Online Cross-Border Wholesale Platform Lal10 Raises $5.5 Mn in its Pre-Series A led by Yuj Ventures (Xander Group) and Beyond Capital Ventures

The round also included participation from Spiral Ventures, Singularity Ventures, Blacksoil, Panthera Peak, Asymmetry Ventures and Pegasus FinInvest

The startup has over 2200 verified MSMEs and digitized 45,000 products from Tier II, III and IV belts in India

With a goal to digitise the Indian creative MSMEs industry, Lal10, is an wholesale cross-border platform, has raised $5.5M in a Pre-Series A funding round led by Yuj Ventures (Xander Group) and Beyond Capital Ventures. The fresh capital will be used to expand aggressively in the global markets across the US, Japan and Middle East. It will expand its tech-based supply chain solutions to buyers and technology innovations for MSMEs, empowering them with design to digitisation to the global wholesale discovery. Additionally, looking at the potential of the MSME industry, Lal10 aims to reach a $100 million run rate in the next 12 months focusing on the home textile category.

The round also saw participation from Spiral Ventures, Singularity Ventures, Asymmetry Ventures, Blacksoil, Panthera Peak, and Pegasus FinInvest. Prominent angels such as Nitish Mittersain of Nazara Technologies, Bikky Khosla from TradeIndia, Ashok Gudibandla from Notion and Kishore Ganji of Astir Ventures, Suprajit FO, Bob Noyen, Reasoned Ventures, UK based Insaan Group, and Partners at Mckinsey participated in the round.

Today, Lal10 is India's largest cross-border wholesale platform for Indian creative MSMEs in craft-based supply. It has built a niche supply base of over 2200 verified MSMEs and 45,000 digitized products from Tier II, III and IV belts in India. The startup is a tech-enabled full-stack platform for craft-based MSMEs with over 2200 craft MSMEs using the application to digitize their inventories for global wholesale, get skilled with contemporary design trends, and source raw materials directly from factories.

Maneet Gohil, CEO & Co-founder of Lal10, said, “Lal10 is building technologies for the next craft revolution. As a brand, we intend to digitize the entire craft industry in India and prepare them for global wholesale. India's $3.5B export GDP in creative produce comes from a handful of production hubs like Panipat, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Jaipur, and Tirupur. While India has a production appetite of over $160B with tier III & IV production hubs like Bhagalpur, Pochampally, Maheshwar, and Amroha, which are yet to come on the global map. We are making Bhagalpur the next Panipat by enabling contemporary designs, technology innovations for a transparent supply chain, and digitizing inventories of sustainable products for discovery to global buyers wholesale. We also want to thank all investors for placing their trust in us, our mission, and for joining hands to make Lal10 help 1.2mn Indian craft-based MSMEs go global.”

Sid Yog, Founderof Xander Group said, "By building a cross-border platform for empowering Indian craft based MSMEs across the smaller towns and cities of India, Lal10 is creating a systemic change with their efficient tech-enabled supply chain. Yuj is pleased to support their vision of creating value for unsung artisans while unleashing a billion-dollar opportunity in global markets."

Sujit Kunte, Head of India, Spiral Ventures, said, “Lal10 has built a formidable supply base of creative MSMEs in tier II, III and IV cities, resulting in unique designs and high-quality products. They have also honed delivery in smaller lots with shorter times,” said Sujit Kunte, Head of India, Spiral Ventures. “We are looking forward to supporting them in their Japan market entry.”

The B2B rural-sourcing market is large, highly disorganised, and geographically disaggregated. Still, with the advent of inexpensive, ubiquitous internet and smartphones across even the rural corners of India, this sector is ripe for disruption. There is an untapped opportunity to leverage technology and software applications to leapfrog the challenges and build a robust global supply chain connecting SMEs with retailers in India and overseas.

Founded in 2017 by Maneet Gohil, Sanchit Govil, and Albin Jose, Noida-based Lal10 is an online cross-border wholesale platform for grassroot MSMEs in India. Since its inception, it has been creating a maker’s revolution by digitizing small and medium rural manufacturers to take their sustainable products to global markets. Additionally, in March 2020, Lal10 raised a seed round from Sorenson Impact from Utah and a few angel investors. The round helped MSMEs connect with large retail brands across India, US, Ireland and Middle-East. The name Lal10, pronounced as Lalten (meaning lantern), is derived from the company’s mission to “bring light in the lives of the artisans”.

