MaxWholesale, a mobile-based business-to-business commerce platform, has raised $1 million from Indian Angel Network and existing investor Maple Capital Advisors to connect FMCG companies to local Kirana stores.
The platform, developed by Delhi-based 99 Algorithms Pvt Ltd, allows grocery stores and to directly place orders with consumer goods companies, thereby eliminating middlemen and reducing prices. It was rolled out in May 2016.
IAN members Ambarish Raghuvanshi, Raman Roy, Sunil Munjal, and Bikky Khosla participated in the round alongside Pankaj Karna and Abhinav Grover from Maple Capital. Maple Capital had earlier funded $150,000 exclusively in the seed round last year.
MaxWholesale will use the funds for customer acquisition and investing in supply chain. The platform currently services 1,000 retail businesses in Delhi.
“The platform is very beautifully designed to strengthen and entrench the existing retail network of retailers rather than disrupting it. It will offer the end consumer with wider selection of products at more competitive price points making it a win-win situation for brands as well as retailers,” IAN’s Raghuvanshi, now a board member at MaxWholesale, said.
In one year, the company has developed a delivery network that connects small stores directly with FMCG warehouses. It uses GPS-based routing algorithms to create dynamic replenishment routes every day for faster delivery.
The platform also throws up large amounts of data used by top brands to target small stores better. The start-up said it is powering online wholesale for more than 90 FMCG companies including Cadbury, Dabur, Patanjali, Capital Foods, P&G, Hindustan Unilever.
“We have strong reasons to believe this conversion to eWholesaler model is inevitable,” co-founder Samarth Agrawal said.
“Our retailers love our product and we have a very high repeat order rate. The funding by IAN and Maple Capital will help us further strengthen our foothold amongst retailers,” he said.
Source: Mint