Sterne India Pvt. Ltd, which operates retail-technology startup Arzooo, has raised $7.5 million (Rs 55.25 crore) in its Series A funding round led by US-based technology venture fund WRVI Capital.
3Lines Venture Capital and the UAE-based Jabbar Internet also participated in this funding round, Arzooo said in a statement. Another US-based investor also pooled in capital, the company said without disclosing its identity.
The Bengaluru-based startup will use the fresh capital to strengthen its technology infrastructure and expand its business. It will use part of the funds to ramp up its technology platform Go Store, which seeks to address the problem of selection, price, supply chain and sourcing for offline retailers.
Arzooo was founded in 2018 by Khushnud Khan and Rishi Raj Rathore, former Flipkart colleagues and IIT-Kharagpur alumni. The startup’s platform helps physical retailers to compete and grow against e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Flipkart. Arzooo has a network of more than 5,000 partner stores across more than 10 cities including Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad.
The startup recently launched its new digital credit lending product, Arzooo Credit, to offer working capital to its partner stores.
Sudhir Rao, managing partner at WRVI Capital India, said Arzooo has demonstrated a highly scalable product market fit in less than two years through its focus on the $50 billion consumer durable segment.
The larger retail-technology sector has recorded a few deals in the past couple of years.
In July, Rudraksha Tech Labs Pvt. Ltd, which operates contactless retail-tech startup Gobbly, raised $500,000 in seed funding.
In August last year, Slingloft Technologies Pvt. Ltd had raised seed funding. The firm helps retailers to manage their loyalty and engagement network.
In July that year, Walmart Labs, the technology arm of US-based multinational retail giant Walmart Inc., acqui-hired Indian startups FloCare Labs Pvt. Ltd and BigTrade Infosystems Pvt. Ltd to strengthen its customer service systems.