Rural commerce startup Rozana has raised $22.5 million in funding round led by Bertelsmann India Investments (BII) with participation from Fireside Ventures and existing investors.

Founded in 2021 by Ankur Dahiya, Adwait Vikram Singh, Mukesh Christopher and Prithvi Pal Singh, the company plans to use the funds to expand Rozana’s warehousing and logistics reach into new districts, enhance its technology platform, and boost hiring across technology, product and operations teams.

The company runs an e-commerce platform and logistics network focused exclusively on rural India. It operates in about 12,000 villages across 13 districts in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

“With this funding, we will continue building out our logistics and supply chain infrastructure to reach new districts and empower rural communities with access to essential products,” said Ankur Dahiya, CEO, Rozana.

The company presently serves more than 12000 villages across 13 districts in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. The company has a network of about 18,000 last-mile partners comprising village residents, about 90 per cent of them being women.

“The opportunity in rural India is greatly underappreciated and this team is the ideal one to unlock it. The offering created by Ankur, Adwait and Mukesh is outstanding and it is hard to find a company with such consumer love,” said Rohit Sood, Partner at Bertelsmann India Investments. “The possibility to create meaningful impact in millions of lives excites us and we are thrilled to partner with Rozana on this journey,” he added.

Rozana will be working very closely with Binny Bansal’s xto10x to work on creating India’s fastest-growing rural commerce company. xto10x is working on a long-term partnership with Rozana on warehouse design, last-mile delivery, technology, category launch, etc.

The company raised $2.5 million in a funding round co-led by 3one4 Capital and Europe’s IEG – Investment Banking Group.

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