Stelcore tells Indian brands: stop stitching partners together—merge commerce, tech and logistics or stay locked at home

Why a unified stack beats siloed partners

Speaking at TechSparks 2026, Bharat Mandot, founder and chairman of Stelcore Group, and Percy Avari, co-founder of Stelcore Supply Chain, urged Indian brands to stop treating commerce, technology and logistics as separate functions. Instead, they said, combining them into a single stack removes friction for brands expanding overseas. The session, moderated by Stelcore Commerce strategic partner Navin Mistry, focused on direct-to-consumer founders and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

Avari, who spent 35 years at Aramex before joining Stelcore, argued that stitching together marketplace, freight and compliance partners creates avoidable delays. Stelcore now fuses these functions in one platform, aiming to simplify cross-border trade while keeping every shipment compliant.

Test demand, then scale compliance and stock

Mandot advised brands to prove customer demand before investing in compliance and logistics. Founders can test markets through marketplaces or social channels, certifying only top-selling products to keep launch costs down. Once demand is clear, he added, inventory should be placed to hit delivery promises: next-day across the Middle East, but spread across several US hubs to cover the larger geography.

Many first shipments stall at customs because founders skip compliance checks, Avari warned. To prevent this, Stelcore Supply Chain embeds compliance rules directly into its platform, flagging required documents the moment a seller creates a shipment. Mandot also demonstrated a tool that maps category-specific rules across multiple countries in minutes.

Dropship early, stock forward as demand proves out

Most brands begin with dropshipping—Avari said 85-90 % of first-year orders are fulfilled this way. As sales data accumulate, brands shift stock to regional hubs like Dubai, cutting dropshipping to 10-20 % of orders by the second or third year. Stelcore’s order-management system links warehouses and last-mile couriers across countries, so no single facility becomes a bottleneck.

Avari suggested storing inventory in free-trade zones to trim costs, while Mandot predicted Indian export opportunities could grow tenfold in the next three to five years, boosted by government incentives. The pair set a goal to move 25,000 Indian MSMEs from domestic to cross-border trade within five years.

From consultancy to global trade platform

Stelcore launched in 2011 as a management consultancy. In 2016, as Amazon and other platforms began taking Indian sellers global, it pivoted to compliance. Today the group spans compliance, trade enablement and payments in 14 countries, according to YourStory.

What this means

Lazyfounder analysis — our interpretation, not reported fact.

If Stelcore succeeds, tens of thousands of small Indian sellers will launch abroad faster—but they will also depend on a single provider, raising switching costs and potential lock-in risks.

Key takeaways

• Test demand on marketplaces or social channels first, then certify only your best-selling products to keep upfront compliance costs low.
• Ship from regional hubs like Dubai once dropshipping volume drops below 20 %—usually by the second or third year.
• Stelcore’s order-management system pools warehouses and couriers across borders, cutting the risk of stock-outs.
• Government export incentives could multiply Indian cross-border revenue tenfold in the next three to five years.

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