Leading B2B e-commerce company ShopX, on Tuesday, said it has raised $35 million (₹240 crore) in a new round of funding from Fung Strategic Holdings Ltd (FSH).

The Fung Group is head-quartered in Hong Kong and operates across the entire global supply chain for consumer goods including sourcing, logistics, distribution and retail.

Nandan Nilekani, leading entrepreneur and investor, backed ShopX from its early days with a personal investment of more than $18 million in addition to providing mentorship to the ShopX founders. He said the ShopX model provides small retailers the same cutting-edge technology and supply chain solutions that any established e-commerce or organized retailer has access to. This provides an on-boarding ramp into the formal economy for millions of retailers and the next 400 million consumers.

ShopX has been built on scalable and sound business principles like platform thinking, capital efficiency and a sustainable growth model. “We are very excited to welcome the Fung Group into ShopX, and look forward to expanding the platform with their investment and strategic synergies.”

Expanding e-commerce

Founded by Amit Sharma and Apoorva Jois in 2015, Bangalore-based ShopX is expanding e-commerce to “India II” by connecting brands and suppliers with small merchants and consumers through a digitally-managed retail platform. This platform enables small merchants (and their customers) to purchase various products and services from manufacturers/brands. ShopX is transforming small local merchants into economic digital hubs powered by an integrated technology platform, Sharma said in a statement.

There are 12 million small merchants in India who constitute about 90 per cent of the Indian consumption economy of $700 billion. In comparison, e-commerce currently represents about 2 per cent of the consumption space while large format retail (or big box stores) and modern trade (such as supermarkets and hypermarkets) represents about 7.5 per cent, leaving over 90 per cent of retail in India to small merchants across the country.

ShopX adopts an inclusive ecosystem partnership approach in the rapidly emerging omnichannel/ digital offline space. On the demand side, it works closely with retailers and traders to digitally enable them instead of negatively disrupting them. On the supply side, it partners with leading brands and manufacturers to digitise their value chains and distribution systems. A suite of technology products enables the seamless integration of these demand and supply side partnerships.

‘Extremely excited’

Sharma said ShopX is keen on building a globally transformative company in India with a deep product and technology-led culture. “Nandan has helped us not only with capital but also significantly enhanced our vision with his strategic guidance and helped instill sound operating values. We could not have asked for more in an early stage investor. As we plan for hyper-growth, we are extremely excited to have a global supply chain leader like the Fung Group as our strategic investor,” he said.

ShopX has grown rapidly in a short span of time, covering 50,000 retailers across 300 towns and doing over ₹500 crore in annualized transaction volume. Its technology platform is already built to support billion-dollar scale. With the latest funding round, ShopX plans to expand to lakhs of small merchants, strengthen its product and technology and build new offerings covering multiple product verticals, Sharma added.

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