E-commerce enabler Kartrocket raises $6 million to build next-gen Mobile Marketplace

New Delhi, January 20, 2016: India’s leading e-commerce enabler, KartRocket, has raised $6 million in a round of funding led by Bertelsmann India Investments (BII), a strategic investment arm of Bertelsmann in India. Existing investors, Nirvana Digital India Fund, Nirvana Digital Investment Holding Co. Ltd., US-based 500 Start-Ups and Singapore-based Beenext also participated in the fresh round of funding.

KartRocket currently caters to the burgeoning SME market in India by enabling merchants to go online under their own brand. The platform provides a web and mobile site, payments and logistics capabilities, in-built marketing and promotion tools as well as integrations with leading B2C marketplaces to provide an end-to-end e-commerce experience.

 

To further strengthen its stronghold in the seller ecosystem in India, KartRocket has recently launched “Kraftly” (September 2015), a mobile-first O2O marketplace that is targeting small sellers, individuals and homepreneurs in India in long-tail categories such as apparel, accessories, home, crafts,and other unique and eclectic  products. The platform can be accessed via web as well as both, Android and iOS, apps.

 

“The current eco-system is not supportive of integrating smaller sellers into e-commerce; in-fact they aim towards replacing them rather than including them. Kraftly has a single vision of allowing every seller to participate in e-commerce. There are over 50M homepreneurs and small sellers in India that currently do not have a medium of launching their sales online. By bringing such sellers online we're building the largest supply base of unique products for buyers to choose from. The fresh investment will help us with cutting-edge product development, talent acquisition, seller eco-system development and performance marketing.”, commented Saahil Goel, CEO & Co-founder of KartRocket.

 

Kraftly lets users buy and sell products from anywhere, in seconds from their smartphones. Listing an item is as simple as uploading a photo and adding a few details. Sellers can also utilize built in selling tools like selling on Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook to reach out to current buyers they have. Sellers can easily print out shipping labels and hand-over packets to integrated courier services – directly from within Kraftly’s app.Buyers have the ability to browse through millions of unique listings and directly chat with sellers in addition to purchasing items. Kraftly also has a personalized feed of listings which is a much loved feature by buyers as it “auto-curates” unique products for buyers based on their demographics and their browsing behavior on the app.

 

"With a strong focus on seller enablement over the past 3 years, the KartRocket team has the best expertise in the country in launching a micro-seller platform. By giving the power of e-commerce back in the hands of the small seller, Kraftly has the potential to create an entire new e-commerce eco-system currently lacking in the Indian market. The recent growth in O2Ocommerce in countries such as China, Singapore, US and Japan is further validation of this business opportunity. " said PankajMakkar, MD, Bertelsmann India Investments.

 

“With Kraftly's launch, the company is well positioned to cater to a growing smartphone-savvy millenial population in India. With demand channels increasingly getting fragmented over social media and instant messaging, Kraftly provides buyers with the comfort of intuitive buyingon familiar social channels”said RajanMehra, Managing Partner, Nirvana Venture Advisors.

 

Currently boasting of more than 7500 shops, Kraftly adds over 10,000 listings per day. Its vision is to create the best and most trustworthy ‘flea-commerce’ platform by bringing on board the long tail of individual and small sellers & allowing them to fairly participate in e-commerce

 

KartRocket had previously raised their seed round from angel investors 5Ideas Startup Superfuel and 500 Startups in 2013.  The company in 2014 secured its Series A funding from Nirvana Venture Advisors, 500 Startups and Beenos.