Near.Store Raises $300K as Seedfund - Enables Kirana/ small Grocery Stores to Go Online with Just Plugging in the Device - An India Story

Near.Store, a plug and play hyper local platform for physical/offline stores, today announced that it has raised USD 300,000 as seed funding from Sauce.vc and other individual investors. Near.Store enables a shop to create an online presence and makes the shop products easily discoverable in simple steps. The online presence and ability to be discovered by customers within a close geographical vicinity helps the shops increase their sales. Added convenience of online ordering also helps the shopkeepers in maintaining their customer’s loyalties. 

Said Manu Chandra, Founder, Sauce.vc, “The Near.Store team has a deep and intrinsic understanding of the Indian Digital space and a proven history of creating and running successful companies. Kirana stores are the mainstay of India’s CPG landscape and getting them digital ready in a zero- effort manner holds great potential for the entire retail ecosystem.” 



To be a part of Near.Store platform, a shop owner simply needs to plug in the Near.Store dongle into their existing bar-code scanner/ billing system. The device does not require any additional internet connection, software, electricity or lengthy implementation process.

[caption id="attachment_142195" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] The Device[/caption]

Once connected, the device then automatically uploads a shop’s products to create a web storefront. Now, every time a shop owner scans a product and generates a bill, each SKU scanned becomes a part of the online product catalogue for each store. This online product catalogue is then used by Near.Store for SEO which in turn makes the store visible and discoverable to customers within a certain geographical reach. A shop owner receives all orders through their existing billing systems. It can also accept offline or online mode of payments for fulfilling the order. 

In a short time, majority of the SKUs of the shop are captured in the digital database - without any additional resources / efforts by a shopkeeper. The digital database can be used by the shop owner for better inventory management as well.

Says Ashish Kumar, Founder Near.Store, “Most traditional stores on an average maintain 5 -10 thousand SKUs. For many stores, who have attempted to go online, the first step of uploading the SKUs is often daunting and acts as a deterrent. Additional requirements, such as need to have a continuous online promotion, maintaining a separate payment system etc. is equally challenging. At Near.Store, we have managed to simplify the process by introducing the dongle, which plugs itself in the existing system. Our users therefore do not need to assign extra resources for going online and can focus on increasing their sales with no extra effort.” 

Near.Store is currently in a pilot stage and is present in 2 cities. It aims to expand to over 10 cities in the next 6 months. 

About the Founding team of Near.Store:

Near.Store was founded by three serial entrepreneurs whose combined experience across various fields helped build out this unique platform that uses proprietary hardware and software: Ashish Kumar, former location marketing company founder; Ramakrishnan A, former Mindtree techie and Diwakar Mitr a former investment banker.

Shripad Nadkarni, a former marketing head of Coca Cola India has also joined the company as a senior advisor. 

Bigbasket Raises $14.5 Mn in Debt Funding from Trifecta Capital

Trifecta Capital on Monday said it has provided ₹ 100 crore (~ US$14.5 milliom) in venture debt to SuperMarket Grocery Supplies, the parent of online food and grocery delivery startup Bigbasket.

"This is the largest venture debt transaction in the country...The funds will be used to meet the working capital and capex requirements of the company," a statement said.

This includes setting up new warehouses, strengthening the cold chain, facilities for reprocessing of fruits and vegetables and for scaling-up of its supply chain for the recently launched milk subscription business - BB Daily and its specialty vending machine business - BB Instant, it added.

In April, BigBasket raised $40 million from CDC Group, the UK government's development finance institution. The funding was part of a bigger round of $150 million that BigBasket is raising at a valuation of $1.2 billion, making it the latest entrant to India's coveted unicorn club of startups.

"We have a clearly identified use case for debt. We are present in 26 cities and continue to optimise our supply chain. A significant part of our business is fresh fruits and vegetables, the bulk of which is sourced directly from farms. It is crucial that we maintain the quality right up to the last mile. Funding such capex requirements is best done through debt," SGS co-founder Hari Menon said.

Bigbasket, which has raised about USD 150 million from South Korea's Mirae Asset Management, UK's CDC Group, and existing investor Alibaba earlier this year, had taken venture debt from Trifecta Capital in 2017. It competes with SoftBank-backed Grofers as well as Amazon.in and Walmart-owned Flipkart.

