Gurgaon-based Locodel Solutions Pvt Ltd, the company behind Grofers, an online platform that connects offline retailers with customers, has received an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Sequoia Capital. The funds will be used to enhance the firm’s technology platform, Grofers’s co-founder and CEO Albinder Dhindsa told VCCircle.
“Grofers has been growing at a great pace across Delhi and Mumbai. We now partner with over 150 local merchants and continue to bring more merchants onboard. We will continue with our strategy of tying up with local merchants and making the process of delivery smoother for the end consumer,†said Dhindsa.
Grofers was started in January this year by Dhindsa, along with Saurabh Kumar. An alumnus of Columbia University and IIT Delhi, Dhindsa earlier worked in the US for around six years before co-founding Grofers. Kumar, an alumnus of IIT Bombay, holds an MS degree in Transportation Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. Earlier, he was COO of Rasilant Technologies.
Grofers is a hyper-local delivery service that connects local merchants with consumers in their locality. According to Dhindsa, Grofers’ working model is very similar to Instacart in the US, which helps offline retailers to go online and connects them with customers in their locality.
Grofers recently expanded its operations to Bangalore. It currently employs 180 people across Bangalore, Delhi NCR and Mumbai.
The company has also launched Grofers On-Demand, an Android app that allows users and businesses to get their delivery done by just selecting a pickup and a drop location.
In Bangalore, Grofers will mainly compete with Delyver.com. An online platform that connects offline retailers with customers in a neighbourhood, Delyver recently secured over Rs 6.5 crore (over $1 million) in funding from an undisclosed VC fund based out of the city.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)