Gobillion, a social commerce platform, has raised $2.9 million (around Rs 21 crore) led by YCombinator, JAM Fund and Pioneer Fund, the company said in a statement.
The round also saw participation from Goodwater Capital, Olive Tree Capital, Chris Golda Investments, Oliver Jung, Venture Souq, Shanti Mohan, Founder of LetsVenture, Vikas Choudhury, President, Reliance Jio; Acacia Venture Capital Partners, Soma Ventures, Asymmetry Ventures, Dileep Thazhmon, Founder of Jeeves, Vikalp Sahni, Co-founder of Goibibo; Harsh Pokharna, Founder of OkCredit, among others took part in the round, the statement said. The funds will be utilised to expand Gobillion’s business, launch new categories, strengthen operations, in the development of products and technology. According to the company, its goal is to create a social e-commerce experience that is tailored to the demands of clients in small towns across India and Southeast Asia.
Gobillion was co-founded by IIM-NIT alumni Roshan Farhan and Kulapradip Bharali, and is headquartered in San Francisco with its India office in New Delhi.
“We are well-positioned to unlock rapid growth and delight customers with our offerings. We will be leveraging the capital to put our long-term plans into action and create a strong foundation,” said Roshan Farhan, Founder and CEO, Gobillion.
“The funds will help us invest in expanding our market, augment our technology and product capabilities, while doubling down on the hiring of new talent across functions,” he added.
Gobillion said it is launching its services across 12 cities in the next 1.5 years, while scaling across 100 cities in the next four to five years.
Social commerce startups have witnessed a slew of backing from investors. On 8 December Stage3 raised Rs 20 crore ($2.65 million) in a pre-Series A funding round, co-led by Inflection Point Ventures and LC Nueva Investment Partners LLP.
In September, Meesho raised $570 million led by Fidelity Management & Research, and Facebook Co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital Group. Flipkart also forayed into the social commerce space with Shopsy in July 2021. Recently, Shopsy has also entered the grocery segment.
