
Tiger Global leads LimeRoad $15m Series B round
Tiger Global has led a $15 million Series B round of investment in LimeRoad, a social e-commerce site aimed at women in India.
Existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and Matrix Partners India also participated.
LimeRoad launched in October last year and raised it first institutional round soon after with Lightspeed and Matrix putting in $5 million.
The site allows visitors to peruse and shop a range of apparel, accessories, home and food items via a magazine-style interface where links to items can be shared through social networks like Facebook. The investment follows the launch of LimeRoad's new Android mobile app.
"India accounts for 20% of the world's manufacturing of lifestyle products and we are convinced that conquering the discoverability of that wide array needs new thinking and a fresh socially-architected approach," said Suchi Mukherjee, founder and CEO of LimeRoad, in a statement.
Mukerjee claims that LimeRoad's social-sharing element means users generate three times more actions and page views per session versus other e-commerce platforms. Mobile traffic, meanwhile, is said to be growing 45% month-on-month.
"LimeRoad is leading the social commerce revolution in India with a focus on winning the two biggest drivers of future online commerce marketplaces-women and mobile," Avnish Bajaj, managing director of Matrix India, said. "The community of scrapbookers on LimeRoad is zealously passionate about the platform and reminds one of similar communities in scaled marketplaces like eBay."
Investment in India's e-commerce indusry has been on the rise in recent years. According to AVCJ Research, the segment saw $559 million worth of venture capital investment across 34 deals last year, compared with $302 million across 29 deals in 2012 and $270 million across 27 in 2011.
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