B2B Platform Pumpkart Raises Funding from CII Chairman for Startups and Entrepreneurship

Dr. Dinesh Dua, North India Chairman for Startups & Entrepreneurship for CII has made an angel investment in Pumpkart, an online B2B platform which works on Brand to retailer model.

Founded in 2014 by Mr. KS Bhatia, the startup which began as B2C company selling Pumps online pivoted earlier this year into a B2B platform. It has added multiple other categories to serve its clientele of retailers across Punjab, Haryana and Himachal.

Dr. Dua currently, currently CEO of Nectar Life Sciences Ltd and Chairman of Pharmexcil, Ministry of Commerce, GOI made his first Angel investment in a startup since he became the Chairman of Startups and Entrepreneurship for CII.

Dr. Dua an alumnus of IIM Ahemdabad has spent substantial time understanding Pumpkart’s journey and its business model. Impressed by the pace at which Pumpkart has been able to execute and build brands like VTOP in the Smart LED space, he believes that under the leadership of Dr. KS Bhatia, Pumpkart has a great team to deliver.

The Punjab’s government support to startups like Pumpkart and others has really given a boost to the state’s startup ecosystem. Punjab Government is aggressively supporting Pumpkart to bring the MSMEs of Punjab onboard the Pumpkart’s platform. Dr. Dua believes that this is not only a great milestone for Pumpkart but would also give a great boost to the MSMEs of Punjab by giving them an easy access to the domestic market. He also says that this one step was probably the tipping point which led him to invest in Pumpkart.

Pumpkart which is a boot strapped organization is currently scaling and is spreading its wings to states beyond Punjab. Dr. Dua specifically mentions this as the strength of a startup as a boot strapped organization is more careful with an external investment.

Dr. KS Bhatia, Co-founder and CEO of Pumpkart announced that Dr. Dua shall be joining the board of Pumpkart and under his mentorship, Pumpkart would scale new heights.

Dr. Dinesh Dua, through the CII platform also encouraged other high net worth individuals and corporates to identify innovative and fast growing startups like Pumpkart from the state and invest in them. This single step can provide a boost not only to the startup Ecosystem but also to the state’s economy.

Dr. Ritesh Malik, Founder of Innov8 & Project Guerrilla, Invests in Pumpkart

Dr. Ritesh Malik, founder of Innov8 & Project Guerrilla has invested an undisclosed amount in Chandigarh based startup ‘Pumpkart’.

Pumpkart is India’s largest online niche platform for selling water pumps. started by KS Bhatia in 2014. Water pump industry is growing at a 15% annual rate & bound for growth as water scarcity hits developing nations like India.

Mr. Bhatia has the vision to create the less known & non-exciting pump industry into a technology led high moving consumer good. With his vision to sell pumps by educating customers & creating a deeply penetrated distribution network, Bhatia has created an apple style store in Chandigarh which sells pumps of various brands including his own.

When asked about the news, Mr. Bhatia says, “It's great to have Dr. Ritesh Malik on board in our vision to solve one of India’s most challenging problems, water. India is exporting pumps to over 100 countries in the world but still, the domestic market is highly fragmented. Our focus is not to deviate from our core which is the pump industry & revolutionize the way pumps are being bought & used in the country”.

Pumpkart is also experimenting with Pumpkart Services, a platform to service the pumps bought from the platform. Bhatia mentions that after sales service in the pump industry is horrendous, & creating a technology platform for farmers etc. which are the largest consumers of water pumps helps them keep their log of inefficient pumps as low as possible in turn improving the outcome of their crops.

Dr Ritesh Malik said “Mr. Bhatia has an industry experience of over 17 years & his passion for changing a niche vertical like water pumps is commendable. I was moved by the sheer passion & focus he has for a non-glamorous product like water pumps. He’s one of the most determined entrepreneurs I have met in my life”.

Earlier this year, Sundar Pichai mentioned ‘Pumpkarts’ example in his visit to India, & appreciated Bhatia for his vision of converting a traditionally run offline business into an online business.

Pumpkart.com Launches First O2O Hybrid Store in Chandigarh, Plans To Open 100 Stores Within Next Four Years

Chandigarh-based Pumpkart, which claims to be the world's first of its kind online water pump store, launched its first O2O(Online to Offline) Hybrid store in Chandigarh. The company has taken this decision after the great success in online business. Now the company is focusing to catch up the offline market in a great way by foraying into physical retail space like PepperFry, Lenskart and urbanladder.com etc.. The company has opened its first O2O hybrid store at Plot No. 449, Industrial Area, Phase II, Chandigarh- - 160002 on 2 Feb 2016 in the presence of Mr. Anirudh Tiwari, IAS, Principal Secretary, Industries & Commerce, Punjab as a chief guest. Many industrialists and dignitaries from Punjab and Chandigarh administration were present at this occasion.

