Dukaan, a startup that helps local stores to sell their products online, on Tuesday said that it has raised $6 million as a part of its seed funding round co-led by Matrix Partners India and Lightspeed India Partners.
Close to 13 marquee angel investors also participated in this round, including – Haresh Chawla, founding CEO, Network18, Viacom18; Ryan Hoover, Founder, Product Hunt; Jitendra Gupta, founder, Jupiter; Shashank Kumar, founder, Razorpay; Kunal Shah, founder, Cred, amongst others.
The startup plans to leverage these new funds, to expand its services to 60 million small and mid-sized merchants across multiple categories such as books, consumer goods, grocery, fashion, electronics, and professional services. Along with this, Dukaan will also use the funding to expand its geographic operations and enhance its product suite, while helping merchants widen their digital footprint.
The startup which was founded early this year is a ‘do-it-yourself’ (DIY) platform which enables small retailers with zero programming skills to set up an online store. Apart from this, each merchant gets a unique store link on which they can showcase their products or services and further share this link with customers over social media channels.
“Our mission is to enable each and every small retailer to launch, compete and grow their business online, without ever worrying about technology. Our customers love us and we are excited to continue to pursue our mission, with support from Lightspeed, Matrix and our angels,” said Suumit Shah, chief executive officer and co-founder of Dukaan said
With covid-19 accelerating the shift to digital, Dukaan has already onboarded over 2.7 million merchants onto its platform across India, since its launch.
“What got us most excited about Dukaan was the team and their missionary zeal in enabling small retailers to go online. We are proud to support the Dukaan team from day one, as they create this platform and leverage the digital tailwind that almost every industry and sector is seeing today,” said Akshay Bhushan, partner, Lightspeed India.
Dukaan’s power stores have generated over 600,000 orders in the last three months, generating a total gross merchandise value of over ₹100 crores.
“Dukaan aims to digitize millions of Indian merchants and empower them to take their business online. Small businesses are turning to technology faster than ever to survive the pandemic, and Dukaan® makes it easier than ever to start, run and grow a business online. We’re excited to partner with Sumit and the team on this journey towards a Digital India,” said Tarun Davda, managing director, Matrix India.
The lockdown to curb the spread of covid-19, pushed several kiranas to adopt technology to reach out to more customers. A recent survey by management consultancy EY shows that almost 20% of kirana store owners started leveraging online platforms to get a steady supply of goods and assistance in deliveries.
With kiranas continuing to operate during the lockdown, several e-commerce firms including Flipkart, Amazon, Paytm Mall as well as food delivery firm Swiggy amongst others, have jumped in to capture the opportunity and have been partnering aggressively with local kiranas to offer grocery and other essentials.
