India’s informal shops and sellers make up more than four-fifths of the country’s retail sector. Jumbotail’s online B2B marketplace, warehousing and logistics solutions link over a half-million mom and pop grocery retailers to 2,000 packaged food, home and personal care brands.
The startup has secured $120 million in a Series D funding round led by SC Ventures, the innovation and investment arm of Standard Chartered Bank. Previous investor and late-stage e-commerce VC firm Artal Asia joined in.
One-stop shop
Jumbotail also acquired Solv India, a B2B online marketplace incubated by SC Ventures, which has more than 200,000 users. The acquisition expands Jumbotail’s product catalog to include apparel, footwear and electronics as well as its small business reach.
Jumbotail plans to strengthen its operations and AI integration. It also offers payment solutions via its mobile application as well as working capital with its lending partners.
E-commerce comeback
Jumbotail has raised over $263 million since it was founded in 2015, from investors including the social enterprise accelerator Unreasonable Group and Ajax Capital, the family office of Ajay Gupta, who has launched three fast moving consumer goods brands.
The fresh funding for Jumbotail might be a positive sign for India’s B2B e-retailers.
The digitalization of small businesses in India attracted some $2 billion during the pandemic; enthusiasm withered as high customer acquisition costs and other issues hit startups. Indian B2B-commerce competitor Udaan last month raised $114 million from existing investors M&G Prudential and Lightspeed Venture Partners – after seeing its valuation halved.
