Dukaan, an online retail platform that helps businesses go digital, has recently announced to have raised USD 11 million during a pre-Series A funding led by 640 Oxford Ventures at a post-money valuation of USD 71 million.

The fundraising also witnessed participation from investors like Snow Leopard Ventures, Matrix Partners India, HOF Capitals, 9Unicorn, and LetsVenture, among others. A series of angel investors including Oyo’s Ritesh Agarwal and Nothing CEO Carl Pei also participated in the funding round.

Dukaan plans to use the fresh funds to further expand its operations, establish major partnerships to develop its paying merchant base, and hire skilled web designers and developers. The company had previously raised USD 6 million last October in seed funding from Lightspeed and Matrix.

For those unaware, Dukaan was founded by Suumit Shah and Subhash Choudhary in 2020 with a vision to enable small merchants to set up an online store using their smartphones. As of now, over 3.5 million businesses have enrolled in this platform to build their online presence.

It also helps the merchants to make customizable websites and allows them to accept payments using multiple modes.

The CEO of the startup Suumit Shah was quoted saying that Dukaan was founded because many small businesses in the country have been struggling to digitalize their business due to the lack of programming skills. This platform predominately enables these merchants to expand their business online easily and affordably.

Shah further claimed that the company’s mobile-first approach makes it different than other online retail platforms. Dukaan is also planning to expand its reach into international markets in the coming years, he added.

Experts claimed that a major uptick in digital offerings and adoption in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has catalyzed Dukaan’s growth in the recent past.

Moreover, the company aims to garner a total revenue of around USD 10 million within the next 12 months. As of now, around 2000 merchants pay for the premium subscription service which makes 10 % of the startup’s total revenue.

Source credits –

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/funding/dukaan-gets-11-million-funding-from-640-oxford-ventures-others/articleshow/85968391.cms