Jumbotail-Solv Deal: Zero Profits, 2X Valuation Jump, Questions Galore

“This is not true, we are not acquiring or merging with Solv,” Jumbotail cofounder and CEO Karthik Venkateswaran told Inc42 in late December 2024, when Inc42 reached out for a comment based on market speculations.  

Exactly three months later, Jumbotail announced it would be acquiring Standard Chartered-backed Solv. In a joint statement, the companies said, “SC Ventures – Standard Chartered’s innovation, fintech investment and ventures arm, has agreed to the acquisition of its incubated venture, Solv India, by Jumbotail, one of India’s leading B2B marketplaces.”

Just to give some context, SC Ventures incorporated Solv India in 2019 to give a shot at organising the $500 Bn primarily unorganised grocery industry in India.

As per sources, SC Ventures which primarily owns 90% of the stake in Solv India will be selling its entire stake to Jumbotail for around $40 Mn – $50 Mn in a mix of cash and equity deal. Besides, SC Ventures will also infuse additional capital into Jumbotail and acquire around 30% stake.

As per a MoneyControl report, once the acquisition is concluded, Jumbotail will raise around $120 Mn at nearly a unicorn valuation (~$900 Mn) from SC Ventures and other investors. 

On the face of it, it looks like a transaction that would give SC Ventures a piece of the larger combined entity. But when we look at Solv India and its past year, there are a lot of questions that spring up. 

• Firstly, why is Solv India going for an acquisition, when just four months ago, its former CEO Amit Bansal said it is preparing for an IPO at the end of 2026?
• Why was CEO Amit Bansal removed before the deal with Jumbotail was finalised? 
• Why would SC Ventures need to infuse capital in the combined entity if it just wanted to offload Solv? 
• More importantly, how did the combination of Jumbotail and Solv result in a valuation of $900 Mn (almost a unicorn) when the combined valuation of both companies was just under $600 Mn? 
• Finally, what happens to employees at Solv India — Inc42 sources allege that around 70%-80% of the workforce will be laid off.

Inc42 reached out to Solv India, SC Ventures, and Jumbotail for answers on these points, but they declined to respond to our queries.

While both Solv India and Jumbotail await approval with respect to the acquisition from the Competition Commission of India, let’s look beyond the neatly drafted press release and analyse this deal. 

Breaking Down The Jumbotail-Solv Deal

To make sense of the deal, we have to understand the complex structure of Solv India first. Solv India’s registered name is Standard Chartered Research & Technology, and it was incorporated in 2019 with SC Ventures being the lead shareholder. 

SC Ventures owned around 91% of the startup and the rest was owned by Japan’s SBI Holdings. Together, they have infused around $130 Mn in Solv across multiple rounds.

As per sources and as mentioned in the CCI summary reviewed by Inc42, the deal is a part share swap and part cash deal. While Jumbotail will acquire 100% stake in Solv India entity, in return Jumbotail will allot some shares to SC Ventures and give an exit to SBI Holdings. As per sources, SC Ventures will also infuse around $60 Mn in funding in Jumbotail. 

This deal will result in SC Ventures’ operating member Gautam Jain getting a board seat in Jumbotail. It is pertinent to note that Jain was also a board member at Solv India earlier. 

Post the acquisition, Jumbotail’s cofounders Karthik Venkateswaran and Anish Jhina will continue to operate the entire business. 

But before we look at what’s next, it’s important to understand what changed at Solv. Not long ago, the company’s former CEO Amit Bansal had said it was on track for an IPO by 2026. So, what pushed Solv from chasing the public markets to getting acquired?

Solv India: From IPO Plans To A Sale 

After talking to multiple sources regarding the aforementioned deal, Inc42 has learnt that the primary reason for the acquisition is SC Ventures wanted to dump Solv off its consolidated books. Sources allege that Standard Chartered — the ultimate beneficiary of SC Ventures — has been looking to offload assets since 2023. 

Portfolio companies with heavy losses were taking a toll on the P&L statement of the financial services giant, which was said to be the primary reason for this exercise. In FY24, Solv India saw its loss increase by 40% to INR 375 Cr ($43 Mn), whereas its operating revenue increased by 57% to INR 132 Cr ($15 Mn) in the same year. 

“With Solv and other sales, SC is just trying to cut their losses,” said a person aware of the matter. 

Like Solv, SC Ventures sold Singapore-based Cardspal to rewards and loyalty startup utu in a $33 Mn deal. Incidentally, here too, SC Ventures invested in utu as part of the deal.

Before the deal with Jumbotail was announced, SC Ventures terminated Bansal from the company and its board.  

As per an ET report, Bansal who was promised INR 50 Cr exit payout has now objected to his wrongful termination to Solv’s shareholders. Bansal declined to comment when Inc42 sent questions around his exit.

Moreover, Inc42 has learnt that Bansal was also under investigation for misusing company funds. However, sources also claimed that Bansal was not in favour of an acquisition by Jumbotail. It’s not yet clear whether this was a point of contention for his removal. 

Besides Bansal, Solv CFO Sharad Ajitsaria is also expected to move out, while sources claimed that chief business officer Gaurav Maulikhi, has already exited the company. 

Further, SC Ventures’ Gautam Jain is said to have taken over Solv and is calling all the shots. “The majority of the CXOs objected to this acquisition as Jumbotail was struggling, hence they left voluntarily or were fired,” according to multiple sources.

“They (SC Ventures) are so big. They could have simply infused capital and helped the business grow further. It was a tepid growth, but they were still growing. They didn’t want this, instead shook hands with a company which was struggling,” said one of the sources aware of the matter on the condition of anonymity.

Besides offloading some assets, the investor has looked to diversify into deeptech businesses from retail and fintech companies. In January 2024, SC Ventures opened a new office in Abu Dhabi to invest in the region’s ecosystem and get access to local talent. 

Noticeably, there has been a change in a shift in SC Ventures’ investment strategy as well. The VC arm of Standard Chartered Bank has tried to cut losses after major restructuring at the bank in 2024. 

SC Ventures has also seemingly changed its investment focus from late 2023 and is said to be focussing on startups in the Middle East region, as per sources. 

Doubling Down After The Sale

Like Jumbotail, Solv operated a B2B marketplace, which connected sellers and buyers for wholesale or mass procurement, similar to Udaan and a host of other B2B marketplaces in grocery and non-grocery categories.

As of April 2025, the non-grocery category is said to account for 70% of the startup’s revenue from 300 Tier II and Tier III cities.

The non-grocery category is not easy to crack, and it remains a largely unorganised market despite multiple startups trying to structure it. 

And even though grocery supply has gone through an overhaul in light of the quick commerce revolution, competition in this space remains high. For Jumbotail, the acquisition of Solv would enable horizontal coverage in the supply chain ecosystem, and potentially result in bigger outcomes and a fat bottom line. 

This could explain why SC Ventures is infusing further money in Jumbotail, as sources have claimed, even as it looked to offload Solv.

It must be noted that despite what sources have told us, SC Ventures is yet to officially announce any infusion in Jumbotail. This investment is also dependent on whether CCI sees any potential. 

By becoming a minority shareholder in the combined entity, SC Ventures would limit its exposure to the losses in the business, and would be banking on the combined scale of the two companies for growth and a potential exit in the future. 

Jumbotail, with respect to revenue and brand recall is a much bigger brand as compared to Solv. Having this brand in its portfolio is likely to fetch SC Ventures a higher exit opportunity in the future — even through an IPO potentially, compared to a minor exit from selling Solv. 

Founded in 2015 by Karthik Venkateswaran and Anish Jhina, Jumbotail helps retail stores stock up their grocery inventory. Besides this, it also runs J24, a chain of modern trade stores in Bengaluru. 

Jumbotail entered more than 50 new cities after the 2021 fund raise but eventually scaled down to 21 cities, according to The Morning Context report in July 2024. Not only this, the startup has also scaled down its J24 Stores significantly from the peak of 100 stores to around 17 stores today as disclosed on the Solv website. 

To only make things worse, the growing popularity of quick commerce in Bengaluru, further negatively impacted the startup’s topline through these stores. 

After a period of trying out new streams, Jumbotail is seemingly coming back to its core of the FMCG supply chain. 

As per a PWC report, almost 52% physical retailers in Tier I cities in India reported experiencing drop in sale of essential goods. Another report highlighted that almost 50% of Tier I consumers prefer omnichannel brands. 

After running for three-plus years on its last fundraise, Jumbotail was on the hunt for a fresh infusion and getting an investor such as SC Ventures is not just about funding and validation. The real upside is Solv’s readymade network to tap into the non-grocery segment and get a revenue boost. 

Solv’s strength of non-grocery supply was a key factor as was its presence in Tier II and beyond.  This is likely to complement Jumbotail’s grocery-focused business primarily in Bengaluru. “The acquisition seems to be a snuggle fit for both the struggling entities,” said an industry insider. 