"...(we) realised that it was a more optimal form of financing for working capital and capex. Venture Debt not only reduces dilution for all shareholders, it reduces cost of capital, improves ROE and expands runway. We recently raised USD 150 million from marquee investors and decided to supplement the equity capital with additional Venture Debt...we hope to be able to leverage their (Trifecta) Bank/Non-Bank relationships for our future fund requirements," SGS co-founder and CFO Vipul Parekh said.

Bigbasket was founded in December 2011 and has operations spread across 26 Indian cities. It is backed by investors like Bessemer Venture Partners, Helion Ventures, Ascent Capital, Sands Capital, Alibaba, CDC and Mirae. PTI SR

Milkbasket Raises $2.16 Mn in Follow-on Funding from Innoven Capital

Grocery delivery startup Milkbasket has raised ₹15 crore (~US$2.167 Mn) from venture debt firm Innoven Capital, which is in addition to US$ 10.5 million (around Rs 72.59 crore) the company had raised earlier this month led by Unilever Ventures, with participation from Mayfield India, Kalaari Capital, Blume Ventures and few Indian family offices.

The funding comes within a month after the startup had last raised $10.5 million in its Series B round. Notably, in this month only, Milkbasket's ₹20-crore debt funding deal with Sachin Bansal-led BACQ fell through.

“The fresh investment positions us firmly for continued growth, and we will be investing substantially in geographical expansion, new technological advancements and hiring through the year,” Anant Goel, Co-founder and CEO, Milkbasket said in a statement.

Goel further said “this is a testament to our proven pioneering model and a solid team that is transforming everyday lives of urban households in India”.

In April, Milkbasket had announced a ₹20 crore debt funding deal from Bansal’s BACQ. However, in June, the startup then put out a press statement clarifying that "Milkbasket and (Bansal’s) BACQ have mutually decided not to proceed with the investment that was announced on April 29, 2019."

To date, Milkbasket has raised close to $26 million in equity funding from Mayfield, Beenext, Kalaari Capital, Unilever Ventures, Lenovo Capital (LCIH), Blume Ventures and few family offices.

Milkbasket had last raised $10.5 million in its Series B round this month.

With Live availability of Products, Hyperlocal Startup Mapprr brings 60-Minute Delivery

To provide comfort to the customers, Hyderabad-based Mapprr , a Hyperlocal delivery startup, has launched live availability of the products on-board for the first time in India along with quick 60 minutes delivery.

With this, Mapprr has taken a step forward towards enhancing the quality of customer experience.  Moreover, on one hand, users experience difficulties in finding products one may need, and on the other hand roaming store to store is a big disadvantage. So, with Mapprr, users can get real time product availability updates along with quick delivery service. Moreover, users can either order from Web or Mobile Application from Mapprr!

In the words of Aruna Subhakar, Founder & CEO – Mapprr, “Innovation in Hyperlocal market along with specialized services is making all the right noises. It works towards empowering small and local retailers to think smart and tie up their business to serve customers in their locality smartly adhering to the technological advancements.

He further added that the people are embracing this new dynamic marketplace, as it provides them a perfect amalgamation of the traditional and modern shopping experience.

Founded in 2015, by 25-year-old Aruna Subhakar. P , Mapprr has raised angel funding to an undisclosed amount. The company plans to raise US$7 Million and are in talks with few VC firms with Saif Partners & Kalari Capital.

60 Minutes Delivery- Delivered in a FLASH.

Mapprr
has stationed out 10+ number of delivery champions in every area summing up to
100 champions. These delivery champions would receive the orders within certain
distance from the store assigned to them. The company has tied up with stores
like Apollo, Medplus, Ratnadeep, The Body Shop, Nykaa, HealthKart, NewU,
Sangeeta Mobiles, Big C & LOT Mobiles, etc. who readily pack the products
once the order is received. The delivery champions go and pick up the orders
and deliver at the doorsteps. The fastest delivery in a busy city like
Hyderabad is 17 Minutes!

Currently available in Hyderabad, Mapprr
delivers Groceries, Medicines, Electronics, Beauty care, Fitness Supplements,
Pet Supplies, and plans to introduce Flowers, Watches, Gifting items, Mouth
Sweetener like Paan, etc. This year, the company plans
to hire 2,000 delivery fleet and 200 employees across Hyderabad and Bangalore.
This year, Mapprr plans to expand to Pune and Gurugram.

Grofers Raises $60 Mn from Softbank Vision Fund at Valuation of $425 Mn

Exactly a year after raising $62 million, in Series E funding round led by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group, online grocery delivery company Grofers has raised $60 million in fresh funding from SoftBank Vision Fund (SVF), reported Economic Times.

