SUMMARY
Bikayi plans to use the funds to accelerate product development, acquisition and talent hiring as part of its intentions of scaling its offerings
Prior to this round, the company raised $2 Mn in seed funding in August 2020
According to an Inc42 Plus Analysis, digitisation of the Indian retail sector alone has provided SaaS startups an opportunity of more than $2 Bn
Y Combinator-backed B2B startup Bikayi has raised $10.8 Mn in a Series-A funding round, led by Sequoia Capital India.
Bikayi said it plans to use the funds to accelerate product development, acquisition, and talent hiring as part of its intentions of scaling its product offerings.
Prior to this round, the company raised $2 Mn in seed funding from a clutch of international investors including Mantis Ventures, which was prompted by popular band Chainsmokers. This was also Mantis’ first investment in an Indian startup. Y Combinator, Pioneer Fund and angel investor Teachable’s Ankur Nagpal had also invested in the round, among others.
Founded in 2019 by Sonakshi Nathani and Ashutosh Singla, Bikayi is a B2B startup that provides digital features in the form of an integrated ecommerce store setup to merchants with payment gateway and other tracking.
In the past, it also claimed to have helped local merchants to set up their own Swiggy, BigBasket and Amazon to serve their customers.
The startup provides more features such as integrated login for storefront staff, order tracking through SMS, customer reviews, live analytics of number of orders and visitors daily and monthly, and inventory management, among others. Additional features include a dedicated business coach, catalogue listing, payments, and also insights on customer behaviour.
Bikayi’s minimum viable product launched in March 2019 enabled neighbourhood shops to make the online transition with a catalogue that could be shared on WhatsApp.
As the response to the app grew and the startup started receiving feedback from shopkeepers, it started adding more features.
“With its merchant base growing at 5x over the last eight months, Bikayi’s annual Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) has grown 1800% alongside. The company currently has more than 4 Mn+ registered users on the platform,” the company stated.
“India is on the cusp of an e-commerce revolution, and we believe small and medium businesses will play a pivotal role in shaping this landscape over the next decade. India is home to over 75 Mn SMBs, which account for over 30% of India’s GDP, employ over 130 Mn, and form the backbone of the economy,” said Shraeyansh Thakur, vice president, Sequoia Capital India.
According to an Inc42 Plus Analysis, digitisation of the Indian retail sector alone has provided SaaS startups an opportunity of more than $2 Bn. This led to the emergence of retail tech startups such as Growthpond’s Dukaan, Aarzoo, Kirana King, Shop Kirana, Peel-Works, Khatabook’s MyStore, Dotpe’s DigitalDukaan, OkCredit, MSwipe, Magicpin and many more.
