Exclusive: CityMall in talks to corner around $70 Mn in new fundraise

Social commerce platform CityMall is in talks to raise a new round to the tune of $70 million from new and existing backers, according to three people aware of the deal. This will be the third round for the Guguram-based startup in 2021. It had scooped up $11 million Series A in March and $22.5 million Series B in June.

“CityMall is in talks with new and existing backers including General Catalyst, Elevation and Accel to raise a Series C round,” said one of the people aware of the details of the transaction, requesting anonymity. “The company is likely to raise over $70 million in the new round.” 

The talks have emerged at a time when DealShare is also set to score a new round at over $1.5 billion valuation and entry of Swiggy and Meesho into grocery-focused social commerce play. Entrackr had exclusively reported about DealShare’s potential entry into the unicorn club in August.

Swiggy is also launching Swiggy Bazaar which Entrackr had reported exclusively on October 12. Meesho has been experimenting with groceries via Farmiso.

“CityMall will be valued in the range of $300-350 million in the new round,” said the second person who also requested not to be named. “Besides equity, the company will also raise significant debt capital.”

Queries sent to CityMall, Accel and Elevation didn’t elicit any immediate response.

Founded by Angad Kikla and Naisheel Verdhan, the two-year-old CityMall sells over 3,000 products in the lifestyle, grocery and other categories through a network of community resellers in tier II and III cities. It claims to have around 20,000 resellers, 200K consumers in eight smaller cities across the state of Haryana.

Backed by the likes of Jungle Ventures and WaterBridge Ventures, CityMall will be counted among the few startups which have raised or are in the pipeline to close three equity rounds in a calendar year. The list includes professional networking platform Apna, business to business e-commerce platform OfBusiness and used car retailing platform Spinny that is likely to join the club soon. 

Entrackr had exclusively reported Spinny’s upcoming round on August 21.

Meanwhile, social commerce segment posterboy Meesho has continued to mop up large rounds at staggering valuation. It recently mopped up $570 million at a $4.9 billion valuation. However, its peers such as GlowRoad and Shop101 weren't able to attract investor confidence. This resulted in Shop101’s acquisition by InMobi. Entrackr had exclusively reported the consolidation in June.