Women Focussed Social Commerce Platform Frendy Raises Funding

Ahmedabad-based social commerce platform, Frendy has raised $3 Mn in an extended Series A funding round. The round saw participation from an existing investor, the Desai Family office and new investors including Let’s Venture Angel Fund and Centera Fund UK.

Other angel investors include Shalabh Mehrish from Vinson Cap Advisors, Jon Piebenga from Social Venture Partners Charleston, Brian Giarocco from Ground Swell Capital, Raza Hasnani from Africa50 Fund, Kunal Shah from Nomura, Arthur Farme from Grupo H Brazil, Vivek Baliga from BMO Capital Markets, Chetan Vig MD from Teachers Pension Fund, and Vikas Lunia from Lunia Capital also participated in the round.

Founded in 2019 by Sameer Gandotra and Gowrav Vishwakarma, Frendy is an online community-based digital supermarket for women consumers and women community leaders. Through its app, the startup sells household items with the help of its women community leaders, known as partners. 

The startup claims to have expanded in stealth mode to more than 25 cities in India with over 4,500 products. It has recently entered Rajasthan and is aiming to venture into Madhya Pradesh in the future.

It asserts to have clocked a revenue of INR 43 Cr in the first year of operations. It has lately appointed Harshad Joshi as its COO and Tupperware’s former MD, Shilpa Ajwani as its consulting advisor.

It is reported that the startup has disbursed over 2 Cr to its community platform. It aims to reach an ARR of INR 300 Cr by the end of this fiscal year (FY22).

In December 2021, it reportedly secured INR 10 Cr of funding in a Pre-Series A funding round from Pavitar Singh and Abhishek Khurana from Sprinklr, and Desai Family Office for business expansion and hiring new talent. 

It faces competition from Meesho, SimSim, CityMall, Trell, GlowRoad, and Stage3 in the social commerce segment. 

Other Deals In India’s Social Commerce Segment

According to a report,  the Indian social commerce market is expected to grow at a 59% CAGR to $17 Bn in gross merchandise value by 2025.

The sector has widened as new players such as Trell, CityMall and Stage3 have entered. A series of fundraising deals have also occurred.

In the last month, Bengaluru-based social commerce startup GlowRoad got acquired by Amazon India in an all-cash deal. It was the first acquisition of the ecommerce giant in the social commerce segment.

In March this year, social commerce startup CityMall raised close to $75 Mn in its Series C round at a post-money valuation of $330 Mn. The round was led by its new investor Norwest Venture Partners and also saw participation from Luxembourg-based Citius VC.

Existing investors including WestBridge Ventures, Jungle Ventures, General Catalysts, Accel India, and Elevation Capital, participated in the round. 

In January this year, Bengaluru-based social commerce platform Trell concluded an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) buyback worth INR 12 Cr ($1.6 Mn). In August 2020, it secured  $11.4 Mn (nearly INR 85.3 Cr) in a Series A funding round led by KTB Network.

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