Indian startups kick-started the new year with a subdued week as three startups together raised $17 million in angel seed or venture capital funding. That compares with $10 million raised by four startups the week before.
Shopmatic Eyes $20 Million
E-commerce enabler Shopmatic is eyeing around $15-20 million in Series B funding as it eyes expansion in emerging markets, Anurag Avula, co-founder of Shopmatic told BloombergQuint in an interview. “We are looking to the close the round in the next six months,” he said.
With presence in India, Singapore and Hong Kong, the company is now looking to expands its footprint in other emerging markets such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Kenya and UAE in the next 12 months. A part of the investment will also go toward strengthening its presence in existing markets, he said.
Shopmatic had last raised $5.7 million (Rs 37 crore) in Series A funding from ACP Pte Ltd, a technology-focused venture capital firm, and Spring Seeds Capital, the investment subsidiary of SPRING Singapore, a unit of the government of Singapore in June.
India is Shopmatic’s biggest market and accounts for 80 percent of its total business. Canada-based Shopify has built a nearly $10-billion company doing exactly that and has expanded its footprint in India as well.
Founded in 2012 by former PayPal executives, Anurag Avula, Yen Lim and Kris Chen, Shopmatic allows small and medium enterprises to set up their own online stores in minutes. It provides customers with integrated payment and third-party shipping function on the platform.
The platform also allows sellers to do cross border selling on the platform. About 11 percent of the customers from India do cross border selling in the U.S. and South east Asian markets, Avula said.
“We are creating a category of individuals entrepreneurs and as per our estimates, the Indian market size has around $75-80 million such individuals,” Avula said.
With 100,000 sellers already on board, the company said it is adding 150-200 new sellers every day. It is now looking to reach 300,000 to 400,000 sellers in the next 12 months.
Shopmatic lets seller try out online store for $20 a month (or Rs 1273) and has three month, half yearly and yearly packages.
Meanwhile in India, a new set of ecosystem is developing around e-commerce enablers, which has given rise to players like Kraftly, Martjack, BuildaBazaar and Shopnix in the last three years. And then there are larger online retailers like the Tiger-backed Shopclues or Alibaba-backed Paytm which also target small businesses.
EarlySalary Raises $15.7 Million In Fresh Funding
Online lending platform EarlySalary raised $15.7 million (Rs 100 crore) in Series B funding led by Eight Roads Ventures India.
Existing investors including IDG Ventures India, Dewan Housing Finance Corp. Ltd. and Ashok Agarwal, director of forex and money transfer services firm Transcorp International Ltd., also participated in the round, a company statement said.
The company said the funds will be used to expand its operations and is targetting a disbursal of one lakh monthly loan applications by the end of 2018. The company currently processes around 14,000-14,500 loan applications per month.
Founded in 2015, the Pune-based startup allows salaried individuals to avail instant loans for an average tenure of 30 days or till the next salary cycle. Users can avail loans in the form of salary advances or credit card cash withdrawals.
Others
Lingerie startup Buttercups raised fresh funding from angel investor Rajan Anandan and existing investors Kanwaljit Singh and Anand Chandrasekaran, the company said.
Pune-based health foods startup True Elements, raised Rs 5 crore ($788,500) in a pre-Series A funding round led by the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group. The round also a mix of existing investors and a few unnamed new investors, the startup said in a press statement.
Source: Bloombergquint