Retail Platform Jumbotail Raises an $85 Mn Series C Round Led by Invus

Jumbotail, India’s leading New Retail platform and B2B ecommerce marketplace for food and grocery products, has raised an $85M Series C round led by Artal Asia Pte. Ltd., an affiliate of Invus, a global equity investment firm with over $10 billion of evergreen capital under management. Ajax Capital, the family office of veteran FMCG entrepreneur Ajay Gupta, also participated in the round. This Series C round was a combination of primary and secondary investments, with early investors Nexus Venture Partners and Kalaari Capital taking minor part-exits in the secondary. This takes the total capital raised by the company to $125M.

Francis Cukierman, Managing Director, Invus Asia and Benjamin Felt, Managing Director, Invus US will join Jumbotail’s Board of Directors. Cukierman and Felt commented, “Our evergreen structure enables us to partner for the long term with companies who seek to transform their industries, and we are thrilled to embark on such a partnership with Jumbotail, which is rapidly emerging as an industry-defining company in B2B eCommerce. We share Ashish and Karthik’s vision of digitising kirana stores to transform India’s food and grocery retail landscape at scale."

Ashish Jhina, Co-founder & COO, Jumbotail, said, “We nearly quadrupled our scale in 2021 and are looking to further accelerate our growth trajectory in the coming year. We will continue to invest aggressively to make Jumbotail the pre-eminent destination for food and grocery brands to reach the overwhelming majority of India’s consumers through our pan-India network of kirana partners.”

Ajay Gupta, Ajax Capital, said, "Having spent nearly 25 years building FMCG brands in India the hard way, I believe Jumbotail will make it infinitely easier for the next generation of FMCG brands to scale rapidly and cost effectively. I am excited to be part of this journey"

“I knew in my first meeting with Jumbotail's founders that I had discovered a company unlike any other in my career. This fundraise is a validation of the top-notch execution demonstrated by the Jumbotail team throughout the Covid pandemic and the immense value they are creating for brands and kirana store entrepreneurs in an incredibly capital efficient manner" said Tom Williams, sole GP of Heron Rock, and a Board Director in Jumbotail.

Jumbotail connects nearly 2000 FMCG & staples brands and sellers to ~150,000 kirana stores across 38 cities and towns in India via its full stack e-commerce model consisting of its B2B e-commerce marketplace platform and its industry leading warehousing and logistics supply chain network. Jumbotail’s New Retail platform transforms kirana stores into modern omni-channel convenience grocery stores under the J24 brand within 24-48 hours - offering kirana retailers a full suite of Retail Operating System for digitizing in-store operations with Point-of-Sale (POS), inventory management, real time data and merchandising insights, daily fulfillment of thousands of products, a B2C online store as well as loyalty and digital marketing solutions to better connect retailers to their consumers. The company provides direct and indirect employment to over 2000 people across the country.

Jumbotail will use the funds to triple its engineering, product, design, data science, category management, marketing, and finance teams. It will also scale its core B2B marketplace to 100 cities and towns across India, expand its network of J24 stores, invest in large scale kirana entrepreneur skill development initiatives, and further strengthen its Go-To-Market services to support regional and new age FMCG brands.

Jumbotail was founded in Nov 2015 by Stanford MBA classmates S.Karthik Venkateswaran and Ashish Jhina. Karthik served with the Indian army in hard combat and is a marketplace tech/product veteran from eBay-US and Flipkart. Ashish Jhina is a 3rd generation apple farmer, and a former consultant with BCG, with deep experience in agricultural production and supply chains.

An estimated 14 million kirana stores in India control more than 95% of the country’s $500B+ food and grocery market. Startups like Jumbotail are poised to transform the kirana store ecosystem at an unprecedented pace and scale over the next few years.

About Invus

Invus is a global equity investment firm with over $10 billion of evergreen capital under management, operating out of offices in the US, Europe and Asia. Invus is the exclusive investment advisor of Artal Group, based in Luxembourg, and its Singapore-based affiliate Artal Asia Pvt. Ltd.

Since its founding in 1985, Invus has focused on empowering entrepreneurs to transform their industries. Invus has been an active investor in India’s food and FMCG sector since 2013.

