Gifting Solutions Startup Join Ventures Bags $23.5 Mn Funding

House of D2C celebration brands, Join Ventures, has raised $23.5 Mn (INR 187 Cr) as part of its Series B funding round led by Motilal Oswal Alternate Investment Advisors (MO Alts).

The round also saw participation from Convivialité Venture (the VC arm of French beverage giant Pernod Ricard), alongside existing investors such as DSG Consumer Partners, Venture Catalysts, ZNL Growth and other high networth investors.

The startup will use the funding to expand its network of dark stores to drive the growth of its portfolio brands. Join Ventures will also use the investment to launch new products and categories in the next 18 months. The funding will also be deployed to shore up its technology vertical to enable hyper-personalisation on various platforms. 

“Such a vast market size is driven by evolving Indian consumers who are looking beyond generic products and moving towards personalised, unique and theme-based products, and we believe that our curated & personalised design-to-delivery consumer experience fulfils their evolving needs. Partnering with MO Alts will help accelerate our expansion plans across India and beyond,” said Join Ventures founder and CEO Tarun Joshi.

Chiming in, the head of consumer sector at MO Alts Vijay Dhanuka said, “As the country increasingly moves online, we believe digital channels will be a strong enabler for consumer businesses to scale at a rapid pace. Our investment in Join Ventures marks our second investment into the tech-enabled consumer franchisees who have the first mover advantage in large unorganised categories.”

Founded in 2020 by Joshi, Join Venture operates a band of names in the gifting and floral space. Its portfolio includes names such as gifting store IGP, which has both B2C and B2B verticals, D2C florist brand Interflora and upcoming gourmet food brand Masqa. 

The new funding announcement comes barely seven months after the Mumbai-based startup raised $10 Mn in its Series A round from DSG Consumer Partners, Rajiv Dadlani Group, 9Unicorns and Venture Catalysts.

Join Ventures claims to have grown its business by 3X in the past two years, with an eye on achieving an annualised run rate (ARR) of INR 250 Cr. The umbrella brand currently caters to customers in more than 100 countries through its same-day delivery network.

The startup claims to have a cumulative annual digital reach of 100 Mn visitors and operates three warehouses and 40+ dark stores. In total, all Join Ventures platforms have an existing customer base of around 3 Mn.

Join Ventures competes with other major market players such as Archies’, Ferns n Petals, and others. 

Interestingly, Join Ventures’ biggest competitor FnP also raised a mammoth INR 200 Cr funding round in March this year from VC major Lighthouse. 

According to a report, India’s online gifting market was pegged around $65 Mn in early 2021 and is expected to soar to $84 Bn by 2024. 

Fueled largely by higher disposable income for the middle class, the demand for gifting platforms has witnessed a sudden boom in the past few years. The demand has further been spurred by easy access to personalised gifting and the increasing gifting culture emerging in the country.