While both Jumbotail and SC Ventures’ await for CCI approval, around 350 employees of Solv look at their uncertain future.

Multiple sources suggest that Jumbotail is likely to absorb a small portion of Solv’s employee count as they don’t have to belly up their employee cost. 

“They haven’t disclosed anything, almost 90% of the employees have already started looking out for job opportunities. Everyone knows after the acquisition Jumbotail will bring in their guys,” said a source aware of the development, adding that employees are even worried about their ESOPs, as no communication has been passed on. 

Doing The Valuation Math

But then we come to the valuation. Solv was last reported to have a valuation of $200 Mn, while Jumbotail’s was valued at INR 2,100 Cr ($244 Mn) as of January 2024. As per a MoneyControl report, Jumbotail after acquiring Solv will achieve a valuation of $900 Mn.

So how can the combined entity have nearly 2X the valuation of both companies? And how does the combination of two loss-making entities result in such a high valuation? This question is more pertinent when we consider that SC Ventures stands to benefit from investing at such a high valuation at this late stage in Jumbotail’s journey. 

Our conversations with industry experts and analysts revealed that the B2B grocery supply business typically fetches a revenue multiple of around 2X-4X. “If the startup is profitable and is a market leader, then it can ask for a valuation of 3X-4X the revenue,” said an Delhi NCR-based fund manager who has invested in B2B supply chain companies.

Jumbotail’s FY24 numbers weren’t publicly available, but Inc42 estimates that Jumbotail would have reached an operating revenue of around INR 1,200 Cr in FY24.  

This analysis is based on Jumbotail’s sales and expense growth rates over the past three fiscal years, with additional consideration given to external market factors. Jumbotail declined to reveal details about its FY24 or FY25 numbers. 

Adding Solv’s operating revenue for FY24 of INR 132 Cr, the combined entity would have FY24 revenue of around INR 1,300 Cr (~$150 Mn). At these levels, a $600 Mn valuation would reflect the standard 4X multiple in the B2B supply chain place. 

But the speculated valuation of $900 Mn after the M&A would put this at a 6X multiple — significantly higher than the industry benchmark. 

Now, Jumbotail and Solv’s FY25 numbers might actually put it closer to the 4x multiple benchmark, but this is not certain. For we know that in FY25, Jumbotail scaled back indicating a slow pace of revenue growth, if there was any growth at all. Solv also went through a slowdown amid leadership changes. 

Moreover, in the B2B grocery market, almost all the existing players are facing difficulty in getting higher valuation. Take Udaan, for example, once valued at $3.1 Bn in funding, the startup earlier this year raised $75 Mn at $1.8 Bn valuation.

B2B Grocery: A Double-Edged Sword

Ever since 2015, startups have tried to organise and structure the multibillion-dollar B2B grocery supply chain market and failed in different ways. Some had problems with the cash-first model in B2B grocery commerce, while others just could not crack the deals needed to scale up. Extremely thin margins and high operational complexity and costs are also breaking points for startups in this space. 

Major players in this sector Udaan, DealShare, ShopKirana — even Meesho and Zepto (when it was known as KiranaKart) — at one point looked to capitalise on the post-pandemic boom as retailers joined B2B platforms. 

But B2B grocery and FMCG supply chain ecosystem remains an underserved market to a large extent, dominated by legacy distributors and wholesalers. 

Udaan’s GMV witnessed a tepid growth 1.7% to INR 5,706.6 Cr, with revenue growth remaining more or less flat. DealShare shut down its B2B operations in the second half of 2023, and JioMart hit the brakes on its B2B ambitions in late 2023 as well. Alpha Wave-backed 1K Kirana shut its operations, and Info Edge-based ShopKirana saw its revenue plummet by 6% to INR 632 Cr. 

After flirting with B2B in 2021, Meesho wound down its business before the losses spiralled out of control, and well most people might not even know of Zepto’s origins in the B2B space. Such has been the retreat from the B2B space.

The B2B ecommerce and supply chain segment has seen a number of startups grappling with severe issues — from eroding valuations for the likes of Udaan to corporate governance challenges in Zilingo, Reshamandi, Medikabazaar and others. Solv’s issues are not singular, but symptomatic of the industry. 

Which is why if the Jumbotail-Solv deal indeed stands up to the valuation test, this could be one of the most remarkable deals in Indian startup ecosystem history.

[Edited By Nikhil Subramaniam]