Arzooo, a B2B Retail-tech start-up, has raised $7.5 million in Series A funding led by WRVI Capital.
Arzooo’s existing investors 3Lines Venture Capital, another US-based investor and Jabbar internet of UAE also participated in the current round.
The start-up will leverage funds for tech upgradation and market expansion.
Arzooo was founded by ex-Flipkart colleagues and IIT-Kharagpur alumni, Khushnud Khan and Rishi Raj Rathore, in 2018 in Bengaluru.
The start-up, which currently operates in Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad, will be scaling operations in the eastern and western regions of the country. It will also channelise funds to ramp up its tech platform, “Go Store” that solves the big problem of selection, price and complex supply chain and sourcing for offline retailers.
The company aims to serve 50,000 retailers in the next year.
Commenting on the fund raise, Khushnud Khan, co-founder of Arzooo.com, said, “Our strong growth over the past year is a testimony to the positive impact Arzooo has had on the business of physical retailers. The current fund raise will help us boost our technology, quality of service and reach to fulfil our goal of equipping each retail store with technology to grow and perform profitable business.”
Arzooo recently announced the launch of its new digital credit lending product, ‘Arzooo Credit’, for offline retailers, that will offer working capital cushion to Arzooo’s partner stores, especially during the time when the retail sector is just on its way to recovery from the Covid impact. With this, retailers can avail credit from ₹1,00,000 to ₹10,00,000. At present, the service is open to over 5,000 retailers across 10 cities.
Sudhir Rao, Managing Partner WRVI Capital India, said, “Arzooo has, in less than two years, through its initial focus on the $50-billion consumer durable segment, demonstrated a highly scalable product market fit, especially in a country where local medium and small retailers dominate the market. Arzooo’s technology and localised demand-supply integration offer great scalability to retail stores for both product expansion and profitability, which is a win-win for all.”