Jumbotail Completes Its $25M Fund Raise with A $14.2 Mn Series B3

Bengaluru, Jan 08, 2021: Jumbotail, India's leading New Retail platform and B2B marketplace for food and grocery products, has completed its $25M fund raise with a $14.2M Series B3 round of funding led by VII Ventures, with participation from Nutresa, Veronorte, Jumbofund, Klinkert Investment Trust, Peter Crosby Trust, Nexus Venture Partners, Discovery Ventures, and a group of HNIs and industry leaders. This round comes in quick succession after a $11M Series B2 round raised in October 2020, bringing the total funds raised by the company to $54mn.

Ashish Jhina, Co-founder, Jumbotail, said, "Jumbotail is at an inflection point in its growth trajectory. We are seeing tremendous interest from investors across the globe who are drawn to our highly scalable and operationally profitable business model, built on the industry's best technology and customer NPS. We will use this capital to scale the business to new regions, to double down on our J24 store network and to launch a suite of services to help FMCG brands go to market exponentially faster and at the lowest cost. We are looking to bring in more top talent across the entire company to power this explosive growth."

Chadi Hajjar, Managing Director of VII Ventures, commented, "We are very excited to make this investment in Jumbotail, which is one of India's most dynamic and fast-growing businesses. We believe that Ashish and Karthik share our vision of disrupting the status quo, and we admire their fighting spirit and determination to digitalise the grocery supply chain and retail landscape in India. Jumbotail has all the ingredients for success, and we are keen to help them move forward in this next step of their journey."

Jumbotail serves 30,000 kirana stores via its full stack e-commerce model consisting of its B2B marketplace platform, an industry leading warehousing and last-mile delivery supply chain network, and a fintech platform for payment and credit solutions to kirana store owners. Jumbotail's New Retail platform transforms kirana stores into modern omni-channel convenience grocery stores under the J24 brand within 24-48 hours - offering kirana retailers a full suite of in-store technology and insights, daily fulfillment of thousands of products, a B2C online store as well as loyalty solutions to better connect retailers to their consumers, in addition to omnichannel integrations with hyperlocal platforms such as Dunzo and Swiggy.

Jumbotail will use the funds to hire top talent, scale its core B2B marketplace to new geographies across India, expand its network of J24 stores, grow its private label product portfolio and to extend its Go-To-Market services to more FMCG brands seeking entry into kirana stores and standalone supermarkets across the country.

Sameer Brij Verma, Managing Director, Nexus Venture Partners, adds, "Jumbotail's New Retail platform powering J24 Stores is revolutionary, and their full stack approach is the most cost efficient and scalable way to modernize kirana stores. We have been firm believers in the team and their approach from the very beginning".

Jumbotail was founded by S.Karthik Venkateswaran, and Ashish Jhina, Stanford MBA classmates. Karthik served with the Indian army in hard combat and is a marketplaces tech/product veteran from eBay-US and Flipkart. Ashish Jhina is a 3rd generation apple farmer, and a former consultant with BCG, with deep experience in agricultural production and supply chains.

An estimated 12 million kirana stores in India control more than 95% of the country's $450B food and grocery market. Technology, supply chain, and fintech solutions from startups like Jumbotail are poised to transform the kirana store ecosystem at an unprecedented pace and scale over the next few years.

B2B Marketplace Jumbotail Selected to Join 11 Leading Edge Companies at the 2020 Unreasonable Impact Asia Pacific program

Jumbotail selected to join 11 leading edge companies focused on solving the world's greatest challenges at Unreasonable Impact Asia Pacific 2020

Bengaluru, December 7th, India – Jumbotail has been selected to join 11 other ground breaking growth stage ventures at the 2020 Unreasonable Impact Asia Pacific program.

With the global pandemic continuing to have an enormous impact on all aspects of life, including the global workforce, migration, and the environment, supporting entrepreneurial solutions addressing these challenges is critical. Unreasonable Impact, a unique partnership between Barclays and Unreasonable Group is focussed on supporting and scaling up high-growth ventures within the green economy, ensuring that their impactful solutions reach new markets, transform even more lives and create thousands more jobs in the process.

After a rigorous selection process involving hundreds of world-class companies, Karthik Venkateswaran - Cofounder & CEO, Jumbotail has been invited to join 11 other leading entrepreneurs from across Asia Pacific for the first ever virtual iteration of the Unreasonable Impact Asia Pacific program, which aims to accelerate the growth of their companies.

