KartRocket, a DIY online eCommerce platform, has raised $6 million in a fresh Series B round of funding from Bertelsmann India along with the participation of its existing investors Nirvana Digital India fund, 500 Startups and Singapore’s Beenext.
The newly raised capital will be used by the company to further develop its product, hire new talent to the company, develop seller’s ecosystem and for marketing efforts.
Saahil Goel, CEO & Co-founder of KartRocket, said in a statement,
The current ecosystem is not supportive of integrating smaller sellers into e-commerce. In fact they aim at replacing them rather than including them. Kraftly has a single vision of allowing every seller to participate in e-commerce.
There are over 50 million homepreneurs and small sellers in India that currently do not have a medium for launching their sales online. By bringing such sellers online we are building the largest supply base of unique products for buyers to choose from.
Founded in 2012 by Saahil Goel, Gautam Kapoor and Vishesh Khurana, KartRocket enables small and medium businesses to go online under their own brand.
The company is providing web and mobile site, payments and logistics capabilities, in-built marketing and promotion tools as well as integrations with leading B2C marketplaces.
Earlier, in October 2014, the company had raised $2 million in Series A round of funding from Nirvana Venture Advisors, 500 Startups and Beenos in October 2014. Prior to that, the company had raised seed funding from 5Ideas Startup Superfuel and 500 Startups in July 2013.
The company has also launched Kraftly, a mobile-first marketplace that lets users buy and sell products from anywhere from their smartphones. It targets small sellers, individuals, and homepreneurs in India in categories such as apparel and accessories, amongst other products.
According to the report, the Indian e-commerce industry is projected to grow by 15 times in the next five years and is expected to become $75 billion industry by 2020. Also, the estimated number of unorganised sellers is also about 50 million.
Working with a vision to simplify e-tailing for Indian merchants by offering the complete ecommerce solution, so that they can easily come up with their online store and start selling online, the company is competing against the likes of Zepo, Infibeam’s Buildabazaar among others.
