B2B Trading Platform GlobalFair Raises Funding From Saama Capital & Others

B2B sourcing and procurement platform GlobalFair has raised $2 Mn in a seed funding round led by Saama Capital and India Quotient. Other investors in the round include venture capital firm First Cheque, CRED founder Kunal Shah, Razorpay founder Harshil Mathur and Fynd cofounders Harsh Shah and Farooq Adam.

The Gurugram-based startup was founded last year by Shaily Garg and Ashish Chandra, who both have two decades of experience cumulatively. Garg is an IIT Bombay alumni, with six years of experience across MNCs and startups. Chandra is an IIT Delhi alumni with close to 17 years of experience. Besides working at various companies and organisations, he founded and led insurance startup TrueCover prior to GlobalFair.

The company claims to be building a borderless trade platform to make inter-country sourcing easy and reliable as domestic B2B procurement has become in the past couple of years. It enables customers to place import orders from verified sellers listed on the platform and manages end-to-end logistics along with all legal documentation. The company also stresses on quality control for its vendors.

According to the company’s website, its partners include Hyundai, Samsung, Cipla and P&G. CEO and cofounder Garg said that GlobalFair currently has a supplier base across Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh, and buyers in US, South Korea, and Vietnam. “Customer responses and funding that we have received so far is an acknowledgement of our potential to transform the global B2B cross-border trade,” she added.

GlobalFair intends to use this funding to expand its network of manufacturers across India and Vietnam, and facilitate growth across all B2B verticals to build a better cross-border supply chain.

Cross-border ecommerce is expected to grow at 25% until 2024, but the biggest problem is the high shipping fee for customers. Last year, even homegrown ecommerce giant Flipkart had introduced cross-border trade facility in partnership with Nepalese ecommerce platform Sastodeal. According to the terms of the agreement, Sastodeal will host products from Flipkart marketplace sellers operating across several categories.

Hong Kong-based Buyandship is also operating in this segment in India, in partnership with eBay Hong Kong, StockX, GLADD, Drop, and other merchants to deliver exclusive offers to more than 370,000 Buyandship members in Asia.