B2B Office Supplies Etailer Aahaa Stores Raises $2 Mn From UAE Based Calega

New Delhi-based office supplies etailer Aahaa Stores has raised $2 Mn in its third round of funding from a UAE-based global investment Group Calega.

The company plans to utilise the latest funding to expand business across new verticals and geographies. Also, it is looking to upgrade its technology, and enrich infrastructure by inducting more independent service providers and mobilizing superior talent.

“Using these funds, we plan to expand the full range of curated assortment of products across all major brands in Stationery, Printed materials, Housekeeping, Electronics & IT, Food & Beverage, Packaging and Company-specific consumables,” Asokan Sattanathan, Founder and Chairman, Aahaa Stores, said.

Earlier, the office supplies etailer has earlier raised $1 Mn twice from a group of investors led by YourNest.

“We were looking at investing in India and narrowed down our choices to startups that use technology in a unique way to make life simpler for the business, industry and governments. Aahaa Stores aptly fits in our description. We should be able to assist Aahaa to grow beyond the boundaries of India,” opines Sanjay Pahwa, Director at Calega.

Calega is currently evaluating various opportunities in the $1-5 Mn range and has identified technology, consumer and med-tech as areas of potential investment. Candle Partners were the exclusive financial advisors to Calega for the transaction.

Aahaa Stores, an integrated procurement services provider for indirect supplies to large corporates in India was founded in early 2013. The industry veteran, Asokan Sattanathan and B-School alumni, Rajaraman Sundaresan and Harish Kannan founded Aahaa Stores to help businesses save on indirect purchases spend by managing their supply chain, bringing collective bargaining benefits and streamlining the vendor network.

Its proprietary iPOS (intelligent Point of Sale) platform is designed to integrate all steps of evolved supply chain processes like demand aggregation, online approvals, e-Catalogue, recommendation engine, micro logistics through auto-assignments, real-time analytics and spend control tools.

The company is known specifically for rejigging brands through mobilising rich and attractive merchandise in their brand stores and taking end to end responsibility from sourcing to last mile delivery.

Aahaa stores’ clients include names like IndusInd Bank, Tata AIG, TCS, Wipro, Reliance Nippon, ITC Hotels, Oyo, Uber, Yes Bank, Equitas, Ashok Leyland, Bosch, Eicher, RBL, HDB Financial, Syntel, HGS, Kone, Tata Capital and WPP Group.

“In all, this step should enable us to provide superior customer experience resulting in enhanced trust & confidence, gain priority from quality suppliers and attract talent. We are well on course to achieve the first milestone of INR 100 Mn per month sales,” added Asokan.

In the B2B marketplace, we have players like Moglix, Urjakart, WholesaleDock, BizBilla among others.

According to a Walmart report, the Indian B2B ecommerce market is estimated to reach $700 Mn by 2020.