ShopClues To Invest $150K In Four Startups

Gurugram-based online marketplace ShopClues will invest $150K (INR 1 Cr) collectively across four startups.

With the proposed funding, ShopClues will also provide assistance in operations, technology and strategic partnerships to these startups. The company will divide money based upon the stage and requirements of the startups.

Ganesh Balakrishnan, assistant vice-president, Merchant Services, ShopClues said, “We are not sure yet if we will have a stake in the company or disburse the amount based on milestones. All the details will get finalised by next week.”

“It’s not just money that we are giving. We want to help the entrepreneurs with our know-how and expertise in ecommerce itself and offer any operational help,” he added.

The startups receiving funding are Pepper Agro, Glam Studios, Ornativa and Scrapify. ShopClues shortlisted them through the ‘Next Big E-preneur Challenge‘ event. The event was organised by ShopClues itself and they now plan to make it an annual thing.

Ornativa, a jewellery startup uses 3D printing technology to build their products. It is already a merchant on ShopClues and wants to use the funding to scale up and build its brand.

Bengaluru-based Pepper Agro was founded in 2012 by Titus John. It is an online marketplace for gardening products. Scrapify is still in its ideation stage.

Founded in 2016, Noida-based Glam Studios claims to be India’s first chain of tech-driven standardised salons. It currently provides services in Hyderabad and NCR.

Gurugram-based ShopClues was launched in 2011 by Sandeep Aggarwal, Radhika Aggarwal and Sanjay Sethi. It counts GIC of Singapore, Tiger Global, Nexus Venture Partners and Helion Ventures as investors and has raised about $250 Mn till date.

In 2015, ShopClues invested in real-time shopping-assistant app HeyBiz. In July 2016, ShopClues had acquired mobile payments startup Momoe Technologies. In August 2016, Chinese ecommerce giant, Alibaba reportedly held discussions to acquire ShopClues. With the move, Alibaba planned to merge the marketplace of Paytm with ShopClues, to firm up its position against rival Amazon.

This development was first reported in ET.