Following a previous funding round of USD 85 million, India startup Arzooo has reportedly raised USD 70 million via financing to bring the best of e-commerce to physical stores and scale its platform to the South Asian market.
Trifecta Leaders Fund and SBI Investment led the latest fundraising, with added participation from Celesta Capital, 3 Lines VC, and DoorDash founder Tony Xu.
At a time when many Indian retail stores are grappling to stand toe-to-toe with giants such as Flipkart and Amazon due to their incapacity to supply quality products at a reasonable price, Arzooo is helping to address this dilemma by collaborating with big labels to secure sizable inventories and sell & deliver them to relatively smaller retailers at discounted rates.
The startup gives the stores direct exposure to over 10,000 products and deals with 30,000 retail stores in 22 states across the country, putting more emphasis on consumer durables and electronics.
Arzooo's CEO and co-founder, Khushnud Khan, stated that they have bridged the gap between customers who want but cannot avail of high-priced items and stores that are ill-equipped to join forces with large distributors.
These stores, which typically range in size from 700 to 1,200 square feet, generate between USD 12,500 and USD 19,000 in monthly sales. According to Khan, they account for nearly 75% of all consumers durable transactions in India.
By establishing its own logistics supply chain system for last-minute deliveries, offering businesses with working capital and a revolving credit of nearly USD 25,300, the company is aiding in eliminating intermediaries that were elevating the prices.
Yoshitaka Kitao, Chairman of SBI Investments, stated that the startup's business model is quite efficient because it can satisfy the varying demands of retailers and end customers. He also stated that they are delighted to assist the company in fueling its infinite success strategy.
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