With CoVID layers of mediators traditionally involved in the trade have vanished. This has created an immediate need to digitize these rural SMEs across the country and connect them to retailers for the growing demand for sustainable goods globally. The B2B rural-sourcing market is large, highly disorganized, and geographically disaggregated. Still, with the advent of inexpensive, ubiquitous internet & smartphones across even the rural corners of India, this sector is ripe for disruption. There is an untapped opportunity to leverage technology & software applications to leapfrog the challenges and build a robust global supply chain connecting SMEs with retailers in India and overseas.

EdTech Startup Eupheus Learning Raises $4.3 Mn in Funding led by Yuj Ventures

New Delhi-based Ed-tech company, Eupheus Learning (Eupheus), announced today that it had raised USD 4.3 million (INR 30 crore) in its Series A round via a mix of equity and venture debt. Yuj Ventures, the early-stage investment platform backed by the family office of Sid Yog, founding partner of global investment firm, The Xander Group Inc., led the round. Mumbai-based venture capital firm Sixth Sense Ventures, an existing investor in Eupheus, also participated.

Perhaps the only company in the Ed-tech space to turn profitable within 21 months of operations, Eupheus posted revenues of INR 60 crores in FY 18-19. Eupheus will use the new capital to increase nationwide presence, develop new product offerings, and expand the team. With this fund raise, Eupheus will also commence operations in the Middle East and drive international expansion in other markets.

In the first half of FY 19-20, Eupheus recorded a 3x increase in revenues compared to the same period last year. It also increased its geographical presence to 70 cities in India from 52 earlier, expanded its team to 175 personnel, and forged new alliances with 4 international education players, taking its roster of global partnerships to 17.

“The online education segment in India is primed for massive growth, as the next generation of children enter classrooms across the country. By leveraging the power of technology, we’ve been able to bridge the divide between in-school and at-home learning and offer a seamless, end-to-end learning experience. With this infusion of capital, we have the opportunity to expand our presence across India and into neighbouring nations, and showcase the benefits of our unique offering to an ever-larger audience,” said Mr. Sarvesh Shrivastava, Managing Director of Eupheus Learning.

Founded in 2017 by Sarvesh Shrivastava, Ved Prakash Khatri, and Amit Kapoor, Eupheus seeks to close the gap between classroom and home learning through carefully curated, technology-led, subscription based learning solutions to schools. Operating across the Pre-K to Class XII segments, Eupheus offers products in all subject areas and packages both the curriculum, and homework tracking tools in phygital form.

“The Indian education space is being disrupted and Eupheus, with its superior content, enabled through careful curation and exclusive partnerships with the most innovative education companies globally, is providing best of in-class and home learning solutions to students. We are impressed by the founders’ experience, previous track record of developing cutting edge content at Britannica, and the manner in which they have scaled Eupheus in a profitable manner in the last two years in a competitive market. Yuj Ventures is pleased to support Sarvesh, Ved and Amit in their journey as entrepreneurs, and we will work closely with them to enable their next phase of rapid growth.” said Madhav Soi of Yuj Ventures Pte. Ltd. from Singapore.

As of 2019, the Indian education sector was valued at approximately USD 101.1 billion and its online education market at $563 Mn. Online education market is expected to hit USD 1.96 billion by 2021 according to KPMG report.

About Eupheus Learning: Eupheus Learning is a Delhi-based EdTech firm bridging the gap between in-class and at-home learning. It offers pedagogically differentiated, technology-led solutions in the K–12 space. The company targets reaching 10 million kids in India through its curriculum and specially curated educational offerings in Kinaesthetic Learning, Reading Enhancement, STEM/STEAM, and English language learning via exclusive tie-ups with award-winning EdTech companies from across the world. Eupheus Learning was recognised by Economic Times as a “Promising Brand - 2019” and was certified as a “Great Place To Work” for the year 2019-20.