PepperTap Closes Series B Round At $40 Mn; Acquires Jiffstore

Gurgaon-based on-demand grocery delivery startup, PepperTap has closed its Series B round of funding with additional $4 Mn from Innoven Capital, in addition to the $36 Mn raised recently from Snapdeal, Sequoia India, SAIF Partners, Ru-Net, Beenext & JAFCO Asia.

This round takes total funding raised by PepperTap to around $51.2 Mn. Earlier in April, PepperTap had received $10 Mn Series A funding from SAIF Partners and Sequoia Capital. Prior to that, it had raised seed funding from Sequoia in February.

Jiffstore Acquisition

The startup has also acquired Bangalore-based Jiffstore for an undisclosed amount in a cash and stock deal. The move will help PepperTap to tap into Jiffstore’s talent pool and rely on it for technical prowess. Jiffstore team will join Peppertap’s Gurgaon and Bangalore offices.

Highlighting the significance of this alliance, Navneet Singh, co-founder and CEO, PepperTap said, “We have been reaching out to companies who can help us better our product offerings and boost customer experience. In this respect, Jiffstore seemed like an apt choice – they are an established name in Bengaluru with loyal customers and an ever increasing dealer base. We hope to utilise their talent pool and seek tech support from them through this acquisition.”

PepperTap will not venture into the same business as Jiffstore. While Jiffstore collaborates directly with the merchants and fulfil orders and passes on the customers, PepperTap handles everything from taking orders to procuring supplies and making deliveries, themselves.

Brainchild of four founders, Shameel Abdulla, co-founder, CEO, Satish Basavaraj, co-founder, CXO, Aswin Ramachandran, Co-founder, COO and Sandeep Sreenath, co-founder, CTO, Jiffstore enables grocery shopping in just a few clicks/taps on the phone. With the help of its mobile app (available on iOS and Android), Jiffstore allows customers to virtually browse through listed items, place orders and choose to get the supplies at their doorstep from any of its 120 partner stores.

Talking about the acquisition, Shameel, said, “Our idea of transforming the grocery shopping experience found the perfect synergy with PepperTap. Jiffstore’s simple and effective platform has got retailers and customers hooked. By joining hands, we hope to deliver an exceptionally delightful experience to the customers on a wider scale and a rapid pace.”

Launched in 2013, Jiffstore has previously raised funding from Unitus Seed Fund, Times Internet, Nasib BR and Ramesh Sethuraman. The startup was incubated in Startup Village, Kochi and was also part of Times Internet’s startup accelerator, TLabs.

Launch Of Vendor App On PlayStore

With this, the startup has also introduced a vendor app that will soon go live on Playstore. The app, that’s in its pilot run, comes in two versions – one for organised retail chains and another for standalone vendors.

By logging into the vendor app, the business representative will be able to see a comprehensive picture of his performance on PepperTap. The minute month on month, week on week and day on day updates will enable him to understand the value of a well-stocked store by seeing the incremental loss in sales in the absence of a particular product(s).

A vendor will also be able to get insight into the top 100 best-selling products from his store across categories.

Navneet Singh, added, “The aim of the vendor app is to put the power in the hands of the vendor. When non-essentials are out of stock at a vendor store, we follow a process where these are automatically removed from the app. Now, however, when the vendor procures the products again, he/she will be able to make them available on the app with just a click of a button. The product list will be updated and the entry will start showing within the next half an hour. In case there is a change in the MRP, the vendor will be able to update that as well.”

In the case of retail chains, the business manager will have access to updates from stores of the entire chain whereas a store manager will be able to see the sales, progress and information pertaining to only the particular store he/she is in charge of. To enhance the functioning of the app, soon there will also be an inbuilt “contact us” button. This will mean that the call is directly connected to the store/vendor’s key account manager. The next step will aim at integrating this service with Whatsapp.

PepperTap kick started its operations in November, 2014 and since then it has expanded to 18 cities across India with an employee strength of 1200.