Jaipur-based grocery store aggregator - Kirana King on Monday announced raising ₹7 crore from Rajasthan Venture Capital Fund (RVCF) in a pre-series A round.

Started in 2017, Kirana King, a unit of Kirana King Retail Network Private Limited looks to close the current fiscal with a revenue close to ₹60 crore, which is about four times growth from about ₹15 crore last year. With the latest round of fundraising, the promoters have offered the venture fund up to 12 per cent of the equity stake in the company.

The funds will be utilised to expand its retail network, manpower, enhancement & development of technology. Presently, it has a grocery retail network of more than 200 stores in Jaipur, Rajasthan.

As the business model, the company aggregates individual kirana wala (neighbourhood grocery retailer) under the brand of Kirana King and takes care of the supply chain, marketing, branding among other services for the retailer. This enables the small-time grocer to reduce his working capital requirements and increase the on-shelf product range with daily supply replenishment assurance from Kirana King.

"We found there were severe bottlenecks in grocery retail eco-system in India. There was no comprehensive platform which can act as a single window service to these grocers," said Anup Kumar, Founder & CEO Of Kirana King.

Kumar stated that unlike the online grocery aggregators such as Jio Mart, Grofers or Amazon, which operated on B-2-C model, his model empowered grocer retail store owners with better branding, high-tech supply-chain management and larger range of products offering for customers under the umbrella of Kirana King.

"Very soon, each and every Kirana King store will be able to take orders online also," Kumar told Businessline . This will provide customers with the ease of placing orders and take the delivery from the neighbourhood grocer. On the other hand, it will ensure sustained business for grocers too.

Gaurav Chowdhry, Vice President, RVCF said, "India has been witnessing substantial changes and developments in the field of Kirana or Grocery Retail. There are not only certain large corporate houses eyeing the space but also the emergence of a few strong regional players like Kirana King. For an early-stage investor like us, Kirana King looks very promising with its Retail as a Service (RaaS) USP.”

For the revenues, Kirana King largely depends on the supply chain trade margins, followed by income from product branding at the stores and subscription fees from these kirana walas.

Kirana King has set a target to achieve 1000 stores by the end of 2021 with expansions in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW