Maritime Procurement Startup Shipskart Raises Funding

B2B supply chain startup in the maritime and offshore segment — Shipskart has raised $2.7 Mn in a Series A funding round led by Trail Mix Ventures (TMV) and Hermes Offshore. 

Tradeworks.vc, Motion Ventures and Eternia Investments also participated in this round of funding.

The startup said that 80 per cent of the funds would be utilised for its India operations, providing a big chance to the mid-segment shipping companies and suppliers to empower and streamline their procurement lifecycle with a solution. 

Founded in 2017 by Dhruv Sawhney, along with Sunny Bagla and Vivek Sahi, Shipskart works as a B2B online marketplace where vessels, vessel managers, ports, and shipyards can purchase marine products, consumables, equipment and service products that are required for efficient operations onboard ships. The company claims to currently have 500 partners across 40 countries,

The startup also plans to collaborate with FMCG giants and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), establishing dedicated aggregator centres across Indian ports to completely revolutionise the unstructured marketplace of Maritime.

While in today’s time, ecommerce platforms are the norm in almost every industry, maritime procurement still lags behind, according to Dhruv Sawhney, CEO and cofounder of Shipskart. “Bringing existing analogue marketplaces online with Shipskart will not only help to increase savings and benefit the bottom line for companies but will make global supply chains more resilient,” added Dhruv.

Shipskart currently has fulfilment centres in Mumbai and Cochin, and plans to expand centres in Gujarat, Visakhapatnam, Chennai and Kolkata in the next one year. With its annual upscaling trending graph, the startup plans to increase its sales by 100 per cent this year.

Previously, it had raised $225K in September 2020 in Pre Series A funding round.

Shipskart has a mobile app, available on both iOS and Android, for maritime procurement, which is accessible to ships, vendors, ship managers and owners. The startup states that the quasi-manual procurement system in the sector is deeply inefficient, and leads to wastage of both time and money.

The Indian retail industry has emerged as one of the most dynamic and fast-paced industries, with the market expected to reach $1.3 Tn by 2024, as per reports. Retail tech companies supporting the retail sector with varied services for logistics and fulfilment are also taking off in India. 

At a time like this, Shipskart, with its marketplace, wants to help maritime companies to focus on what’s really critical for driving value on the management front.