SoftBank Vision Fund (SVF) is a subsidiary of SoftBank that invests $100 million or more in growth stage leading companies.

Other investor - Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital  also contributed to the funding. According to the report, SoftBank invested $37.49 million in Grofers, Tiger Global pumped in $19.99 million, while Sequoia Capital injected $1.99 million in the startup.

As Grofers is banking on its FMCG private labels to drive its second phase of growth, the fresh infusion would help Grofers continue its expansion into the fast-moving consumer goods (FMGC) segment, said the report.

The latest round of funding has pushed the company's valuation to $425 million, according to estimates from business intelligence platform Paper.vc. The Series E round of last year gave the company a pre-money valuation of $238 million.

This was the first tranche of a larger $120-140 million Series F financing round that Grofers is looking for. 

Grofers has raised just over $300 million since its inception in 2013, according to its Crunchbase profile.

Grofers has been putting together a strategy to make cheaper consumer goods available to the masses. "There are logistics and storage costs involved in transporting goods from the manufacturers to the wholesaler and then to the retailer. All of that goes away in our case," founder Saurabh Kumar had told Economic Times earlier.

While Grofers is yet to attract new investors to conttribute the balance capital for Series F closure, SVF is expected to invest a further $40 million in the company.

According to regulatory filings made in Singapore, the renegotiated shareholders agreement for Grofers also caps Softbank’s maximum stake in the company to 49%. 

SVF, which has a total size of massive $100 billion, has made 54 investments. Its most recent investment was in this month when it invested whopping $1.5 billion in Beijing-based Chehaoduo, an online car trading platform that directly links individual car sellers and buyers.

O2O Grocery Platform Kirana11 Re-brands to Avenue11 to Become A Virtual Shopping Street

Kirana11, a Bengaluru-based online-to-offline (O2O) grocery platform, has changed to Avenue11 to reposition itself in the e-grocery segment. As an O2O marketing platform, Kirana11 leveraged the offline presence of local stores in an area to serve customers better while reducing the delivery cost at the same time. As Avenue11, the startup aspires to deliver a better O2O experience to consumers by temporarily shifting away from tie-ups with local stores.

“Transition from Kirana11 to Avenue11 is a strategic rebranding move that represents our shift from a hyperlocal model to an inventory based model that will also allow us to offer premium products to consumers," says Nakkyun Chong, CEO of Avenue11.

Avenue11 is an e-grocery platform which aims at redefining the grocery space in the Indian market. Founded by Korean expat and serial entrepreneur Nakkyun Chong, Avenue11 is owned by Planet11 E-commerce Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. Currently operational only in select parts of Bengaluru, Avenue 11 claims to have a monthly GMV of INR 2 Crores. As of today, the company is reported to have raised funds amounting to $9 million from various South-Asian investors.

Kirana11 to Avenue11:

As Kirana11, the company was helping kirana stores connect with the digital community. Over the last year of its operation, the company realized that not all local stores are ready to cater to online consumers today. They aren't willing to invest in technology and in improving customer service quality - keys to an excellent consumer-experience. The company has now decided to first build a strong base of online consumers before approaching select kirana stores. The strategy will help in increasing market share and strengthening Avenue11’s brand recognition among consumers and businesses alike.

Avenue11 provides doorstep delivery of a wide range of products from world-renowned brands. Kirana11’s makeover to Avenue11 will make the grocery shopping experience more exciting and hassle-free for its customers. Avenue11 has a user-friendly interface, offers a variety of payment options and allows customers to choose convenient delivery slots.

The e-grocery market in India:

The online market for grocery and food items is becoming one of the fastest-growing segments in India. As per reports, only around 2 million people in India are currently using e-grocery platforms. The compound annual growth rate is expected to have a 141% growth by the year 2020 according to a report by Morgan Stanley. Market leaders, like Big Basket, and Grofers are tapping the growing potential of the segment with their entry into Tier II and Tier III cities.

Targeting Bengaluru first, Avenue11 plans to expand its online as well as the offline presence in the food and grocery segment. Avenue11’s future strategy is to establish a unique O2O, Online-to-offline, model. The online orders will be serviced by offline partner stores which will help cut down the current logistic cost to almost half. To cater to the continuous customer demand, Avenue11 will associate only with local stores that meet key criteria such as floor space and number of stock keeping units sold.

