Overcart, an innovative online portal which provides over-stocked, unboxed, refurbished and pre-owned products at discounted rates, has raised $3 million in latest funding round.
The Series A round comes from JSW Ventures, Omidyar Network, Sattva Capital and Venture Works. As a part of the deal, Badri Pillapakkam from Omidyar Network and Gaurav Sachdeva from JSW Ventures will join the company’s board of directors. On the other hand, Samir Shah from Sattva Capital will become a board observer.
With this funding, the company is now going to invest in hardware and software innovations. This will help to diagnose, refurbish and quality check products across more categories and locations.
Alexander Souter, MD and co-founder of Overcart, said,
The capital will help us continue to place strategic bets on building out further hardware and software innovations which enable us to diagnose, refurbish and quality check products across more categories and locations.
Overcart was founded in 2012 by Alex Souter and Saptarshi Nath. It provides returns management and liquidation services to major e-commerce companies, manufacturers and retailers.
It provides quality check and certification, repair assistance and online returns management for their clients. It currently offers categories in mobile phones, laptops, accessories and cameras, with a plan to expand into other categories over the coming weeks.
The startup was also a part of the first bath of GSF accelerator, along with companies such as Little Eye Labs and SilverPush. Earlier, in 2014, it had raised funding from K Ganesh’s Growthstory, The Phoenix Fund, Snow Leopard Ventures and GSF Superangels.
It has recently expanded into Mumbai and has also added consumer electronics to its product portfolio. Apart from that, it also launched its own warranty brand— Overtrust, that provides walk-in product repair services in 55 cities across India.
Badri Pillapakkam, Investment Partner, Omidyar, added,
In a country where the GDP is just above $1,500, yet the average price of a new smartphone is $160, Overcart’s certified, quality products come in to significantly increase the purchasing power of consumers who otherwise would not have access to these goods. The company’s philosophy of putting quality first brings much needed transparency to an otherwise opaque ‘buyer beware’ market, while tapping into the massive demand for unboxed and refurbished goods.
According to an estimate, the market size for reverse logistics is speculated to be $20 billion and is growing at a very high pace. Some experts believes that it is plagued by mismanaged returns, high distribution costs and retailer–manufacture conflicts, among other reasons.
