CraftsVilla.com, a one-of-its kind e-commerce platform for buying and selling ethnic Indian products, has gulped in a massive $18 Million in a Series B round. The new round was led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from Nexus Venture Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners and GFC.
The startup is looking to use this freshly raised capital for team expansion and to invest in scaling its technology platform as it embarks on its “next phase of growth”.
Talking on why he started this platform, CraftsVilla’s Co-Founder Manoj Gupta says,
We started Craftsvilla with the objective of providing people across the globe a way to reconnect with their roots.
And while ethnic products aren’t something which are in mass demand, Gupta still feels that their startup has successfully built a profitable business model. Talking on the same, he says,
Today, we are one of the fastest growing ecommerce companies in India with a profitable business model. We are excited to partner with Sequoia and get the benefit of their company building experience in taking Craftsvilla to new heights.
CraftsVilla claims to be facilitating over 100,000 transactions per month as of now, and is seeing a surging growth. CraftsVilla’s scaling plans are ambitious, with Monica Gupta, COO at the company pegging the company size to be 10 times of what it is now, by the end of this year itself.
The marketplace currently lists over 2 million unique products from more than 12,000 artisans and designers across the country. in the long run, the company is aiming to become a global force in selling and buying of ethnic products, online.
The Ethnic products market in India itself is hugely scattered. While the subcontinent is known for its traditional textiles, art, carvings, jewellery and other domains, there hasn’t been a one stop shop for interested buyers to buy such products. While many brick and mortar stores can be found, the authenticity and genuineness of such products at those stores is highly debatable.
With CraftsVilla however, you get to witness designs, showcased on the website by artisans themselves, thus guaranteeing the authenticity of the product. Customers gain access to well designed, high quality products at reasonable prices and craftspeople get fair prices by removing intermediaries.
CraftsVilla currently lists products spanning across a wide range of categories including, clothing, handicrafts, jewellery and art among others.
