ZFW Hospitality Pvt Ltd, which runs dark store platform ZFW, said it has raised pre-seed funding of $300,000 (around Rs 2 crore) from a bunch of investors including Rahul Jain and Uday Thakker (Co-Founders of Epigamia), Ashutosh Valani and Priyank Shah (Co-Founders of Renee Cosmetics and Beardo), among others.
The company plans to use the fundraise to scale up its operations, accelerate hiring and build a robust tech platform.
ZFW, which was launched in 2020 by Madhav Kasturia, helps expansion of direct-to-consumer brands and clinches orders using its tech-enabled dark stores network across India.
In 2021, the company raised $150,000 (around Rs 1 crore) from Mumbai Angels Network, along with California-based accelerator Expert DOJO and three other angel investors.
“Covid rapidly accelerated the emerging trend of direct orders for a huge segment of the e-commerce space. We’re building a strong dark store network for D2C brands who will ride this wave. ZFW is on track to grow 10X by the end of 2022," said Kasturia.
The startup in a statement said that it aims to launch over 500 dark stores across all major metro and mini-metro markets by the end of 2022. It also claimed to have partnered with many reputed brands, including Baskin Robbins, Vadilal, Keventers, among others, across Delhi, Mumbai and Pune.
