Global business-to-business e-commerce marketplace, Beldara has secured $7.4 million from Hindustan Media Ventures, the investment arm of HT Media Ltd. The startup will look to accelerate its brand presence and add new product categories.
In the first tranche, it has already received $4.2 million.
Founded in 2018, Beldara helps manufacturers, wholesalers, exporters and importers to buy and sell products on its platform globally, for over 30 product categories, including clothing, footwear, electronics and electrical equipment, office supplies, healthcare products and rubber and plastic goods.
According to the company, the fund infusion will be used to create awareness about the platform, as well as to push growth for its new venture in agriculture products called “Farm 2 Globe”.
The company is also in talks to raise its pre-Series A round of funding, in the next 2-3 months, as it looks to expand its footprint in overseas markets.
“Beldara is communicating with a couple of high net-worth investors for the pre-series A funding round. The utilization of these funds will be done in expansion of Beldara internationally. The real business starts when you truly reach your target audience and the funding from Hindustan Media Ventures will allow us to reach them,” said Pradeep Khandekar, co-founder, Beldara.
Further, as part of its international foray, the company will offer Indian agro-products to global audiences. “Beldara sees scope or great potential in the agricultural industry. Now Indian farmers will be relieved as their goods can be presented in the international market,” it said in a statement.
The B2B e-commerce platform is also providing credit service to sellers and users on the platform in partnership with Indian fintech firms.
“Beldara is empowering the small and medium businesses as well as retail traders in India through technology. It enables the retail traders to buy a wide range of quality products at best prices. At the same time the demand aggregation helps suppliers in improving productivity and therefore operating margins. We share the vision of Pradeep and are excited to partner with him in the company’s growth journey,” said Anirudh Singhal, strategic investment head, Hindustan Times.
According to management consultancy Redseer, India’s $780 billion retail market, continues to be largely unorganized leaving a big space for technology players to solve for supply chain bottlenecks. It said the online B2B market size has the potential to breach $60 billion by 2025.