Avenue11 is continuously innovating to enhance their customers’ shopping experience. The Avenue11 app comes with exciting features and experimental discount methods. The company is ready to operate through an omnichannel system and is ready to launch around 100 offline stores of Avenue11 in the near future. Avenue11 also plans to bring the quality and infrastructure of Korean standards to the Indian grocery shoppers.

Formerly named as Kirana11, Avenue11 is an O2O grocery platform. It has a total backing of $9 million from various angel & institutional investors from India & abroad. Avenue11 sells high-quality fresh produce and grocery to online customers, while its B2B arm supplies fruits and vegetables to merchants and institutions. Currently operational only in Bengaluru, Avenue11 already has a pool of about 60,000 customers. For more information, please visit, https://www.avenue11.com

Nakkyun Chong is the founder and CEO of Planet11 eCommerce Solutions, the parent company of Avenue11. Mr.Chong, a Korean expat, has around 28 years of global experience in e-commerce and telecom industry. He is a serial entrepreneur and has founded 8 companies with a total investment of nearly USD 1 billion. With his South Korean expertise in e-Grocery shopping, Mr. Chong aims to redefine the Indian way of grocery shopping.

Bengaluru based O2O Grocery Startup Avenue11 Raises Rs.26 Cr from Brand Capital

Avenue11, Bengaluru based O2O grocery company has raised INR 26 Cr from Brand Capital, the strategic investment arm of the Times Group. This investment by Brand Capital will be deployed for geographical expansion of the business and to increase its brand presence.

Founded by Korean expat Nakkyun Chong, Avenue11 currently serves south and east Bengaluru, with a customer base of 35,000 people, and a monthly GMV of Rs. 90 lakhs. With the current financial projections and the BCCL partnership, Avenue11 is poised to achieve a GMV of 17 crores in 2018.

So far, Mr. Chong has been largely successful in making customer experience unique while providing best in grocery and allied needs. In less than a year, he has driven a 54% increase in B2C Gross Merchandise Volume (month-over-month in 2018) and an impressive45% growth in revenue. An architect by education, Mr. Chong indeed has a grand vision to take the Indian F&G industry to the next level.

In the words of Mr. Chong, “I started this company with a vision to redefine the way Indians do their grocery shopping. The partnership with the Times Group is a step forward in that direction. Investment from such a noteworthy institution is a sign of trust and belief in our business format.”

With a lot of big players entering the grocery market, this strategic partnership with Brand Capital can be a game changer for Avenue11. This investment will have a positive impact on the strong positioning of Avenue11.

Planet11 eCommerce Solutions, the parent company of Avenue11 was founded by Nakkyun Chong in 2016 with a vision to redefine the online grocery market in India. Mr. Chong, a South Korean national has over 28 years of international experience in the eCommerce and telecommunication industry. He has worked with SK Planet and set up companies like “11 Street” in Korea which is a leading open market player along with “N11”, which is the No.1 open market platform in Turkey. He started Planet11 with a small team of people, spending hours doing market research to understand the Indian consumer behavior. Today, the team consists of 200 passionate people, all with a vision to make grocery shopping more exciting.

Avenue11’s strategy is to soon establish a unique O2O (Online-to-offline) model –where online orders are serviced by offline partner stores, thereby halving the cost of logistics.

Currently, Avenue11 sells high-quality fresh produce and grocery to online customers, while the B2B arm of the company supplies fruits and vegetables to merchants and institutions.

The e-grocery platform has raised a total funding of $8 million till date from various investors across South-East Asia.

Grofers May Raise $65 Mn Via Softbank, Tiger Global At 40% Less Valuation

Gurgaon headquartered online grocery startup Grofers is in talks to raise $60-65 million from existing investors Softbank and Tiger Global. The possible funding round could see the valuation of the Grofers drop by over 40%, reported LiveMint, citing two people aware of the development.

Grofers' early investor Sequoia Capital is not likely to participate in the upcoming round, said the report.

The startup last raised $120 million from Softbank at a valuation of about $400 million in November 2015. Prior to that it had raised $10 million from Tiger Global.

Grofers had earlier reported a whopping loss of Rs 225 crore and a revenue of Rs 14.3 crore in FY-2016 while its biggest competitor BigBasket, operated by Bengaluru-based SuperMarket Grocery Supplies Pvt Ltd. BigBasket’s revenue for same financial year had tripled to Rs 563 crore.

If the said upcoming funding round happen then too it will raise doubts about whether Grofers can survive, at least for the next year or so.