Impacting the future of food, energy, sustainable living and supply chains, each entrepreneur is selected to participate based on their potential to address key social and environmental issues and to create at least 500 jobs within the next five years.

The program connects the entrepreneurs to a global community of power-house mentors and industry specialists, including experts from across Barclays through tried and tested methodologies and approaches.

Speaking about the programme, Karthik Venkateswaran - Cofounder & CEO, Jumbotail said, "It is an honour to represent Jumbotail in Unreasonable Impact Asia Pacific. Jumbotail is digitizing and modernizing the traditional mom & pop kirana stores via our B2B marketplace and New Retail platform. We empower the kirana stores with cutting edge technology, plug them into our modern supply chain, provide them access to formal credit, and give them the tools, and training to transform their traditional stores into omnichannel ready modern J24 stores. By our innovative business model of partnering with kirana stores, and bringing them into the formal economy, we help in inclusion, preserve jobs and create new jobs, and deliver upto 5x Impact Multiple of Money for every dollar invested.

We look forward to leveraging the Unreasonable group's powerful network, expertise, and access to a capital pool that is aligned with our mission to create economic opportunities to mom & pop kirana retailers across India and other emerging markets."

Lars Aagaard, Head of M&A and Head of Financial Sponsors, Asia Pacific at Barclays, said, "We are delighted to welcome the latest cohort of ventures onto our first virtual Unreasonable Impact programme here in Asia Pacific. Tackling some of today's greatest challenges, the entrepreneurs are developing groundbreaking solutions and, in partnership with Unreasonable Group, we look forward to supporting them on their journey to scale."

Daniel Epstein, Founder and CEO of Unreasonable Group, added, "We are committed to the idea that doing well and doing good are not mutually exclusive and Unreasonable Impact's success to date demonstrates the growing appetite for purpose and profit driven businesses. Our now highly curated virtual programmes provide a space to share wisdom, build a lasting community of support and deep dive into critical conversations, empowering our entrepreneurs towards transformative impact and growth. We are so excited to welcome Jumbotail into our global community and look forward to supporting Karthik along with our partners Barclays, to scale and in the process accelerate the creation of thousands of new jobs."

Cumulatively, the twelve ventures have generated more than USD $76.28M million in revenue, raised USD $114.48M million in funding and are operating in 26 countries.

To date, the ventures that comprise the Unreasonable Impact community have positively impacted more than 220 million people, reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 55 million tons, and generated more than 37,000 net new jobs. The companies have also raised more than USD $3 billion in funding. Jumbotail joins this notable global network in its shared effort to create thousands of jobs on the frontier of the green economy.

For more information, visit www.unreasonableimpact.com

The participating companies include:

Canopy Power: Deploying reliable, renewable electricity supply for remote businesses and communities across Asia Pacific.

DeHaat: Building AI-enabled technologies technologies to revolutionise supply chain and production efficiency in the farm sector.

Frontier Markets: Alleviating poverty by investing in rural households, and especially women.

gFlow+: Providing electric, solid-state water meters and smart metering solutions for a more water-efficient future.

Jumbotail: Organising the food and grocery ecosystem in India using technology, data science, and design.

Maeko: Turning organic waste into fertilizer in just 24 hours with cutting-edge compost machines.

Mobi-Air: Delivering breakthrough low-energy, low-cost, competitive air filtration technology.

MOVUS: Delivering an all-in-one equipment monitoring solution for smarter and more efficient machinery.

Shiok Meats: Transforming the food industry in Asia with cell-based, clean meat and seafood.

TRENDE: Providing Japan affordable, renewable, and local energy through rooftop solar.

Tridi Oasis Group: Recycling locally-sourced plastic waste into high quality raw materials.

TurtleTree Labs: Recreating the full composition, functionality and taste of milk using the latest cutting edge innovation in biotech.

About Jumbotail:

Jumbotail is India's leading New Retail platform and online B2B marketplace for food & grocery that connects 30,000+ mom & pop kirana grocery stores with brands, producers, and farmers. Jumbotail was co-founded by Stanford MBA classmates S.Karthik Venkateswaran and Ashish Jhina, in November 2015. Jumbotail Logistics is an inhouse, end to end, tech powered full stack supply chain network with fulfilment centers, distribution centers, enabling last mile storefront delivery and payments collections from its customers. Jumbotail's fintech platform facilitates working capital credit in a cost-effective and scalable manner from lenders for its customers and sellers using its proprietary algorithms & integrated credit product.

