ETtechSocial commerce platform CityMall has raised $11 million in Series A funding, led by Accel.
Elevation Capital and WaterBridge Ventures also participated in the funding round.
The capital will be used to strengthen the online grocery platform’s supply chain, logistics network and expand its footprint to 20 new cities in tier 2, 3, and 4 markets. It aims to expand its network of community leaders to over 200,000 and more than 2 million customers by 2022.
Launched in January 2020, CityMall is a social e-commerce venture that has developed a community commerce platform for everyday products. It sells lifestyle, grocery and other products through peer-to-peer referrals on instant messaging platform WhatsApp.
“In the next 10 to 12 months, we intend to grow by 10X of where we are right now,” Angad Kikla, co-founder, told ET.
Kikla said the Covid-19 pandemic was a tailwind for the company.
“Initially, there were issues around back-end supply chain. Fulfilment was an issue especially with delivery networks but after the first couple of weeks it’s been business as usual.”
The company earlier raised $3 million in a seed round led by Elevation Capital.
The rise of social commerce is paving the way for a distributed model built on community, connection and trust, according to EY’s 2021 report on e-commerce trends in India.
“Covid-19 has also acted as a catalyst for offline retail to shift online, and social commerce platforms are emerging as facilitators to ease the process of transition and growth for India’s burgeoning offline retail businesses,” it said.
Another report by Bain & Company said the sector is expected to see almost 10-fold growth to $16-$20 billion by 2025 from $1.5-2 billion in gross sales currently.
“Tier II grocery is a very large opportunity, which has remained untapped because of unique challenges that traditional e-commerce models have struggled to address. CityMall’s community group buying model has allowed it to bridge this gap and offer a high trust and super convenient purchase experience,” said Akarsh Shrivastava, Vice President, Elevation Capital.
Elevation Capital and WaterBridge Ventures also participated in the funding round.
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Launched in January 2020, CityMall is a social e-commerce venture that has developed a community commerce platform for everyday products. It sells lifestyle, grocery and other products through peer-to-peer referrals on instant messaging platform WhatsApp.
“In the next 10 to 12 months, we intend to grow by 10X of where we are right now,” Angad Kikla, co-founder, told ET.
Kikla said the Covid-19 pandemic was a tailwind for the company.
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“Initially, there were issues around back-end supply chain. Fulfilment was an issue especially with delivery networks but after the first couple of weeks it’s been business as usual.”
The company earlier raised $3 million in a seed round led by Elevation Capital.
The rise of social commerce is paving the way for a distributed model built on community, connection and trust, according to EY’s 2021 report on e-commerce trends in India.
“Covid-19 has also acted as a catalyst for offline retail to shift online, and social commerce platforms are emerging as facilitators to ease the process of transition and growth for India’s burgeoning offline retail businesses,” it said.
Another report by Bain & Company said the sector is expected to see almost 10-fold growth to $16-$20 billion by 2025 from $1.5-2 billion in gross sales currently.
“Tier II grocery is a very large opportunity, which has remained untapped because of unique challenges that traditional e-commerce models have struggled to address. CityMall’s community group buying model has allowed it to bridge this gap and offer a high trust and super convenient purchase experience,” said Akarsh Shrivastava, Vice President, Elevation Capital.
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