B2B Marketplace Lal10 Bags $5.5 Mn To Help Rural SMBs Sell Globally

Indian products have always made an impression globally and to further the MSME reach of Indian wholesalers, B2B marketplace Lal10 has raised $5.5 Mn in its Pre Series A round. 

Led by Yuj Ventures and Beyond Capital Ventures, investors Spiral Ventures, Singularity Ventures, Asymmetry Ventures, Stride Ventures, Trica’s investor Network, Blacksoil, Panthera Peak and Pegasus FinInvest also participated in the round. 

Angel investors such as Nazara Technologies’ Nitish Mittersain, TradeIndia’s Bikky Khosla, Notion’s Ashok Gudibandla and Astir Ventures’ Kishore Ganji besides Suprajit FO, Bob Noyen, Reasoned Ventures, Insaan Group and Partners at Mckinsey also took part in the investment round.

Lal10 plans to use the fresh capital to expand in the global markets across the US, Japan and the Middle East. It will expand its supply chain solutions to buyers and the tech platforms to MSMEs to build and digitise the global wholesale discovery for Indian products. 

With that, the startup plans to reach a $100 Mn revenue run rate in the next 12 months focusing on the indie textile category. Existing categories include home furnishing & lighting, kitchen & dining, home & office, apparel & accessories and Indian fabrics.

Founded in 2017 by Maneet Gohil, Sanchit Govil, and Albin Jose, Delhi NCR-based Lal10 is an online cross-border wholesale platform. At the conjecture of Shopify and Alibaba, Lal10 digitises small and medium rural manufacturers to take their sustainable products to global markets. 

For global retailers, it acts as a wholesale ecommerce platform to buy products in bulk. Some of its notable retailers include Zara, Pepperfry, Toast, Wills Lifestyle, Four Seasons, Go Colours!, Big Bazaar, Ajio, IKEA and Taneira.

The startup currently boasts a supply base of over 2,200 verified MSMEs and 45,000 products from Tier-2 and beyond belts in India. The MSMEs can not only display their products for sale but also manage their inventories, get the latest design trends and source raw materials directly from factories.

Lal10 CEO Gohil believed that India’s $3.5 Bn export GDP in local production is presently from a handful of hubs including Panipat, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Jaipur and Tirupur. 

“While India has a production appetite of over $160 Bn with Tier 3, 4 production hubs like Bhagalpur, Pochampally, Maheshwar, and Amroha, which are yet to come on the global map. We are making Bhagalpur the next Panipat by enabling contemporary designs, a transparent supply chain and [putting] inventories of sustainable products [on its platform] for discovery to global buyers wholesale,” he said.

In March 2020, Lal10 raised a seed round from Sorenson Impact from Utah and a few angel investors. The round helped MSMEs connect with large retail brands across India, the US, Ireland and the Middle East. 

Sujit Kunte, India head, Spiral Ventures stated that the funding will primarily help the IndiaMART competitor support its Japan market entry.

Update | July 21, 2022, 8:40 AM

Stride Ventures, Trica’s investor Network added to the investor list.