Peepul Tree Bags $6 Mn To Scale Its Live Commerce Platform For Artisanal Goods

Live commerce platform Peepul Tree has raised $6 Mn as part of a seed funding round from Elevar Equity. 

The startup will use the funding to onboard more content creators and artisans onto the platform. The startup will also use the infusion to digitise the ‘artisan supply chain’ and streamline its operations. 

Peepul Tree will also deploy the capital to scale up its tech stack to bring together artisans, content creators and customers on a single platform. 

“Celebrating and empowering the original creative entrepreneurs – our artisans – is at the core of what Peepul Tree does… We are thankful to Elevar Equity for believing in our vision and joining our journey to become the largest storytelling & shopping marketplace for authentic, handmade, well-designed products from the very best artisans in India, offering both experience and connection,” said Peepul Tree founder Anish Williams. 

Echoing the sentiment, Managing Partner at Elevar Equity Jyotsna Krishnan said, “This investment in Peepul Tree, in line with our other recent investments, showcases Elevar’s strong belief in the potential of rural India and is an opportunity to impact the livelihoods of millions of rural households… Anish, Priya and Mini bring in a great mix of experience, networks & ambition and are leveraging strong global trends that will help build momentum over the next 5-10 years.”

Founded in 2022 by Anish Williams, Mini Menon and Priya Jayaraman, Peepul Tree operates at the intersection of content and commerce. The startup leverages content creators and storytelling to operate a marketplace for artisanal products and handicrafts. 

The startup largely aggregates supply through a cluster-based approach and then deploys a tech-based platform to effectively manage the entire supply chain and logistics to deliver items across India and the globe. These clusters essentially are specific geographies from where the products are touted on the platform.

This was the first institutional round for the startup which is also backed  by angel investors such as Ganesh Natarajan, Cyrus Guzder, Jetline’s Rajan Navani, Enam Securities’ Vallbabh Bhansali , among others.

Noting that ‘fantastic’ stories behind Indian handicrafts are not amplified, Williams told Inc42 that the Peepul Tree intends to change that and wants to cater to the growing demand of Indian products worldwide.

Speaking about the company’s growth plans, Williams said that the startup was witnessing 100% month-on-month (MoM) growth without disclosing the quanta of sales. He further said the company intends to scale the number of clusters from the current 24 to 50 in the near future. 

Peepul Tree also plans to onboard more than 1,000 content creators on its platform by the end of 2023. In addition, the startup also aims to add more than 500 crafts and support 1 Lakh artisans by the end of the current calendar year.

People aims to disrupt the high margin and niche handicrafts space and targets high net worth individuals (HNIs) and conscious millennials. 

In the overall live commerce space, the startup competes with other live commerce platforms such as Roposo and similar offerings by ecommerce platforms – Amazon and Flipkart.

On what gives the startup the competitive edge, Williams said that the startup has bult deep market linkages and expertise in building content that puts it at a better position compared to new entrants. 

The announcement comes at the same time as the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has reportedly begun talks with stakeholders to regulate the live commerce space. Not just this, the space has also seen greater adoption amongst masses.

While Glance-owned video sharing platform Roposo entered the space in 2021, social commerce unicorn Meesho had planned to foray into the field by the end of 2022. Flipkart also roped in multiple content creators to debut its live commerce features in 2022 while its fashion vertical Myntra also launched its live-commerce feature M-live in November 2021.

Building on the momentum, creator-led commerce startup Wishlink also picked up $3 Mn in a seed funding round led by Elevation Capital in October last year. As per a report, the Indian creator economy is currently estimated to be slightly more than $100 Mn.