"O2O stores will help us to provide our customers a touch and-feel experience of products and enhance credibility with the delivery of amazing services and FREE pump installation through our attached repairininndia.com workshop at their door. With the opening of this store, we also start offering FREE Installation service for the tri-city customers," says K S Bhatia, Founder, Pumpkart.com. "We aim to open 100 stores pan India within the next four years pan India so that customers can get everything for pumping applications in a single platform," Bhatia adds. He feels confident that the store will help pumpkart.com in serving its customers, particularly in Tier I and Tier II cities.



The store will display an extensive range of pumps including self priming monoblock pumps, pressure booster pumps, agricultural pumps, drainage pumps, commercial pumps and many other related items from all top notch brands to offer touch and feel opportunity for its customers who will come into the store. To offer maximum benefits, the company will include special low pricing and free installation service through repairinindia.com after sales on every pump purchased from its stores.

In Addition, recently pumpkart.com has announced a strategic partnership deal with e-Governance Services Limited, an initiative of the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeiTY) under the Government of India. As per this tie-up, Pumpkart will deliver water pumps through Common Service Centers (CSC), a kiosk which are run Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) with a computer and internet accessibility nation wide.

Pumpkart is a one-stop destination for all categories of pumps for agricultural, residential or commercial purposes. It is operated business as open marketplace and offering a single platform to all manufacturers, dealers and customers for buying and selling pumps. It has tied up with more than 100 brands and 500 manufacturers, dealers, distributors all across the country to make state-of-the-art pumping solution available to its customers at reasonable rates.

Pumpkart.com was launched by K S Bhatia, CEO & Founder, Pumpkart.com in June 2014. Headquartered in Chandigarh, it operates business online and delivers products pan India. For incredible business idea, the company was praised by the Google CEO, Sundar Pichai during a speech at the 'Digital India' dinner for PM Narendra Modi and the top CEOs. To boost sales by attracting direct customers, the company is joining the club of e-retailer who have an offline presence to offer touch and feel element to the customers.

To make shopping an unforgettable experience, it provides its customers a simple and easy single-step checkout process, multiple payment options, including online payment, COD and EMIs.

Pumpkart.com Launches First O2O Hybrid Store in Chandigarh, Plans To Open 100 Stores Within Next Four Years

Chandigarh-based Pumpkart, which claims to be the world's first of its kind online water pump store, launched its first O2O(Online to Offline) Hybrid store in Chandigarh. The company has taken this decision after the great success in online business. Now the company is focusing to catch up the offline market in a great way by foraying into physical retail space like PepperFry, Lenskart and urbanladder.com etc.. The company has opened its first O2O hybrid store at Plot No. 449, Industrial Area, Phase II, Chandigarh- - 160002 on 2 Feb 2016 in the presence of Mr. Anirudh Tiwari, IAS, Principal Secretary, Industries & Commerce, Punjab as a chief guest. Many industrialists and dignitaries from Punjab and Chandigarh administration were present at this occasion.

"O2O stores will help us to provide our customers a touch and-feel experience of products and enhance credibility with the delivery of amazing services and FREE pump installation through our attached repairininndia.com workshop at their door. With the opening of this store, we also start offering FREE Installation service for the tri-city customers," says K S Bhatia, Founder, Pumpkart.com. "We aim to open 100 stores pan India within the next four years pan India so that customers can get everything for pumping applications in a single platform," Bhatia adds. He feels confident that the store will help pumpkart.com in serving its customers, particularly in Tier I and Tier II cities.



The store will display an extensive range of pumps including self priming monoblock pumps, pressure booster pumps, agricultural pumps, drainage pumps, commercial pumps and many other related items from all top notch brands to offer touch and feel opportunity for its customers who will come into the store. To offer maximum benefits, the company will include special low pricing and free installation service through repairinindia.com after sales on every pump purchased from its stores.

In Addition, recently pumpkart.com has announced a strategic partnership deal with e-Governance Services Limited, an initiative of the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeiTY) under the Government of India. As per this tie-up, Pumpkart will deliver water pumps through Common Service Centers (CSC), a kiosk which are run Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) with a computer and internet accessibility nation wide.

