India grocery platform raises $13m

US-based impact investor Capria Ventures and BNK Ventures also participated in the funding round, along with existing investors Nexus Venture Partners and Kalaari Capital. The company will use the new capital to expand its team, establish new customer relationships, and improve its technology platform.

Established in 2015, Jumbotail provides a marketplace where operators of neighborhood convenience stores, called kiranas, can deal directly with consumer brands and farmers rather than through traditional intermediaries. Kalaari and Nexus last invested in Jumbotail in 2017, when they committed $8.5 million in Series A funding to the company.

There are more than 15 million kiranas in India, and they are estimated to account for over 95% of India’s $350 billion food and grocery market. The sector is seen as ripe for disruption by technology-enabled operators such as Jumbotail, which provides a number of services including a mobile ordering app, last-mile delivery, payment and credit solutions for store owners, and point-of-sale integration.

“Food and grocery is a rapidly growing market in India which will be serviced predominantly by the kirana stores for the foreseeable future,” said Rajesh Raju, a managing director at Kalaari, in a statement. “Creating value for millions of kirana stores and their ecosystems of brands and customers is one of the hardest problems to solve, and we believe Jumbotail has the right team to do this.”

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Technology
• Support services
• Early-stage
• India
• TMT
• Kalaari Capital
• Nexus India Capital Advisors