Info Edge leads $10 mn Series B in B2B e-commerce platform ShopKirana

Indore-based Shop Kirana E Trading Pvt. Ltd, which runs business-to-business ecommerce platform ShopKirana, has raised $10 million in its Series B round of funding led by Info Edge, the parent company of job portal Naukri and real estate website 99acres.com. Incubate Fund, Akatsuki AET Fund, NPTK Emerging Asia Fund and Better Capital also participated in the round.

With the fresh funds, the company plans to rapidly expand its operations to all major tier II cities of India, it said in an official statement.

ShopKirana connects individual retailers with suppliers via a B2B e-commerce platform, where they can place orders, get their products delivered and make payments. The startup works with various stakeholders in the groceries, fast moving consumer goods and supply chain sectors.

"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,” Sumit Ghorawat, co-founder, ShopKirana, said.

Founded in February 2015 by Ghorawat, Tanutejas Saraswat and Deepak Dhanotiya,

ShopKirana is an app-based platform which integrates the demands of retailers and passes them on to brands, thereby ensuring competitive prices and a single sourcing channel for retailers. In turn, brands get to directly connect with retailers for promotions or product launches. The supply chain innovation startup provides value-added services like logistics, banking, loans, information technology and ordering systems to the retailers.  

“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. 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.

ShopKirana last raised $2 million in its Series A round from Info Edge, Akatsuki, Incubate Fund and Better Capital in December 2018. Previously in 2016, it had secured a seed round led by Incubate Fund and participated by other angels.

ShopKirana competes with a host of companies in the B2B ecommerce space that has been witnessing quite a bit of venture capital investor interest over the years. Some of these companies are sector specifics like Moglix which is an industrial goods marketplace while firms such as ShopX and Udaan help businesses discover customers, suppliers and products across categories.

Udaan, which raised $225 million in its Series C round of funding last year, is close to raising around $500 million in fresh capital, The Economic Times reported recently. Moglix secured an undisclosed amount of funding from Kalyan Krishnamurthy, chief executive officer of homegrown e-commerce giant Flipkart, in March.

In December last year, it had raised $23 million.

In August 2018, Bengaluru-based ShopX raised $35 million from Hong Kong-based Fung Holdings.