ShopKirana raises Series B round of $10Mn from Info Edge and others

Round: Series B Raise: $10Mn Investors: Info Edge, Incubate Fund, Akatsuki AET Fund, NPTK Emerging Asia Fund and Better Capital

Team : Deepak Dhanotiya, Sumit Ghorawat, Tanutejas Saraswat

Lead Investor: Info Edge

Money goes towards growth: rapidly expanding the business to all major tier II cities of India.

About ShopKirana

ShopKirana is a B2B technology and supply chain focused company that aims to empower retailers to be competitive by providing technology, operational expertise and scale advantage. Idea is to partner with thousands of retailers (by becoming part of their supply chain) and making it the biggest and quickest go-to-market channel for products and services. ShopKirana directly works with Brands and give them a boost on distribution side with transparency and deep market intelligence.

Shopkirana is an initiative of Shopkirana E-trading private limited. Shopkirana has a clear vision “To empower Indian retailers with power of technology and supply chain innovation”. Shopkirana is launched to help connect nine million individual retailers directly with suppliers and distributors by removing mediators/traders. Our team has a strong belief that this platform is just a beginning and is a small part of our endeavor, we will do anything and everything that can help small Indian retailers improve their profits, product range, product availability, credits, inventory management and most importantly access to more customers.

Market Landscape:

Globally, India is among the top 10 retail markets. In 2013, the Indian retail sector was estimated at US$520 billion and was among the largest employers in the country. By 2019, the Indian retail sector is likely to grow at a CAGR of 13% to reach a size of US$950 billion.

Indian traditional retail is still key and is the biggest in the pie of retail industry, wholesale being the biggest opportunity in the industry. Shopkirana  targets to put a dent into the Indian wholesale industry through becoming the only platform as wholesale market place. ______

Timeline:  2015 – 2018: Focused on getting Product Market Fit and Right Cost Structure Dec. 2018 – now: Growth phase: Scale to multiple city, capture significant market share August 2019 – March 2020: Hyper growth: Cover 15 cities | Hit 720Cr Run-rate Next 12 months: Reach 30 tier II cities | Hit 1,200Cr Run Rate

Quotes: Team:

Tanutejas Saraswat, CEO & co-founder at ShopKirana says: " We have a solid playbook and a SWAT team that can launch a new city every 15 days. We will be in 10 cities in the next 90 days and will be in more cities than cash and carry businesses in the next 10 months." Sumit Ghorawat, co-founder at ShopKirana says: " We are building the biggest and the quickest go-to-market channel for FMCG brands to reach to rising middle class Indian consumers via kirana stores. ShopKirana platform has the ability to place an international brand in local kirana stores and has the power to take a local brand to India scale. Deepak Kumar Dhanotiya, co-founder at ShopKirana says: "Retailers are at the center of everything we do. We are building next generation digital and democratic ecosystem for FMCG brands"

Sumit Ghorawat, Deepak Dhanotiya, Tanutejas Saraswat

Investors:

“ShopKirana empowers small retailers by servicing them better, faster, cheaper, and enabling them to compete against organized retail and e-commerce. The supply chain efficiencies they have brought about using technology and data analytics is industry leading. It is a great team that has been executing very well and we are very excited to further deepen our partnership with them.” Kitty Agarwal, Head- Corporate Development/VC at Info Edge. Mr. Nao Murakami from Incubate Fund, Japan “As one of the earliest investors of ShopKirana, we are so proud of how founders have shown their strong convictions to empower Kiranas in the journey so far. While many other startups have been chasing top-line growth, ShopKirana team first focused on fine-tuning their business model to become operationally break-even and, after receiving series A funding last December, they shifted to a growth mode and have shown a strong growth momentum. I believe they will shift to a hyper-growth mode now and create a huge positive impact to Kiranas in all tier-2 cities in India.”

Yuki Kawamura, Head of India Investments at AET Fund says "Tanutejas, Sumit and Deepak now figured out the right formula to achieve unit economics in multiple cities and the company is ready to boost across India. We're delighted to sharing this journey with them and further empowering retailers in India to make their lives more colorful." Sumit Ghorawat, Deepak Dhanotiya, Tanutejas SaraswatSumit Ghorawat, Deepak Dhanotiya, Tanutejas Saraswat Sumit Ghorawat, Deepak Dhanotiya, Tanutejas Saraswat

"I believe the focus, commitment and devotion to disrupting the shopping of kiranas by ShopKirana is second to none not just in India but globally. ShopKirana make life easy for millions of kirana owners and their customers in India, and we feel their formula and wisdom applies to all the emerging economies, which we feel so much thrilled and rewarding being a part of supporting forces of..." said, Tak Lee, Partner at NPTK Emerging Asia Fund

“ShopKirana is building the foundation of “new retail” in India & transforming kirana stores that are central to everyday commerce for all of us. I am impressed with the playbook they’ve built and scaled across new cities at a incredible pace. I am looking forward to seeing ShopKirana power millions of kirana stores in the years to come”, said Vaibhav Domkundwar of Better Capital.

Past rounds of funding: 2016: Seed: ~3Cr led by Incubate Fund and participated by Angels 2018: Series A: 14Cr led by Info Edge and participated by Akatsuki, Incubate Fund and Better Capital About Info Edge Corp Dev- VC arm of the company which owns Naukri, 99acres and are early investors in Zomato, Policybazaar, Ustraa, Gramophone amongst other tech startups.