Mumbai-based Zepo Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which runs a do-it-yourself e-commerce platform for small businesses, has raised Rs 3.19 crore from a clutch of investors including online funding platform LetsVenture and FreeCharge co-founder Kunal Shah.
People Group founder and CEO Anupam Mittal, who is an existing investor, and Hetal Sonpal, former head of strategic alliances at Intel India, also participated in the round, the company’s filings with the ministry of corporate affairs show.
Hyderabad Angels and Tally Solutions Pvt. Ltd, an accounting and taxation software provider, put money as well, Zepo founder Nitin Purswani told VCCircle.
The company raised the funds in two tranches, in December 2016 and January 2017. It could not be ascertained if this was part of the firm's seed round.
Prior to this, the company had raised funding from One97 Mobility Fund, Orios Venture Partners and Mittal in December 2014. Previous RoC filings show the company had raised about Rs 1.58 crore then.
Purswani also said that the company will use the fresh funds to expand its product line. He added that the company was poised to break even during the third quarter of 2017-18.
Founded in 2011, Zepo offers end-to-end e-commerce solutions. It has four product offerings: Zepo E-commerce, which helps businesses create an online store; Zepo Marketing, which helps companies increase traffic to their website; Zepo Marketplace, which helps sellers manage orders from multiple platforms on a single dashboard; and Zepo Couriers, which enables online sellers to ship their products to domestic and international locations.
According to information on the company’s website, its primary offering Zepo E-commerce is used by more than 1,500 brands including Stori Fashions, professional football club Bengaluru FC and OYO Bazar, among others.
A marketing professional, Purswani has earlier founded ventures such as Bijness.in, a platform that provided bloggers with an alternate revenue stream, and Avatar Tee-s, which made casual t-shirts representing Marathi culture.
In 2015-16, Zepo generated gross revenue of Rs 3.22 crore while incurring a total expenditure of Rs 4.52 crore, its financial statements show. Purswani had recently told BusinessWorld that the company was on track to clocking gross revenue of Rs 8-10 crore for 2016-17.
E-commerce enablers seem to have caught investors' fancy of late. In May, Singapore- and Pune-based e-commerce fulfilment platform Anchanto secured funds from Luxasia Group, a Singapore-headquartered omni-channel retailer of beauty products.
In the same month, Bangalore-based e-commerce consultancy firm Ace Turtle Services raised $5 million in Series A funding from Vertex Venture Holdings, the investment arm of the Singapore government Temasek, and Singapore-based real estate developer CapitaLand.
*This article has been updated to add comments from Zepo's founder.