Reverse auction-based e-com platform Arzooo bags Rs 1.5 Cr seed fund

Arzooo--a reverse auction-based e-commerce platform for high value branded goods has raised Rs 1.5 crore in a seed funding round from Omphalos Ventures India.

The Bengaluru-based startup will use the initial capital to ramp up its technology and expand its footprint to Hyderabad followed by top ten cities by March next year. Besides, it also plans to build algorithms that help to predict discounts in real time.

Founded by ex-Flipsters Khushnud Khan and Rishi Raj, Arzooo is a real-time reverse auction-based e-commerce platform for high value branded goods such as refrigerator, air conditions, and televisions.

The startup claims to offer better prices than large horizontal e-commerce companies such as Amazon and Flipkart. It also claims to serve more than 2,000 customers with an average ticket size of Rs 22,000 on high value branded goods, and a monthly run rate of Rs 7 million.

So far Arzooo has been focusing on home appliance products, but now have brought in all high-value electronics, communication and IT category of products on their platform, it said in a press statement.

According to Khushnud, the startup sees the next line of categories in the price range of Rs 10 thousand to 10 Lacs as a potential opportunity for a reverse auction platform like Arzooo.

In an interview with Entrackr, Arzooo had revealed that unlike in low ticket size verticals such as fashion and grocery, reverse auction model works well with all high value branded goods like home appliances, mobiles, IT and gaming products.

The high Value branded goods market is offline heavy and very fragmented and with a discounted price model, the startup aims to make a dent in the segment.

TV, Washing machine, refrigerators are the highest selling categories for the startup. It also claims to have unit economics positive on the operational level.

Arzooo competes with large horizontal players such as Amazon, Flipkart, ShopClues and vertically integrated startups such as Zefo focusing on appliances.