Jumbotail Becomes Unicorn With $120 Mn Funding Round

B2B ecommerce platform Jumbotail has raised $120 Mn (around INR 1,028 Cr) in its Series D round led by SC Ventures, the investment arm of Standard Chartered.

The funding round also saw participation from Artal Asia. While the startup didn’t disclose its valuation, as per reports, it joined the unicorn club following the funding round.

While Moneycontrol reported that Jumbotail’s valuation was $900 Mn prior to the funding round, Entrackr pegged its valuation at $950 Mn. Hence, after this fresh funding round, the startup’s valuation crossed the $1 Bn mark. With this, Jumbotail has become the fifth Indian startup to enter the unicorn club in 2025, after Netradyne, Porter, Drools and Fireflies AI.

In its statement, Jumbotail also said that it has completed the acquisition of Solv India.

“Together with Solv, we now help thousands of brands and MSME sellers reach over 500,000 small retailers across more than 400 cities and towns in India,” Jumbotail cofounder Ashish Jhina said.

This comes weeks after Jumbotail got a nod from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to go ahead with Solv’s acquisition.

Founded in 2015 by Karthik Venkateswaran and Jhina, Jumbotail offers a suite of go-to-market products and services to connect emerging brands with mom-and-pop stores. It runs a B2B marketplace for groceries and food, which primarily caters to wholesale buyers. It claims to cater to over 50,000 kirana stores across India. 

With the latest funding, the total funding raised by Jumbotail has risen to $263 Mn. It counts the likes of VII Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, Heron Rock, Akram Ventures,  Alteria Capital, Innoven Capital among its investors.

Founded in 2019, Solv is a B2B digital marketplace, incubated by SC Ventures, which leverages AI and ML to help MSMEs with end-to-end supply chain processes. It connects buyers and suppliers operating in different categories such as grocery and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), readymade apparel, electronic and accessories, home furnishings, and footwear and accessories.

In April, sources told Inc42 that SC Ventures would be selling its entire stake in Solv India to Jumbotail in a $40 Mn to $50 Mn deal and the investment arm of Standard Chartered will pick up a 30% stake in the ecommerce company by infusing fresh capital. The deal would provide exit to SBI holdings. 

Jumbotails’s Valuation Doubles 

The acquisition of Solv will help Jumbotail strengthen its presence in the non-grocery category.

However, the acquisition also raised some key questions, including on change of plans by Solv and valuation. Solv’s former CEO Amit Bansal said about six months ago that the startup was eyeing an IPO in 2026. Notably, Bansal was terminated from the company and its board before the deal was announced. 

Bansal was said to be opposed to the acquisition by Jumbotail and reportedly objected to his termination from the startup.

On the financial front, Solv’s revenue for FY24 stood at INR 132 Cr on a loss of INR 375 Cr. While Jumbotail has not filed its FY24 financial statements so far, Inc42 estimates showed that the company’s operating revenue would have reached about INR 1,200 Cr in the fiscal. This estimation was done on the basis of Jumbotail’s sales and expense growth rates over the past three fiscal years, with additional consideration given to external market factors.

Interestingly, Solv was last reported to have a valuation of $200 Mn, while Jumbotail was valued at INR 2,100 Cr ($244 Mn) as of January 2024. This raised questions about the combined entity more than doubling its valuation, especially when both the companies are loss making.

However, as things stand, Jumbotail is now the latest entrant to India’s unicorn club.