Jumbotail, a three and a half year old bangalore based start up which provides an online wholesale platform for groceries and other food items, raised an investment worth $12.7 million in series B financing round.
The funding round was led by Heron Rock, with participation from Capria Fund, BNK Ventures and William Jarvis and existing investors Nexus Venture Partners, and Kalaari Capital. It has raised $24 million to date.
Jumbotail was founded in November 2015 by Stanford alumni S. Karthik Venkateswaran and Ashish Jhina. It envisions of creating a food and grocery ecosystem in India that connects thousands of kirana stores with brands and traders. Jumbotail offers a variety of products including staples, spices, dry fruits, packaged foods, and FMCG products. The firm offers a number of amenities including supply chain logistics, a mobile app for placing orders, integration with point-and-sales devices, and credit solutions to shop owners who can’t easily avail credit from banks.
The company will invest the funds in AI, in a bid to upgrade its supply chain network and make it easier for brands get moving on the marketplace, said Ashish Jhina, cofounder and COO of Jumbotail.
Jumbotail’s area of operations is limited to Banglore till now and its mobile app provides support in four languages; English, Hindi, Malayalam, and Kannada.
“Our fundamental principle is to serve our customers in languages they are comfortable in. Many of these people are not using other apps. They are using smartphones for the first time. This is also their first experience with e-commerce,” he said.
In addition, Jhina told that although Bangalore is the only city the company conducts its operations in, but they are on course to perceive $100 million in GMV by the end of 2019. It is planning to expand its operations in other cities and will make advances in that space soon, he said.
Jumbotail employs about 140 people and additional staff in the vicinity of 400 people in supply chain management. When compared to big firms like Amazon India and Walmart owned Flipkart, it is relatively small in terms of size and number. Amazon India and Flipkart have been aggressively working with small retailers to expand its wholesale businesses. Reliance Retail is also in line and is growing its operations expeditiously.
