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Instamojo

Instamojo raises fresh capital from Gunosy and Base; to explore global markets

Instamojo

Singapore-based Gunosy Capital and Japan-based Base have invested an undisclosed sum in Instamojo, a digital enabler and payments platform for micro-businesses. This is the second investment from Gunosy Capital to Instamojo. In January 2019, Gunosy had participated in Instamojo’s Rs 50 crore Series B round.

The investment from Base is strategic for the Bengaluru-based company. Base went public in September 2019 and is known as Shopify of Japan. For the past year, Instamojo has been positioning itself as a digital enabler for small merchants and besides capital Base would help it in overseas and local markets with expertise and technology. 

Gunosy announced the funding through a blog post without any specifics.

Responding to Entrackr’s queries, Sampad Swain, CEO of Instamojo said, “We are building an online store and commerce platform for small businesses. The fresh investment will go towards expanding our business and entering overseas markets.” Sampad declined to share further details.

Instamojo, which allows merchants and businesses to sell products through the web and accept digital payments, has managed to grow even during and after Covid-19 lockdown. The company turned profitable in June. It also claimed to generate free cash and became cash-flow positive in the month and hit its all-time high gross margin value or GMV run rate of Rs 2,000 crore. 

Focusing on small merchants, The Kalaari Capital-backed eight-year-old firm had also launched over half a dozen products such as sachet loan via WhatsApp, loyalty and rewards programs Mojoplus, InstaCash and marketplace API.

Started as a payment gateway for small merchants, Instamojo had changed direction to focus on e-commerce enablement space since early last year. To bolster its new ambition, the company also acquired Times Internet-backed GetMeAShop. The e-commerce enablement space has become crowded with the entry of several deep-pocketed players.

About half a dozen companies including OKCredit, Khatabook, Magicpin and Mswipe have been eyeing to grab a significant pie of e-commerce enablement space. The segment has also caught the eyes of investors. Y Combinator-backed Bikayi raised a seed round from Grammy Award-winning band Chainsmokers. Rakz Inc’s Dukaan also bagged $6 million in its maiden round from Lightspeed and Matrix.

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