Tiger Global Marks Its First Seed Stage Bet In Ecommerce Enablement Startup Shopflo

Ecommerce enablement startup Shopflo has secured $2.6 Mn in a seed funding round from Tiger Global and TQ Ventures. Better Capital and other angel investors also participated in the round. 

This is the first time Tiger Global is investing in a seed-stage startup.

The fresh capital will be used for research and development activities as well as product development. 

Founded in 2021 by Ankit Bansal, Priy Ranjan, Ishan Rakshit and Advait Shankar, Shopflo facilitates ecommerce and D2C companies to improve their checkout conversions and reduce fraud COD orders. It also offers convenience to the shoppers while buying products online. 

Shopflo has two product models–Checkout and Recover. The Checkout product offers a fast checkout experience, brings convenience to shoppers by storing all necessary information required for checkouts, and helps partnered brands retain customers. The Recover product helps to restore abandoned carts by allowing shoppers to complete their purchases directly from WhatsApp.

Shopflo claims to have partnered with six merchants including D2C firms and a rollup commerce brand. It has further associated with some payment gateways including Razorpay and Cashfree to offer checkout payments to the partnered companies. It aims to scale its network of online merchants and process about $300 Mn GMV checkouts in the present fiscal year.

Shopflo faces competition from GoKwik, Cashfree, PayU and Instamojo in the ecommerce payment enabler category. 

The Rise of India’s Ecommerce Sector 

According to an Inc42 report, India’s retail market is projected to reach $1.7 Tn by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 7.8% during 2021-2026, making India the fifth-largest global destination for retail.

Ecommerce is expected to capture 11.4% of this retail market and reach $200 Bn in 2026, driven by the rise in digital infrastructure.  Meanwhile, online shoppers are projected to reach 350 Mn in the country by FY 2025, growing at a CAGR of 28.5% by 2025. 

The ecommerce sector is presently witnessing a slew of fundraising activities. Recently, ecommerce enablement company GoKwik secured $35 Mn in a Series B round led by Think Investments and RTP Global. 

The startup offers checkout and UPI solutions to help improve checkout conversion rates, ensuring higher GMV realisation, increased profitability, reduced customer acquisition cost (CAC), and increased delivery rates.

A few days ago, Mumbai-based D2C brand aggregator Evenflow Brands closed a Pre-Series A funding round of $5 Mn. 

The round saw participation from Village Global, 9Unicorns, Venture Catalysts, LetsVenture, MageHold, Moving Capital, Shiprocket,  MyAsiaVC, and angel investors such as Emil Michael from Uber, Vijay Shekhar Sharma from Paytm, Kunal Shah from CRED, Nimesh Kampani from Trica, Sandeep Varaganti from Reliance Retail, Abhishek Nag from Netflix, Sony Joy from Truecaller. 

In April this year, Gurugram-based B2B ecommerce startup GenieMode raised $27.5 Mn in a Series B funding round of funding led by Tiger Global. The round also saw participation from its existing investors Info Edge.

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