At the forefront of redefining how Indian consumer brands expand across Asia, Opptra is making waves with its innovative, tech-driven approach to franchising and market entry. During the session ‘Unlock Asia: A Playbook on Indian Brands to Win in GCC and SEA’ at HGH 2025, Ranjit Babu, CEO of Opptra’s General, Merchandising and Electronics division, delivered a compelling keynote outlining how Indian brands can break into new markets faster and with more efficiency.
Founded under the leadership of Binny Bansal, Opptra is on a mission to create a tech-powered global supply chain that enables Indian brands to scale across Asia, especially to GCC and SEA. Opptra distinguishes itself by adopting a digital-first and AI-enabled approach, significantly reducing the typical challenges faced by traditional franchising models.
Opptra’s approach involves executing a structured and strategic eighteen-month roadmap to accelerate a brand’s growth. The roadmap includes three phases of six months each. For the initial expansion, Opptra will focus on market entry by strategically positioning the brands and prioritising high-potential markets. This phase includes deploying an advanced AI-powered catalogue and pricing intelligence tool to help brands remain agile, competitive and locally relevant in diverse environments.
Between months six and twelve, the emphasis will shift to building a robust omnichannel presence. Opptra will help optimise the balance between online and offline channels, creating a unified commerce strategy that ensures seamless customer experiences and consistent brand messaging across all touch points.
In the final phase, from twelve to eighteen months, Opptra will work towards establishing the brand as market leader. This involves refining localisation tactics, executing culturally relevant festival campaigns, and implementing long-term brand-building programs designed to enhance visibility and equity. Through this phased approach, Opptra aims to not only support brand expansion but also to cultivate lasting success in each target market by combining strategic insight, cutting-edge technology and a deep understanding of the market.
Opptra’s method leverages artificial intelligence to accelerate market entry, enhance consumer insights and optimise distribution. This includes shrinking launch timelines from years to months into the market through online-first brand positioning, AI-driven localisation that tailors products and marketing to cultural preferences and an enhanced customer experience through continuous feedback and refinement. This strategy provides brands with real-time consumer insights, helping them make data-backed decisions on product development, pricing and marketing.
In a one-on-one session following his keynote, Babu addressed some of the key strategic questions facing Indian brands expanding into Asia. To stand out in the market, Babu stated that their digital-first approach enables brands to enter markets much faster, with localised product positioning from day one, prioritising building a strong online presence, which cuts through the noise and connects with consumers where they already are.
Opptra is more than a franchising platform, it’s becoming a launchpad for Indian consumer brands to achieve international growth.
With intelligent systems and strategic insights, the company is positioning itself as a crucial partner for any Indian brand eyeing the Asian market. By reducing the barriers to entry and embedding technology at every step, Opptra is rewriting the playbook for global brand expansion, faster, smarter and more efficiently than ever before.