Pumpkart is a one-stop destination for all categories of pumps for agricultural, residential or commercial purposes. It is operated business as open marketplace and offering a single platform to all manufacturers, dealers and customers for buying and selling pumps. It has tied up with more than 100 brands and 500 manufacturers, dealers, distributors all across the country to make state-of-the-art pumping solution available to its customers at reasonable rates.

Pumpkart.com was launched by K S Bhatia, CEO & Founder, Pumpkart.com in June 2014. Headquartered in Chandigarh, it operates business online and delivers products pan India. For incredible business idea, the company was praised by the Google CEO, Sundar Pichai during a speech at the 'Digital India' dinner for PM Narendra Modi and the top CEOs. To boost sales by attracting direct customers, the company is joining the club of e-retailer who have an offline presence to offer touch and feel element to the customers.

To make shopping an unforgettable experience, it provides its customers a simple and easy single-step checkout process, multiple payment options, including online payment, COD and EMIs.

Meet Pumpkart, A Chandigarh-Based Startup Praised by Google's Sundar Pichai

These days you can buy almost anything online from stationary to your furniture, so why to stop at just that. Here we have Mr. K S Bhatia who took the e-commerce platform to the next level. The Chandigarh-based startup Pumpkart and as the name suggests is in the business of selling all kinds of pumps online. With this venture, Mr. Bhatia has revolutionised the industry.

Notably, Pumpkart is India's largest online megastore for agricultural and domestic pumps.

This innovative e-commerce website got Google CEO Sundar Pichai praise recently during the Digital India Submit in Sillicon Valley. Google India has selected Pumpkart.com as a Regional SME Hero from 25 SMEs national finalists.



The startup has tied up with the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), Govt. of India, to deliver high quality water pumps at cost effective prices to the farmers and others remotely through a wide extended CSCs network. It is also coming up with O2O offline stores very soon with the opening of first one within this month in Chandigarh.

THE IDEA

Pumpkart.com was launched by K S Bhatia in June 2014. It was launched with the mission of making the Indian water pump industry more organized and structured. Having had an experience of over 18 years in the same industry, Mr. Bhatia knew the full potential of a venture like this. He was fully aware that this was an untouched territory which could be taken advantage of.  Like any other e-commerce website they cater to the needs of their customers which in this case happens to be pumps. They don't just deliver products but they also provide free installation services along with technical support.

This entire idea was not just his doing, credits must go to his son as well. This whole thing started when his 14-year-old son, who is quite the techie gifted his father the domain name.

MEET THE MAKERS

A chemical engineer by background, he worked with few manufacturing companies before he struck oil in the form of Pumpkart. He has worked in this industry for almost 18 years and has a lot of experience in this field. He is a portfolio entrepreneur who holds more than one business to reform the Indian water management solutions industry.

USP

Pumpkart is a one of its kind company that caters to this sector, this itself sets it apart from the rest.  They do have some other features that lure customers to Pumpkart rather than going through a plumber or going through the hassle of going through the local shop.

• They provide free installation in rural and urban areas.


• They have a lot of variety, from small house pumps to agricultural pumps, you name it and it will be there.


• They have a well-informed support staff on board that help out the customers in making the right choice based on their needs.


• They also offer EMI options to ensure easy availability of products to farmers

DODGING THE COMPETITION

This sector has been quite unorganized and is mostly dominated by individual manufacturers and retailers. With the launch of Pumpkart in 2014, it aims to bring stability to the sector. There is no other player in the market that can match up to Pumpkart in this field. In a short span of time, they have managed to make associations with 100 plus brands and more than 500 total vendors, including dealers and distributors. Being the first in this field, this does give them an edge over any future players as well.

FUNDING

They are currently in talks with a number of investors right now regarding the same. Currently, Pumpkart is boostrapped and running on personal money of the founder.

THE JOURNEY TILL NOW

They journey of Pumpkart till now has been extremely good and they have been showered with awards for doing so well.

• It was named in list of the top 20 E-Retailers 2014 in India Award from Times of India


• Google India has selected Pumpkart.com as a Regional SME Hero from 25 SMEs national finalists.

They are based out of Chandigarh and have a team of experts handling their different departments like technical support, online promotions, customer support, logistics and business development. In the last one year, the company has really grown with over 10,000 happy customers so far, generating a revenue of over 60-65 lakhs per month. They seem to be doing really well.

THE ROAD AHEAD

They have plans to open their very own stores in various cities across the nation starting with Chandigarh this Jan. This is their O2O (online to offline commerce) strategy to increase their customer base. They plan to open 100 display stores in next four years with service centres by the name of www.repairingindia.com.

