Small retailer-focused sourcing platform GramFactory is in advanced discussions to raise $3-4 million in a round led by Omidyar. According to two sources, the talks have been on for a couple of months and due diligence is almost completed. This is the second round of investment for the firm this year.
“Omidyar would put anywhere between $2.5 to 3 million while remaining half a million will come from existing investors,” said one of the above source aware of the transaction, on condition of anonymity. Sources say the deal is likely to close early next month.
The Gurugram-based startup helps local neighbourhood kirana stores to buy products directly from brands across food & beverages, personal care & hygiene, and confectionery. In May 2019, GramFactory received about $1 million in a round led by BEENEXT including angels such as Amrish Rau and Amit Lakhotiya.
Entrackr had exclusively reported about GramFactory’s maiden funding round.
Since sourcing products directly from brands is mostly not available for small retailers, GramFactory enables this for small kirana stores. The firm is likely to foray into a few new cities following the new investment.
Launched by Navneet Singh, former CEO of PepperTap — GramFactory also helps retailers borrow capital from third-party lenders based on transaction history on its platform.
Queries sent to Singh and Omidyar did not elicit a response at the time of publication of the story. We’ll update the post as and when answers come in.
At present, the B2B sourcing space is dominated by Udaan and then the likes of Jumbotail and Shopkirana. While Udaan raised a staggering $585 million this year from several marquee investors including Tencent, ShopKirana and Jumbotail raised $12.5 million and $10 million respectively in 2019.
