SUMMARY
Shopr.TV has raised $1.7 Mn in seed funding from institutional and angel investors
The startup will use the fresh capital for its technology, product and team
Shopr.TV’s live commerce platform went live in June this year
Live-commerce startup Shopr.TV has raised $1.7 Mn seed funding from institutional investors, including BEENEXT, Y-Combinator, Locus Ventures, Shiprocket, Goodwater Capital, and more. Additionally, angel investors such as CRED’s Kunal Shah, Groww’s Lalit Keshre, Afore Capital’s Venky Karnam have also participated in the round.
Founded in 2021 by Akhil Suhag, Akshay Suhag, Mukul Anand, and Tushar Dhara, Shopr.TV aims to address Gen-Z’s increasing appetite for live-commerce in India. The startup will use the fresh capital into its technology, product, and team.
Shopr.TV is a comprehensive live-commerce platform that allows buyers to discover, experience and shop in real-time. It enables the sellers and buyers to engage through various ways including live drops, virtual pop-ups, collection launches or even a clearance sale.
“Live-commerce is the natural next step in the evolution of ecommerce, and it has the potential to revolutionise the entire consumer experience. There is a refined layer of accessibility, credibility, and reliability that live-commerce brings to the online buyer-seller relationship,” Akhil Suhag, cofounder and CEO of Shopr.TV, said.
For Suhag, Shopr.TV’s ambition is to create a shopping experience that’s engaging, highly interactive, and veritable for Indian viewers. “We have the right product, the right team, an enthusiastic market, and now the perfect partners who share our vision of transforming the way India shops,” he added.
The platform went live earlier this year in June. The startup claims to have registered more than 100% month-on-month growth, both in terms of GMV and in the total number of orders. The growth is completely organic and has been achieved without any customer acquisition costs, as shared by the startup.
Currently, Shopr.TV hosts over a hundred sellers, offering products from fashion apparel, thrift finds, beauty products, and jewellery to cosmetics.
While the concept of live commerce is widely popular in China, it is gaining traction in the Indian market as well. According to a RedSeer report, the size of the live commerce market in India is expected to reach a gross merchandise value of $4-5 Bn by 2025. The categories that are expected to contribute to this growth include beauty, personal care, and fashion.
The live commerce startup segment has been abuzz with rounds of investments lately. Examples are plenty. For example, last week, creator-led commerce startup Wishlink raised $3Mn in its seed funding round led by Elevation Capital. Among the big names, InMobi Group’s Roposo also forayed last year into the live commerce segment with the launch of ‘creator-led, live entertainment commerce’.
Besides, ecommerce giants such as Amazon and Flipkart also have collaborated with creators to test the waters of live commerce. It roped in more than 150 content creators to host livestream and showcase products on the sidelines of its Great Indian Festival 2022 sale. Earlier in February, Flipkart too had forayed into the live commerce segment with a feature named ‘Feed’.