Jumbotail transforms traditional mom & pop stores into J24 stores - a chain of modern convenience grocery stores, owned and operated by mom & pop retailers, fully integrated with Jumbotail's new retail platform. Jumbotail has the capability to set up a fully functional J24 store within 24h-48h with its logistics, supply chain, and fintech platform. J24 stores are omni channel ready, and consumers can order via voice, online, and via hyperlocal platforms.

About Unreasonable Impact, created with Barclays

Unreasonable Impact is an innovative multi-year multi-geographic partnership between Barclays and Unreasonable Group to launch the world's first global network focused on scaling up entrepreneurial solutions that will help employ thousands worldwide in the emerging green economy. To date, the more than 150 ventures that comprise the global cohort operate in more than 180 countries, have raised over $3bn USD in funding, have generated over $2.8bn USD in revenue, and have created more than 37,000 net new jobs since joining Unreasonable Impact. For more information, please visit www.unreasonableimpact.com

About Barclays

Barclays is a British universal bank. We are diversified by business, by different types of customer and client, and by geography. Our businesses include consumer banking and payments operations around the world, as well as a top tier, full service, global corporate and investment bank.

Our purpose is creating opportunities to rise. For over 325 years we have funded progress, and today we remain committed to helping make our world more sustainable, more inclusive and more connected.

For further information about Barclays, please visit www.home.barclays.

Barclays in Asia Pacific

Barclays has been in Asia Pacific for over 50 years and primarily supports corporations and financial institutions across the Asia region, catering to their cross-border Corporate and Investment banking needs and connecting them to the capital markets of Europe and the Americas. In Asia Pacific, Barclays International has a presence in Hong Kong/ mainland China, Japan, Singapore, India and Australia.

About Unreasonable Group

Bringing together a global network of entrepreneurs, investors, creatives and business leaders, Unreasonable acts as a catalytic platform for entrepreneurs tackling some of the world's most pressing challenges facing us today. From designing highly curated immersive programmes, facilitating access to a global network of mentors to operating a private equity fund and providing advanced storytelling and media activities, Unreasonable operates at the highest intersection of business and impact. It is uniquely positioned to support growth stage entrepreneurs solving key global environment and social challenges to scale up through the deployment of knowledge, networks and capital.

For more information about Unreasonable, please visit www.unreasonablegroup.com

Retail Platform and B2B Marketplace Jumbotail Raises $11 Mn in Funding led by Heron Rock

Jumbotail raises $11M in Series B2 funding as part of an ongoing fundraise

Jumbotail, India's leading New Retail platform and B2B marketplace for food and grocery products, has closed an $11M Series B2 round of funding led by Heron Rock, with participation from Jumbofund, Nexus Venture Partners, Siddhi Capital, Reaction Fund, Pimpernel Holdings and a group of HNIs and industry leaders.

Jumbotail serves 30,000 kirana stores via its full stack e-commerce model consisting of its B2B marketplace platform, an industry leading warehousing and last-mile delivery supply chain network, and a fintech platform for payment and credit solutions to kirana store owners. Jumbotail's New Retail platform transforms kirana stores into modern omni-channel convenience grocery stores under the J24 brand within 24-48 hours - offering kirana retailers a full suite of in-store technology and insights, daily fulfillment of thousands of products, a B2C online store as well as loyalty solutions to better connect retailers to their consumers, in addition to omnichannel integrations with hyperlocal platforms such as Dunzo and Swiggy.

Jumbotail will use the funds to scale its core B2B marketplace to new geographies across India, expand its network of J24 stores, grow its private label product portfolio and to extend its Go-To-Market services to more FMCG brands seeking entry into kirana stores and standalone supermarkets across the country.

Jumbotail was founded by S.Karthik Venkateswaran, and Ashish Jhina, Stanford MBA classmates. Karthik served with the Indian army in hard combat and is a marketplaces product veteran from eBay-US and Flipkart. Ashish Jhina is a 3rd generation apple farmer, and a former consultant with BCG, with deep experience in agricultural production and supply chains.

