MaxWholesale raises fresh capital; introduces ESOP Scheme

MaxWholesale, a B2B e-commerce platform for Kirana stores, has raised Rs 4.43 crore from existing investors Al Falaj Commercial Investment and Indian Angel Network Fund. The fresh capital has come after four months of raising $3 million in Series A funding round led by IAN Fund-I and AI Falaj.

The four-year-old New-Delhi-based startup has allotted 426 Series A5 CCPS to the existing backers investors at Rs 44,273.5 per share, mentioned the company’s RoC filing with the MCA.

As a part of the funding round, MaxWholesale passed a special resolution to approve the appointment of Raman Roy as a nominee director in the company. Roy is co-founder of IAN and former chairman of NASSCOM.

To reward its loyal employees, the startup has also approved the adoption of ESOP Scheme 2020 which constitutes 1,725 options which shall be convertible into an equal number of shares of the company at the time of the exercise of such options.

These options can be granted to any eligible employee during any one year shall not be equal to or exceed 1% of the issued capital of the company at the time of grant. These options shall carry a vesting period of 4 years from the issue of grant of such options. The company consequently passed another resolution for approving the grant of such options to a list of eligible employees who have not been disclosed yet.

A brainchild of Samarth Agrawal and Rohit Narang, MaxWholesale helps Kirana stores source inventory online and discover prices and schemes of various FMCG brands and products and order the same for reselling. It powers more than 10,000 Kirana stores in Delhi and manages warehouses in Delhi NCR with delivery service in Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, and Ghaziabad. 

In April, the firm had launched a mobile application ‘Radius’ to connect the local retailers and neighborhood shops with their customers. The app has a database of 13,000 retailers across Delhi and NCR where consumers can get in touch with Kirana stores and local retailers.

MaxWholesale competes with Shopkirana, StoreKing, Udaan, ShopX and GramFactory.