Apnaklub, a Bengaluru-based B2B wholesale platform, has secured $10 million (about Rs 77 crore) in a Series A round-headed by Tiger Global in the United States. Previously, in August 2021, the company received $3.5 million in a Seed round from Sequoia's Surge.
Based in the United States, Tiger Global appears to have begun investing in seed-stage firms after previously focusing on growth and late-stage startups. Tiger Global provided venture money to SaaS startup Shopflo earlier this week.
Manish Kumar and Shruti founded ApnaKlub in 2020 to connect India's merchants, such as a Kirana or general stores in semi-urban and rural areas, to a varied range of consumer items and brands via its network of digitally linked wholesale partners. According to the company's statement, the raised funds will be used to strengthen infrastructure in essential states, grow the platform from 5000 to 20,000 partners, and develop a credit product.
It will also look forward to increasing its footprint in the North Indian market and hiring professionals to achieve tremendous success.
"ApnaKlub assists retailers and traders in tier II and III cities of India to leverage their collective demand and geographic presence into a flourishing retail business, which provides greater consumer choice and delight by providing access to a wider range of goods at comparable margins, and better credit and logistics terms than status quo," said Shruti, Co-founder & CEO of ApnaKlub.
"ApnaKlub brings the convenience of digital wholesale supply to tier II & tier III smartphone users. It also creates opportunities for regional brands to list their goods and earn better by reaching a wider audience across India," said Manish Kumar.
"Indian CPG retail is a $100 billion opportunity, and Kirana stores own most current distribution channels. ApnaKlub is arming retailers and brands with the digital supply chain and credit tools to win across online and offline channels. Shruti and Manish have built a rapidly growing platform based on deep customer insights." said John Curtius, Partner at Tiger Global.
About Apnaklub:
ApnaKlub, based in Bengaluru, plans to disrupt the traditional wholesale FMCG distribution structure in India with its reseller-led B2B platform for retailers and wholesalers in Tier II and Tier III areas. ApnaKlub enables its partners in semi-urban and rural areas by offering organized supply and digital tools to help them develop an efficient micro-business that caters to the needs of local shops and large families. ApanKlub claims to have served 2500+ partners across 4500 pin codes in just seven months. Its asset-light strategy enables anyone with a smartphone and a strong entrepreneurial desire to earn extra money by collecting demand and delivering FMCG goods to their neighbourhood retail (Kirana) establishments.
About Tiger Global:
Tiger Global Management is a global investment organization that deploys cash. Tiger Global's long-term goal is to provide better risk-adjusted returns to its investors. The fundamentally driven investments of the firm are principally focused on the global Internet, technology, telecommunications, media consumer, and industrial sectors. The private equity strategy has a ten-year investment horizon and focuses on growing private enterprises. The public equity efforts place a premium on thorough due diligence on individual companies as well as long-term secular trends.
Tiger Global as a company promotes integrity, intellectual honesty, continual improvement, process over outcome, teamwork, a desire to be world-class, and long-term thinking.
Tiger Global Management, headquartered in New York, was created in 2001 and has affiliate offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangalore, and Melbourne.
