ShoeKonnect Is Raising $1.5 Mn From Info Edge And New Investor

Agra-based business-to-business (B2B) marketplace for leather products ShoeKonnect is raising INR 11 Cr ($1.5 Mn) in Series C funding round.

According to the filings made by Info Edge, ShoeKonnect’s existing investor, to the stock exchanges, the company has invested INR 4 Cr in this ongoing round. However, the company didn’t disclose the other investor. There were no details available of the new investor on the Ministry of Corporate Affairs filings as well.

Info Edge has picked up 1,622 Compulsory Convertible Preference Shares and 10 Ordinary shares. With this investment, Info Edge will hold 32.85% stake on a fully converted diluted basis in ShoeKonnect. The funding is expected to help the company consolidate its presence in the market.

Founded in 2015 by Siddharth Vij, Chaitanya Rathi, and Siddharth Rastogi, ShoeKonnect is a B2B marketplace that enables footwear brands, manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers to connect, communicate, transact with each other for conducting and expanding their business. The platform facilitates catalogue/inventory uploading: order placement, order receipt, delivery scheduling, and payment management) amongst manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers.

The company claims to have over 15K manufacturers working with them. The company has grown its revenues by 526% in the last one year as it reached INR 230.4 Lakh turnover for FY 2018-19, against INR 36.8 Lakh in the previous year.

The B2B ecommerce market is estimated to reach $700 Mn by 2020.  Some of the major B2B players operating an online marketplace include Udaan, Moglix, Bizongo, OfBusiness, Power2SME, Just Buy Live and more. However, ShoeKonnect is not in direct competition with these companies as they focus more on industrial aspects.

India is globally the second largest footwear producer after China. India’s footwear production accounts for approximately 9% of the global annual production of 22 billion pair as compared to China, which produces over 60%.

Key production centres in the country include Kanpur and Agra in Uttar Pradesh, Ranipet, Vaniyambadi and Ambur in Tamil Nadu. The sector is fragmented and close to 75% of production comes from the unorganised sector including very small, small and medium enterprises.

India Footwear Market report 2019 said that the footwear market is growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.5% in the period 2017-2023 and projected to reach $320.44 Bn.

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