“Luxury To Us Is Convenience”

You are planning your week. You know it will be hectic at work. To break the cycle of high-pressure work, you pencil in a mid-week dinner at the Gaggan in Bangkok. Friday dinner with Granny for her 80th birthday. You will need a lovely present for her. How about her favourite teas from Fortnum & Mason? Then for the weekend, shopping and sightseeing in Hong Kong. It is a great plan - you just need someone to get it all sorted. This is where Indulge Global Concierge come in. Through their partnerships with global vendors, they help provide personalised services to their clients. The quality of their service has seen them grow to 1000 UNHI (Ultra-High-Net Worth Individuals) which include celebrities and industrialists in two Sshort years since their inception.

Founded by Karan Bhangay and Advita Bihani, Indulge Global is dedicated to delivering luxury experiences tailored to high-profile individuals. BW Businessworld caught up with Advita Bihani to take a peek into the Indulge Global world.

What inspired you to start Indulge Global Concierge?
Karan Bhangay had over a decade of experience in delivering luxury experiences, and through his journey, he realised that the desire for such experiences was there but the access needed to create them was lacking. Then during the Covid lockdown, we found a gap in the market. The possibility of procuring international products was restricted and it led us to create a concierge service that extends across the globe. The initial team was just the two of us. Today we are 30 people, and continue to expand the team.

Would you say you have grown through references? What is your current subscriber base?
I remember, one of the first clients was an HNI individual who said he wanted to experience Dubai in a new way, we made that happen for him. Then the Kamath family (entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath) came in. So, you see, it started with three to four families and we grew purely through references and word of mouth. I would say till 650 odd we grew organically, and then we marketed ourselves. We currently serve 1000 UHNIs.

We are happy that our growth has been organic because it has given us a chance to grow as per the requirements of our clients. If you look at how we operate today, we are a WhatsApp-first service, our team speaks 15 languages, and currently, our response time is under 2 minutes, all of this has come about as a result of inputs from our clients. And, we have been able to stick to our commitment of being available for the convenience of the client.

What sets it apart from other premium concierge services?
We sell convenience. The biggest asset today is time. We offer a team of people looking after you 24/7, across the globe for all your needs. Further, our customer-first approach and our ability to leverage AI to customise our services to unique requirements.

How has AI helped?
We are a very intense industry, communication happens on the go, and we need to deliver effectively and quickly. Here is where AI technology supports the concierge. Let me give you a very basic example, someone wants a dinner reservation in Monte Carlo within an hour. Our AI technology will support the concierge by letting him know the client’s preferences in food and ambience, so we deliver quicker and more efficiently.

Please give an example of a particularly difficult project or client request that you aced and are proud of.
Luxury to us is convenience. And we don’t just step up when people want to buy high-end luxury goods. A patron’s wife was taking a solo trip in Nepal and was unable to process any transactions due to issues with bank servers. She was travelling alone and had to clear payments for her food and travel. Her husband called us and we were immediately able to arrange for local currency.

A patron called for a friend’s father who needed medical attention. They were in Thailand and needed an air ambulance. When they reached out to the company providing the air ambulance they were given a time frame of 48 hours. Our team took care of all the formalities and got it done the next morning. We are proud of the fact that our clients can depend on us during crucial moments like these. Please give our readers an example of a bespoke experience you have curated for your clients in the recent past.

A patron requested a particular jewellery item to gift to his wife on Valentine’s Day, of which there was only one remaining globally, which was in transit to another

buyer. Our team, leveraging our relationship with the brand, pulled the product back and had it shipped to our client - all of this on an extremely tight deadline.

Could you tell us what benefits the membership entails?
The membership is Rs 400,000 plus taxes. It has a one-year validity and includes unlimited requests at 0 per cent service fee. We are in the process of introducing a monthly trial membership of Rs 40,000.

Where do you see Indulge Global in the next two years? How do you plan to scale up operations?
We are looking to expand our current customer base to 10,000 UHNIs by the end of 2025. We have an app in the pipeline that we are looking to launch this year, it will be an e-commerce platform, as well as a knowledge base for products and services that we provide. We intend to use the advancements of AI to help us service our clients better and quicker.