Says Ashish Jhina, Co-founder, Jumbotail, "We have built a very capital efficient and operationally profitable business by focusing on solving problems for kiranas. We enjoy tremendous goodwill from our kirana customers on the back of our best-in-class convenience and service, which remained uninterrupted even during the Covid lockdowns. Our J24 store network is emerging as the ecosystem of choice for kirana store owners looking to seamlessly transform their kiranas into modern grocery stores, and to compete better in an increasingly technology-driven retail world."

"Jumbotail has displayed tremendous grit and resilience in the face of unprecedented odds and continued to execute at a level of excellence that is rarely seen. We are doubling down on our investment in Jumbotail as we believe they are best positioned to transform food & grocery retail in India", says Tom Williams, General Partner of Heron Rock, an omni-stage venture fund with offices in Toronto and San Francisco.

Sameer Brij Verma, Managing Director, Nexus Venture Partners, adds, "Jumbotail's New Retail platform powering J24 Stores is revolutionary, and their full stack approach is likely the most cost efficient and scalable way to modernize kirana stores. We have been firm believers in the team and their approach from the very beginning".

An estimated 12 million kirana stores in India control more than 95% of the country's $450B food and grocery market. Technology, supply chain, and fintech solutions from startups like Jumbotail are poised to transform the kirana store ecosystem at an unprecedented pace and scale over the next few years.

Jumbotail Raises $8.5M in Series A from Kalaari Capital and Nexus Venture Partners

Jumbotail, a leading online marketplace for food and grocery has raised $8.5mn in Series A from Kalaari Capital and Nexus Venture Partners. Nexus Venture Partners had earlier invested $2mn in the company. Jumbotail serves thousands of wholesale customers such as kirana stores and Horeca businesses in Bangalore. The company plans to utilise the funds for building cutting edge technologies and enhance operational capabilities to deliver the best customer experience in the wholesale food and grocery sector.

Founded in Nov 2015 by Stanford alumni S. Karthik Venkateswaran and Ashish Jhina, Jumbotail's vision is to organise the food and grocery ecosystem in India using technology, data science and design. Jumbotail offers a wide selection of products including staples, spices, dry fruits, packaged foods, and FMCG products. Sellers (traders, manufacturers and brands) can list their food, grocery and FMCG products on the Jumbotail Marketplace, which is accessible to customers through a mobile app available in 4 languages - Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi and English. Jumbotail provides full stack services including storefront delivery and payments collection for its sellers, as well as working capital credit from third party credit providers to its customers using rich transactional data and proprietary algorithms.

Ashish Jhina, Co-founder & COO, Jumbotail, says, “Manufacturers and brands can instantly get direct and highly targeted access to thousands of retailers and institutional customers through the Jumbotail platform without needing to invest in expensive physical distribution networks. Jumbotail also opens up the Kirana network to financial institutions looking to extend credit in a cost-effective and scalable manner.”

Bala Srinivasa, Partner, Kalaari Capital, adds, “98% of India’s food and grocery consumption is via Kirana stores. Jumbotail brings tech centric innovation to address massive inefficiencies in terms of product discovery, distribution costs, stock outs, and pricing. We are excited by their ability to eliminate information asymmetry, aggregate previously unavailable demand and supply data, and significantly improve economic outcomes for manufacturers, brands, financial institutions and kirana owners."

“While this is a multi-billion-dollar market opportunity, it requires us to solve challenging problems that are so unique to India that copycat models will not work. We are putting our customers first and building technologies and supply chains that will work for the next billion Indians in distributed, chaotic and unstructured environments”, says Karthik Venkateswaran, Co-founder & CEO, Jumbotail.

Sameer Brij Verma, Director, Nexus Venture Partners, adds, “Nexus is glad to have partnered with the Jumbotail team since its very inception. Jumbotail is going after a very large but in-efficient market that requires very strong first-principles approach towards solving challenges across commerce, efficient fulfilment, payments and credit via their platform. We feel this team and their technology platform has a shot at solving these challenges to create enduring value for the kirana / horeca segment over the next few years.”

Jumbotail has built a mission driven team with strong character and perseverance, and plans to hire top talent who are passionate about fundamentally transforming the food and grocery ecosystem in India.