Construction tech startup 91Squarefeet, on Tuesday announced that it has raised $10 million in a Series A round led by Stellaris Venture Partners. Existing investors Y Combinator, Betatron Venture Group and some angel investors also participated in the round.
91Squarefeet plans to use the funds to strengthen its on-ground service and product development teams along with deepening engagement with its supplier network.
Founded in 2019 by Amit Bansal, Amit Mishra and Puneet Bansal, 91Squarefeet enables brands to set up new physical stores. The company has a network of more than 600 contractors and factories.
91Squarefeet digitizes the supply chain around retail projects, reduces friction in collaboration and information exchange amongst stakeholders, said Amit Bansal, chief executive, 91Squarefeet.
The startup claims to have developed more than 700 stores for 40 brands across over 230 cities so far. Bansal said that in India, there is no direct competition for the startup as of now and that it competes with unorganized contractors and agencies as well as pits against a few big names in certain segments.
Bridgestone, Yokohama, DHL, Tata, Chaipoint, Ceat and Pepperfry are some of the clients of 91Squarefeet, which is now planning to deepen its presence in markets it already operates.
Without sharing the exact figures, Amit said that the southern market rakes in the most revenues for the Gurugram-headquartered startup, followed by the Western markets of Gujarat and Maharashtra.
“Demand for organized retail is growing, more so in tier II and III cities. However, a majority of brands struggle to expand their offline presence and tap into this massive opportunity. High dependence on small, unreliable suppliers often create inefficiencies leading to a 20-25% higher cost of building a retail store along with several weeks of delay,” said Rahul Chowdhri, partner, Stellaris Venture Partners.
“91Squarefeet’s tech-enabled platform solves this very pain point, providing brands with a timely and cost-effective way of building their stores,” he added.
The latest deal is the second financing round for 91Squarefeet this year. Previously, the startup raised $1 million (around Rs 7.5 crore) in pre-seed funding round from Omphalos Ventures India, Nikhil Vora of Sixth Sense Ventures, actor Rannvijay Singh Singha and VG-Angels, among others. The startup was also a part of Y-Combinator’s W22 batch.
