Simsim scores Series B round within six months of launch

Social commerce platform Simsim has secured around $8 million in a Series B funding round led by its existing investors including China-based Shunwei Capital and Accel Partners.

With the latest investment, the Delhi-based firm has raised $16 million across its Seed, Series A and Series B funding rounds in six months since launch.

While Simsim's $1.5 million Seed capital came from HNIs including Sunil Kalra, Gaurav Bedi, and Maninder Gulati in April last year, the company had raised around $6 million in a Series A round led by Shunwei and Accel in November of 2019.

Entrackr had exclusively reported on the funding rounds.

The fact that Simsim has been able to raise money in quick succession over the past 7 months is a testament to immense opportunity in the social commerce space and overall investor excitement in this space.

The company is likely to deploy these fresh proceeds towards expanding its network of influencers and further build the technology platform.

Launched in July 2019 by former Paytm, Mckinsey and Foodpanda executives, Simsim offers short-videos produced in local languages by influencers who try out or test to explain the features of the products.

If they like what they see, the users then have the option to tap on a link in the video to proceed with the purchase. Once a sale is made, payments and logistics are taken care of by the company itself.

Simsim, which is trying to cater to niche audiences and middle- and lower-income segments from non-metropolitan cities, claims to have its early customers from tier 2 and 3 towns.

Currently available in four languages including Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and English, the company is eyeing to serve its customers in 20 different languages by the end of this year.

In a press statement, Simsim also claimed to have over 1 million users and more than 1200 micro-community influencers on its platform.

In the past year, social commerce startups have attracted heightened interest from venture capitalists. The segment has gained even more momentum with entry of players like BulBul, Simsim and EkAnek, which are focusing on video commerce.

Recently, Alibaba had also made its debut in the Indian social commerce space with Yoli. The e-commerce giant is set to launch a video-based affiliate platform later this year. 

Besides, Alibaba-backed Paytm and women-focused social network Sheroes had also forayed into the social commerce space with their new products MyStore and SHECO, respectively.