Moreover, in last one year, Grofers has explored sale talks with bigger rival BigBasket as well as Paytm, said the Live Mint report, citing a third person familiar with the matter.

Nevertheless, the proposed funding round, if happens, will give funds hungry Grofers enough money to sustain atleast for couple of years. It is to be noted that since 2016, Grofers had shut its operations in several cities, changed its business model from hyperlocal to inventory-based and had put its focus on winning in Delhi-NCR area where it is headquartered in.

According to market intelligence provider Kalagato, BigBasket held about 35% market share in online groceries, closely followed by Grofers and Amazon at 31.5% and 31.2%, respectively by March 2017.

After experiencing a hard time in 2015-2016, the online grocery market in India was reported to be only $1 billion in sales in 2017. Many hyperlocal grocery delivery startup couldn't sustain the crunch occured since 2015 and then follows a chain-reaction where startups shut down their operations one by one, starting with Sequoia backed Peppertap and then GrocShop, LocalBanya, AskMeBazaar, Lazylad and Genie, among others, also shut down.

Notably, Grofers' biggest rival Bigbasket has recently raised $300 million from Alibaba.

Last November, it was reported that Reliance Jio, a wholly owned subsidiary of India’s biggest business conglomerate Reliance Industries, is also planning to make entry into India’s online grocery market.

Prior to that, Adani Wilmar, the company that markets ‘Fortune’ brand of food products in India, also announced its plans to enter the online grocery sales business with a new e-commerce portal and app called ‘Fortune Online’.

Flipkart too has launched its grocery delivery app called Supermart, as a pilot in Bengaluru, in November 2017.

Food Brand 'Fortune' To Enter Online Grocery Sales Business With Its App 'Fortune Online'

Within few days of launching of Flipkart's online grocery service 'Supermart', which is e-commerce major's second attempt into online grocery business, Another player -- Adani Wilmar, the company that markets ‘Fortune’ brand of food products in India, is all set to enter the online grocery sales business with a new e-commerce portal and app called ‘Fortune Online’.

To build an app and online portal for same, the company has hired Ahmedabad based startup Infibeam.

Infibeam will be responsible for developing and maintaining the online and mobile platform and providing logistical support.

"Fortune Online will be an exclusive B2C (business to consumer) commerce platform which will enable customers to select and purchase of Fortune brand products by using this application for delivery at homes,” Infibeam said in a statement.

The move will make it the first big food and FMCG brand to try to build a strong and direct channel to consumers.

According a report, India’s online grocery market is expected to reach $1 Billion sales mark by the end of 2017.

Others FMCG brands like Hindustan Unilever and ITC have focused on offline retail byserving their lakhs of retail partners across the country. Their products, however, are available at only grocery portals such as Grofers.

The above development was first reported in Ultra News.

Good News for Online Grocery Business As Order Value Rises 33% YoY

The good news in the online grocery business is that people are ordering more at a time. Between January and May, the average order value rose 33% year-on-year to Rs 1,024.4, says a study by Kalagato, an India focused data analytics firm.

Barely 5% of India’s Rs 20-lakh-crore grocery market today belongs to organized players which gives both offline and online grocers enough room to grow.



The online F&G delivery market alone is estimated to be around $600 million in India and is pegged to touch $5 billion by 2020 at a CAGR of 72%. This market has been largely dominated by three key players Amazon, BigBasket and Grofers.

Currently, the margins that online grocers make are around 13% on sales but the cost of delivery remains high at Rs 80 per order. So presumably these startups begin to break even on the cost of delivery @ Rs. 620 per order(average), as per Kalagato. Analysts believe that at the current scale of 10,000-20,000 orders a day, the inventory-led model seems to have a better margin profile.



Currently, Big Basket dominates the space in India with a presence across 25 cities and an estimated revenue run rate of an annualised $300 million or roughly Rs 2,000 crore.

Amazon has plans to invest around $500 million in the food retailing segment in India and there has been similar foreign direct investment proposals by BigBasket and Grofers also. Flipkart will be making an re-entry into the online grocery market during this quarter.

In 2016, India was the fifth largest market in Asia Pacific for online grocery retailing at US$135 million. The leading country was China, followed by Japan and South Korea. Despite the channel being relatively new in India, it was amongst the top five countries in Asia Pacific in 2016 in terms of growth.

As of now, the opportunity for organised grocery retailers is pegged at close to Rs 3.5 lakh crore based on demands assessed for urban metropolitan towns and cities with a population of more than one million.