Apart from this, they are also planning to launch an app soon to provide a better experience to their users.

They are also focusing on CSCs and VLEs to cater rural customers online and deliver products and services at their door for free. They have made deals with the e-Governance Services Limited, an initiative of the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeiTY) under the IT ministry of India. This has been done to extend their reach to the rural markets which are a huge target market. This association will help them deliver water pumps through Common Service Centers (CSC), a kiosk with a computer and internet accessibility nationwide.

Meet Pumpkart, A Chandigarh-Based Startup Praised by Google's Sundar Pichai

These days you can buy almost anything online from stationary to your furniture, so why to stop at just that. Here we have Mr. K S Bhatia who took the e-commerce platform to the next level. The Chandigarh-based startup Pumpkart and as the name suggests is in the business of selling all kinds of pumps online. With this venture, Mr. Bhatia has revolutionised the industry.

Notably, Pumpkart is India's largest online megastore for agricultural and domestic pumps.

This innovative e-commerce website got Google CEO Sundar Pichai praise recently during the Digital India Submit in Sillicon Valley. Google India has selected Pumpkart.com as a Regional SME Hero from 25 SMEs national finalists.



The startup has tied up with the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), Govt. of India, to deliver high quality water pumps at cost effective prices to the farmers and others remotely through a wide extended CSCs network. It is also coming up with O2O offline stores very soon with the opening of first one within this month in Chandigarh.

THE IDEA

Pumpkart.com was launched by K S Bhatia in June 2014. It was launched with the mission of making the Indian water pump industry more organized and structured. Having had an experience of over 18 years in the same industry, Mr. Bhatia knew the full potential of a venture like this. He was fully aware that this was an untouched territory which could be taken advantage of.  Like any other e-commerce website they cater to the needs of their customers which in this case happens to be pumps. They don't just deliver products but they also provide free installation services along with technical support.

This entire idea was not just his doing, credits must go to his son as well. This whole thing started when his 14-year-old son, who is quite the techie gifted his father the domain name.

MEET THE MAKERS

A chemical engineer by background, he worked with few manufacturing companies before he struck oil in the form of Pumpkart. He has worked in this industry for almost 18 years and has a lot of experience in this field. He is a portfolio entrepreneur who holds more than one business to reform the Indian water management solutions industry.

USP

Pumpkart is a one of its kind company that caters to this sector, this itself sets it apart from the rest.  They do have some other features that lure customers to Pumpkart rather than going through a plumber or going through the hassle of going through the local shop.

• They provide free installation in rural and urban areas.


• They have a lot of variety, from small house pumps to agricultural pumps, you name it and it will be there.


• They have a well-informed support staff on board that help out the customers in making the right choice based on their needs.


• They also offer EMI options to ensure easy availability of products to farmers

DODGING THE COMPETITION

This sector has been quite unorganized and is mostly dominated by individual manufacturers and retailers. With the launch of Pumpkart in 2014, it aims to bring stability to the sector. There is no other player in the market that can match up to Pumpkart in this field. In a short span of time, they have managed to make associations with 100 plus brands and more than 500 total vendors, including dealers and distributors. Being the first in this field, this does give them an edge over any future players as well.

FUNDING

They are currently in talks with a number of investors right now regarding the same. Currently, Pumpkart is boostrapped and running on personal money of the founder.

THE JOURNEY TILL NOW

They journey of Pumpkart till now has been extremely good and they have been showered with awards for doing so well.

• It was named in list of the top 20 E-Retailers 2014 in India Award from Times of India


• Google India has selected Pumpkart.com as a Regional SME Hero from 25 SMEs national finalists.

They are based out of Chandigarh and have a team of experts handling their different departments like technical support, online promotions, customer support, logistics and business development. In the last one year, the company has really grown with over 10,000 happy customers so far, generating a revenue of over 60-65 lakhs per month. They seem to be doing really well.

THE ROAD AHEAD

They have plans to open their very own stores in various cities across the nation starting with Chandigarh this Jan. This is their O2O (online to offline commerce) strategy to increase their customer base. They plan to open 100 display stores in next four years with service centres by the name of www.repairingindia.com.

Apart from this, they are also planning to launch an app soon to provide a better experience to their users.

They are also focusing on CSCs and VLEs to cater rural customers online and deliver products and services at their door for free. They have made deals with the e-Governance Services Limited, an initiative of the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeiTY) under the IT ministry of India. This has been done to extend their reach to the rural markets which are a huge target market. This association will help them deliver water pumps through Common Service Centers (CSC), a kiosk with a computer and internet accessibility nationwide.