Shop101 Raising INR 29 Cr In Ongoing Series C Round

Social ecommerce startup Shop101 is raising INR 28.69 Cr in its ongoing Series C funding round from Stellaris Venture Partners India, Unilever Venture Holdings, Kalaari Capital Partners, and VY Capital Holdings Limited.

According to the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) filings accessed by Inc42, Shop101 is raising INR 13.67 Cr from VY Capital, INR 9.1 Cr from Unilever Venture, INR 4.5 Cr from Kalaari Capital, and 1.36 Cr from Stellaris Venture Partners India.

As part of this transaction, Shop101 is issuing 79,434 preference shares to VY Capital, 52,956 preference shares to Unilever Venture, 26,478 preference shares to Kalaari Capital, and 7,944 preference shares to Stellaris Venture Partners India. Overall, the social commerce startup is issuing 1,66,812 preference shares at a premium of INR 1620 per share with a face value of INR 100. The development was first reported by Entrackr.

Prior to this, Shop101 had raised $11.3 Mn (INR 80 Cr) in a Series B funding round led by Kalaari Capital and Unilever Ventures in December 2018. The funding round came just after it had raised $5 Mn in a funding round led by Stellaris Venture Partners in July 2018.

Founded in 2016 by Abhinav Jain and Aditya Gupta, Shop101 enables individuals to sell products online as well as on social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram. Anyone can start selling on the platform with zero investment and can create an online store in less than two minutes.

Established merchants, as well as budding entrepreneurs including housewives, college students and young graduates, can also sell their own products or resell from an extensive range of products available on the Shop101 supply platform. The platform provides end-to-end order processing, inventory management, pan-India logistics, payments support, etc.

According to an IBEF report, ecommerce in India is growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 51% from 2017 to 2020 which is one of the highest in the world. While ecommerce platforms Flipkart and Amazon are leading this growth, social commerce platforms are also playing a crucial role in bringing more customers, especially from Tier 2,3,4 cities, to ecommerce platforms.

With increased sales of these platforms, many companies have also added social commerce feature to their platforms. Recently, fintech startup Instamojo also launched a social commerce platform. Paytm has also launched a social commerce platform MyStore to tap this burgeoning ecommerce model which has recently picked up in the country. Other players which are integrating social commerce models or focussing entirely on this stream of ecommerce include Meesho, GlowRoad, BulBul, SimSim, among others.

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