Flipkart To Start Grocery Business Again

Locked in an intense battle with Amazon, homegrown e-commerce major Flipkart is looking at re-entering the grocery segment that accounts for a significant portion of India's retail industry.

"Yes we will get into grocery... 80 per cent of units bought in India is grocery... $400-600 million is grocery market, so we have to get into it," Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said at a TiE event in New Delhi.


This will be the second attempt into the grocery segment for the Bengaluru-based firm.

In October 2015, Flipkart had launched a separate groceries ordering app called Nearby for delivering fruits, vegetables, soaps and other staples from supermarkets to customers.

However, following a weak response, Flipkart closed the business a few months later.

Flipkart's rival Amazon India has launched its grocery ordering app, Amazon Now last year. The app is now available in four Indian cities including Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR and Mumbai. Amazon plans to invest around $500 million in e-retail of food products in India.

"There are three models for grocery. One is a daily purchase, the average selling price (ASP) there is very low at about Rs 300-400. Then there is a weekly business model, which is a bit higher. Thankfully, 60-70 per cent of the market is the third one which is monthly basket where average is about over Rs 2,000. With those, it's a very sustainable business," he said.

The online food and grocery segment also includes players like BigBasket and Grofers, who are also looking at expanding their operations.

As per industry reports, the online F&G delivery market is estimated to be around $600 million in India and pegged to touch $5 billion by 2020.

Talking about acquisitions, Krishnamurthy said the company is looking at targets for enhancing capabilities.

"We will look at M&A, size doesn't matter. What we are looking at is capabilities. A lot of business we acquired over time were actually small," he said citing examples of PhonePe and Jeeves.

Flipkart, which has made big-ticket acquisitions like Myntra and Jabong as well, is believed to be in fray for acquiring its smaller rival Snapdeal.

Flipkart To Shut Down 'Nearby, Its Grocery Delivery App

The online grocery delivery sector has been seeing a lot of new entrants into the market, from established startups expanding into this field to new ventures being launched. Flipkart made one such attempt about 6 months ago with their latest foray into this area, Nearby. Other major competitors in the market are Peppertap, Grofers and Amazon, which also launched a similar service.

Nearby was launched 6 months ago by Flipkart. It was operational only in certain regions of Bangalore between 10-8 PM. They claimed to deliver the order within an hour of it being placed. But unfortunately this did not work out as they had expected. They faced a lot of problems the major ones being lack of demand and customers, they have finally decided to put this little "experiment" to rest. 

Incidentally, Flipkart is not the only one to face such problems, giants like Grofers and Peppertap also had to withdraw from a number of cities, citing similar reasons. Grofers had to shut its operation in 9 cities and Peppertap closed down in 6 cities. Despite having raised a decent amount in funding, startups in this area still seem to be struggling and haven't been able to put down some solid roots in the ground.

Flipkart has recently seen a change in its reign. There is a speculation that this was a move by the new set of people at the top floor. Binny Bansal was recently made the CEO of the company replacing Sachin Bansal.

Notably, Flipkart saw two of its executives Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori leave the company to start with their own venture. With its leash in the hands of a new team Flipkart is on its way to restructuring which might lead to an eventual IPO in the next few years. Flipkart will be focusing more on making it delivery better in various cities of the country. They plan to deliver a major chunk of their orders through their own logistics and are working towards the same.

 

Flipkart To Shut Down 'Nearby, Its Grocery Delivery App

The online grocery delivery sector has been seeing a lot of new entrants into the market, from established startups expanding into this field to new ventures being launched. Flipkart made one such attempt about 6 months ago with their latest foray into this area, Nearby. Other major competitors in the market are Peppertap, Grofers and Amazon, which also launched a similar service.

Nearby was launched 6 months ago by Flipkart. It was operational only in certain regions of Bangalore between 10-8 PM. They claimed to deliver the order within an hour of it being placed. But unfortunately this did not work out as they had expected. They faced a lot of problems the major ones being lack of demand and customers, they have finally decided to put this little "experiment" to rest. 

Incidentally, Flipkart is not the only one to face such problems, giants like Grofers and Peppertap also had to withdraw from a number of cities, citing similar reasons. Grofers had to shut its operation in 9 cities and Peppertap closed down in 6 cities. Despite having raised a decent amount in funding, startups in this area still seem to be struggling and haven't been able to put down some solid roots in the ground.

Flipkart has recently seen a change in its reign. There is a speculation that this was a move by the new set of people at the top floor. Binny Bansal was recently made the CEO of the company replacing Sachin Bansal.

