1K Kirana Raises $25 Mn To Connect Consumers With Grocery Stores

1K Kirana, which is an online platform for Kirana stores, has raised $25 Mn in a Series B funding round at a post-money valuation of $115 Mn. The round was co-led by Alpha Wave Ventures, Info Edge Ventures and Kae Capital.

Angel investors including Amrit Acharya, Srinath Ramakkrushnan, Rahul Sharma and Vishal Chaudhary from Zetwerk and Kushal Karwa, Rishabh Karwa, Nitin Rana, Amit Bhasin from GoMechanic have participated in the round. 

The funds will be used for developing the supply chain capabilities and tech infrastructure of 1K Kirana. It will be further deployed to expand the startup’s warehouse footprint from the current 2 Lakh sq feet to 6 Lakh sq feet. 

The current investment is the first tranche of the large funding round. 1K Kirana is likely to raise another $25-$30 Mn in the coming months at an increased valuation.

The latest development comes after 1K Kirana secured $7 Mn in a Series A funding round in August last year. The round was led by Info Edge Ventures and Falcon Edge. 

Other investors including Kae Capital, Rajesh Yabaji and Chanakya Hridaya from Blackbuck and Hari TN from Bigbasket participated in the round.  

Founded in 2018 by Kumar Sangeetesh, Sachin Sharma and Abhishek Halder, 1K Kirana follows a franchise model where it connects Tier-2 consumers with its franchise partners, basically it’s partnered kirana stores. The startup follows the approach of D Mart where customers can come, pick products and do checkout via its app. 

1K Kirana claims that 70% of its franchise partners are existing kirana stores while 30% are new kirana stores that are coming into this space.

Kumar Sangeetesh said, “1K Kirana is a supply chain end-to-end. The startup sources, distributes and then ensures that consumers come to the stores to buy products. Our app is used to pull consumers to the stores rather than delivering products at their doorstep.”

1K Kirana essentially focuses on consumers living in Tier-2 cities of India. It claims to have served over 1 Mn customers in various districts of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. It aims to serve more than 10 Mn customers across 100 districts through 5,000 franchise stores in the next 12 months. 

According to 1K Kirana, it had an annual recurring rate (ARR) of INR 300 Cr in the last fiscal year (2021). It said it is currently clocking INR 30 Cr monthly recurring rate (MRR) and aiming to achieve INR 1000 Cr ARR by the end of this fiscal year (2022). 

It faces competition from Dukaan, Kirana King, Khatabook, and ShopKirana among others.