ShopKirana, a B2B supply chain company for retailers, has raised $10 million in series-B funding from Info Edge, Incubate Fund, Akatsuki AET Fund, NPTK Emerging Asia Fund and Better Capital.
The funding will help ShopKirana expand to major major tier-II cities in India. ShopKirana has already raised seed funding of Rs three crore, led by Incubate Fund, with participation form Angels in 2016 and series A of Rs 14 crore led by Info Edge and participation from Akatsuki, Incubate Fund and Better Capital in 2018.
Sumit Ghorawat, Co-Founder, ShopKirana, said, “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.”
“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. Large consumer brands are partnering directly with Shopkirana to leverage the company’s distribution and increase their retailer reach” said Kitty Agarwal, Head- Corporate Development/VC at Info Edge.
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 per cent to reach a size of $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.
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. It partners thousands of retailers (by becoming part of their supply chain), 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’s vision is to connect 9 million individual retailers directly with suppliers and distributors by removing mediators/traders. It wants to help small Indian retailers improve their profits, product range, product availability, credits, inventory management and most importantly access to more customers.
Source: Business-Standard