Notably, Flipkart saw two of its executives Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori leave the company to start with their own venture. With its leash in the hands of a new team Flipkart is on its way to restructuring which might lead to an eventual IPO in the next few years. Flipkart will be focusing more on making it delivery better in various cities of the country. They plan to deliver a major chunk of their orders through their own logistics and are working towards the same.

 

This Online Kirana Startup Is First To Cater Small Town of Andhra Pradesh

Saipraveen Karamsetty, an engineering graduate based out of Chilakaluripet - a small town in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, was bored of the regular desk job and wanted to something different. His yearning for excitement led him to launch his startup Happybuy.

Notably, Chilakaluripet is a small town and so small that obviously no big players in online grocery & food delivery segment are putting their hands in it and this what where a mediocre startup like HappyBuy comes in to tap what is untapped and of course risky as well.

THE IDEA

Saipraveen had once discussed this problem with a bank employee while he was getting some work done. Days later this struck him again and he seriously started working towards the idea. In his quest to find something beyond his desk work he struck gold in the form of his startup Happybuy. They built a platform connecting the customer and the retailers. It is an online platform catering to your needs. They sell all daily need products like vegetables, fruits, branded products, restaurant food and much more. They have recently introduced handy services like AC, fridge, washing machine at the customer's location as well.

MEET THE MAKERS

HappyBuy was founded by three people from the same family, a mother and two sons. They set out to realize their dreams together.
Ratna kumari : She is the founder's mother. She is the supporter and the backbone of the entire startup. This venture would not have been possible without her.
Saipraveen karamsetty(founder) : He is the founder of the company. He takes care of each and every detail of the website, which involve maintaining the website and any technical issue that might occur. Besides that he is also responsible for observing the market and the competition out there, and taking feedback from customers and also works on order management.
Hemanth karamasetty: He looks after the delivery management system, customer engagement and marketing, and product management.

Apart from this, they have recruited an employ for a door to door campaigning and a few other activities as a helper.

USP

They are the only online service providers in their local market. Unlike other platforms that only provide one service, they have created a common platform that covers all daily needs of a person. Also, they provide the best quality of service at competitive prices. They have set criteria on the basis of which they select their sellers. They select their sellers on a basis of quality, price, service, and reputation. They make sure that the sellers they register on their website are reliable and trustworthy.

TARGET MARKET

They aim to solve the problems working people face with a simple solution. They want to provide high quality and good service at a competitive price.

FUNDING

They are currently in bootstrapped stage. They started off with mere 8000 INR, as the founder claims.

THE JOURNEY TILL NOW

Their website is serving to about one lakh customers as of now. They have more than 100 registered users and on an average, they get 5 to 6 orders on a daily basis. The good part is they have repeat customers, their customers stick to them and keep coming back. They get their customers to trust them by providing the best possible services.

THE ROAD AHEAD

Their plans for the future are very systematic. Their first plan of action is to expand to 10 other areas in next 4 months. Apart from this, they are also working on introducing more services on their websites like Auto rickshaw booking. If everything goes by the plan, they might break even within 1 year. Their long term plan is boosting technology and infrastructure too.

This Online Kirana Startup Is First To Cater Small Town of Andhra Pradesh

Saipraveen Karamsetty, an engineering graduate based out of Chilakaluripet - a small town in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, was bored of the regular desk job and wanted to something different. His yearning for excitement led him to launch his startup Happybuy.

Notably, Chilakaluripet is a small town and so small that obviously no big players in online grocery & food delivery segment are putting their hands in it and this what where a mediocre startup like HappyBuy comes in to tap what is untapped and of course risky as well.

THE IDEA

Saipraveen had once discussed this problem with a bank employee while he was getting some work done. Days later this struck him again and he seriously started working towards the idea. In his quest to find something beyond his desk work he struck gold in the form of his startup Happybuy. They built a platform connecting the customer and the retailers. It is an online platform catering to your needs. They sell all daily need products like vegetables, fruits, branded products, restaurant food and much more. They have recently introduced handy services like AC, fridge, washing machine at the customer's location as well.

MEET THE MAKERS

HappyBuy was founded by three people from the same family, a mother and two sons. They set out to realize their dreams together.
Ratna kumari : She is the founder's mother. She is the supporter and the backbone of the entire startup. This venture would not have been possible without her.
Saipraveen karamsetty(founder) : He is the founder of the company. He takes care of each and every detail of the website, which involve maintaining the website and any technical issue that might occur. Besides that he is also responsible for observing the market and the competition out there, and taking feedback from customers and also works on order management.
Hemanth karamasetty: He looks after the delivery management system, customer engagement and marketing, and product management.

