA Aims to Create Revolution in Art & Craft Industry

PRIKA envisions to imagine the unimaginable, Priyanka Singh (founder of PRIKA) understand that there are more than 15 crore woman workforce which is not contributing financially in the economy. She wants to create a community for creative people who love art & Craft, where they can enhance their skill on paper craft, quilling stitching, jewellery making, sculpting, painting, party and wedding décor, invitations, gifts, accessories etc. through modern techniques and then selling through BRICK & CLICK Model across the globe.

The foundation of PRIKA is built upon thousands of young talented artists overflowing with creative juices who have so far not been given a chance to reach their true potential. By giving power to the people, PRIKA is disrupting an industry worth $15 billion within India alone.

In an interaction with BW Disrupt, Priyanka Singh shared her entrepreneurial journey and details about her venture.

What inspired you to be an entrepreneur?

It’s always a small thing in life that may inspire joy, love & happiness and it took me years to understand that painting, creating magical quirky playful art and craft designs give meaning to my soul, I was very happy doing it!!

Art & craft are a way of life and living to me rather than a career. For me, it’s a way of expressing my feelings, my feminine charm and it’s my passion towards art & craft that brings zeal & excitement into my life. Since my childhood, I had so much of excitement when it comes to arts and crafts but never understood that it is the love of paint which is giving the colorful touch to my art and craft creation and thus giving me happiness & joy in my life.

As an engineering student, I had fewer opportunities to unleash my imagination, yet, I spent time for this and did paper craft, wall art and other art work. A switch to this path has given me a chance to pursue my passion.

My love for art and the desire to earn while doing what I love traced my crafter’s journey. It was while I was working in an MNC when I painted my first professional wall art for which I got paid from a colleague. Soon it became my favorite pastime to merge art into everything I own from tees, shoes, bags, mugs, jars to even my walls.

I then realized that I was happier doing this than working into which my educational field. Thus, I quit my job and decided to start PRIKA.

How does PRIKA work? What are your special key offerings?

PRIKA, A Hobby, Arts & Craft Store, a one stop shop for all creative supplies & showcases a product range of over 100 designs and a client base of more than 200 delighted customers from Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida as of now. We are expanding our horizons and trying to reach millions of hearts across the world with our creative products. 

All our products are designed and handcrafted at the Prika studios in Gurgaon and soon we will be opening a training and manufacturing centre. We have a team of women who are from underprivileged backgrounds taking care of the production.

At Prika, we undertake all types of custom order for creative products for birthdays, weddings, new babies and other celebrations. We have two verticals - catering for events as well as gifting.

1. With regards to events, the products created are the invitations, favour boxes, gift boxes, money envelopes, table decor, wall decor and other related items.

2. With regards to gifting, the products available are albums, scrapbooks, photo frames, explosion gift boxes and more. We undertake bulk orders for any product category and work relentlessly to ensure your event or occasion is a special one with smashing success!

We cater to a wide variety of hobbies like Painting, Scrapbooking, Card Making, Jewelry Making, Candle Making, Flower Making, Baking, Chocolate Making, Needle Craft, Quilling, Decoupage, Mixed Media, Clay Modelling, Paper Crafting & more! Prika is also trying to establish as a well - known destination for school project supplies.

Prika also intends imports a wide range of products from leading brands from the US such as American Crafts, DCWV, We R Memory Keepers, Sizzix, Ranger just to name a few. Our comprehensive range of embellishments, adhesives, glitter, sequins, flowers, flower making materials, boards, foam, felt, sponge, baking supplies, candle making supplies, kids craft supplies etc. is unparalleled. Our creative team is always creating new trends or is in relentless search of new products to cater to the needs of the discerning crafter, artists (professional or novice), architect, interior designer, school going children or just about anyone with a flair for creativity.

With lots of creative ideas, demos & workshops within the store and a very active social media presence loaded with creative ideas, Prika aims to make Craft shopping more of an experience every single time!

So, Prika is truly the place to get inspired, discover, create, learn & enjoy!

Who is your target group and how do you plan to reach them?

We wish to create an ecosystem where we can touch lives!!  We also undertake classes where we create an awareness on various types & techniques of crafting in India & help you on enhancing your creative journey!

We are a creative business platform with a social mission. A platform where hobby and passion is converted into money making, helping younger generation, people from lower income brackets, housewives, dabblers to earn through their passion and our able to promote their creativity.

Prika intends to provides its sellers access to a dynamic market, educational resources and online tools to help them succeed.  Prika intends to creates new entrepreneurs who may not have brought their products to market previously. These internet-enabled entrepreneurs are building businesses on their own terms, prioritizing flexibility and independence over rapid growth, and using income generated by Prika to build resilience in the face of declining job security

PRIKA’s core value is to encourage action for businesses for women by involving them in mainstream trades which helps in GDP growth of country and to also cope with the economic downturn rather than waiting for government or businesses to help them. We have believed in the philosophy that the great fortunes of the world were made by people who saw opportunities that others didn't see and Internet is booming and so is the new ways of doing business and exploring tier 2 and tier 3 and rural market.

What are the present achievements in terms of funding, user base, expansion etc.?

Currently we are boot strapped and in future we will be approaching debt or VC funding further when we keep expanding our self across country. Every day we are engaging on an average of 100 women to help them get skilled in making craft products as well as clients who love to buy them from us.

What are your future plans?

Prika intends to working towards innovation in field of designing and help development and improvement of products. We are creating a wonderful community of designer/artist/crafters by developing an internet platform where hobby and passion is converted into money making and creating a ECO SYSTEM where small businesses flourishes through a robust e commerce market place to sell handcrafted goods made by artist, curators, dabblers and provide them with a high potential of employment generation.

We will be launching Brick and click stores, organising real world meetups, sponsor events on Diwali /Christmas /Rakshabhandan etc. Also we are developing training centre for women and unemployed youth, partnering NGO’s to register woman entrepreneurs, making strategic tie up with payment wallet to ensure escrows for trade and logistic providers to get preferred rates & a market place model through agent’s network.

We intend to register 10000+ manufacturers as sellers for DIY craft & paper crafts.

Where do you want to see your company after 5 years?

We intend to see prika, turning in a largest platform online and offline arts and crafts marketplace wherein more than a lakh artist, crafters and women entrepreneurs, underprivileged women are registered with us to sell and become people’s first choice to opt whenever they think about anything handmade or customised for them.

We forecast to have our craft supplies manufacturing workshops where we skills people to hand made craft utilities- paper, stickers, DIY Kits, which are still not manufactured in India and maximum supplies is imported from foreign countries like china, japan and USA at a very higher cost. I wish to encourage Mr. Modi’s mission of “MakeinIndia” where we produce world class supplies and we should be the one who are exporting to other countries, also generating employment for all levels of people.

Also we intends to launch 100+ offline store across country and around the globe and a robust e-commerce platform/online store to ease purchasing of products from anywhere anytime.