Apart from this, they have recruited an employ for a door to door campaigning and a few other activities as a helper.

USP

They are the only online service providers in their local market. Unlike other platforms that only provide one service, they have created a common platform that covers all daily needs of a person. Also, they provide the best quality of service at competitive prices. They have set criteria on the basis of which they select their sellers. They select their sellers on a basis of quality, price, service, and reputation. They make sure that the sellers they register on their website are reliable and trustworthy.

TARGET MARKET

They aim to solve the problems working people face with a simple solution. They want to provide high quality and good service at a competitive price.

FUNDING

They are currently in bootstrapped stage. They started off with mere 8000 INR, as the founder claims.

THE JOURNEY TILL NOW

Their website is serving to about one lakh customers as of now. They have more than 100 registered users and on an average, they get 5 to 6 orders on a daily basis. The good part is they have repeat customers, their customers stick to them and keep coming back. They get their customers to trust them by providing the best possible services.

THE ROAD AHEAD

Their plans for the future are very systematic. Their first plan of action is to expand to 10 other areas in next 4 months. Apart from this, they are also working on introducing more services on their websites like Auto rickshaw booking. If everything goes by the plan, they might break even within 1 year. Their long term plan is boosting technology and infrastructure too.

Gurgaon-Based PepperTap Raises Funding From Sequoia Capital

PepperTap, a mobile first hyper-local grocery delivery service based out of Gurgaon has secured an undisclosed amount in seed round from Sequoia Capital. PepperTap has already raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from a US based bluechip VC fund and now the startup is in advance stages to close its next round of funding which is around $10 million.

On February 12, 2015, PepperTap has launched its mobile application on iOS platform as it is already available on Android platform. The service of PepperTap is currently available only in Gurgaon.

PepperTap have range of 5000 unique products including grocery & staples, fruits & vegetables and household goods with the promise of delivery within 2 hours or at customer’s preferred time slots. The company's business model is unique to India and similar to Instacart in the US.

PepperTap is a location based platform that allows customers to shop from a catalog that is specific to their
location. It is committed to make daily life easy and hassle­free for customers by offering them timely service, just when they need it.

Founded in November 2014 by Navneet Singh and Milind Sharma, who were previsouly employed with another startup from New Delhi - Delhivery, thereafter both established NuvoEx, India's premier e-commerce focussed reverse logistics company. Initially when they started PepperTap it was operating from a 200 sq. ft. office.

PepperTap is the fastest on-demand grocery delivery service in India that provides convenience, on-time and on-demand delivery to its customers. PepperTap connects directly with the local vendors and supermarkets to provide
necessities to the masses. A smart way to save time and fuel.

SundayKart Allows You To Shop From Your Local Grocery Store 'Online'

SundayKart is an online e-commerce platform, which connects both customers and local store owners. Different from other online grocery shops Sundaykart allows you to connect with your local grocery store, order and shop from them only. Moreover customers doesn't need to pay to place an order, he/she can pay the ordered amount after getting his/her delivery by the favorite store.

SundayKart is providing the convenience to the customers to buy from his local trusted and favorite store. And allowing store owners to be online and serve their loyal customers without building or maintaining their own websites.

SundayKart provides an online catalogue in different languages as per user preferences for grocery stores, restaurants, sweets shops, food courts, bakeries etc. where shop owners can register in SundayKart.com and sell their goods/items to their local customers. The shop owner will deliver the order depends up on customer convenient time. Customers can buy all types of food items, groceries, sweets, bakery items etc. from stores through SundayKart.com.

Currently SundayKart exists in AndharaPradesh, Telangana, Chattisgarh, and Tamilnadu ony.




SundayKart developed by A L Technologies Private Ltd., a self-funded startup which has started on August'2013, and took 8 months time to develop this project. The startup launched SundayKart.com on August'2014. The startup based out of Narasaraopet, Andhra Pradesh, has been founded by Satya Ponnuru, who have worked in various companies like Cisco, Qualcom, Intel, Intuit and Fusion IO. Satya co-founded Sundaykart with Sai Kalyan.

SundayKart.com is also developing mobile application for smart phone users to make shopping easy. Mobile app will be available from the month of January 2015. Customers can download this mobile app from their play stores.