B2B consumer electronics company Arzooo has raised $70 million to scale its business in a $65 billion market, The Economic Times reported Wednesday (June 29).
The all-equity round saw participation from Japan’s SBI Holdings, Trifecta Leaders Funds, Celestia Capital, 3 Lines VC and Doordash Founder Tony Xu, according to the report.
“While the last decade has been about the proliferation of new-age economies, [the] internet was still seen as a rival to offline retail,” said Arzooo Co-Founder and CEO Khushnud Khan in the report. “The retailer community has been at the receiving end for a while. Today, technology is making inroads into brick-and-mortar shops, and we are excited to be at the forefront of this revolution.”
Khan argued in the report that Arzooo is democratizing retail in India and breaking down the barriers of size, scale and capital for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
The report noted that a number of Indian companies are trying to bring digital technology to India’s SMBs, among them Reliance’s Jiomart Digital and Udaan.
Meanwhile, the Indian government has launched a new digital marketplace for businesses in that country, designed to help SMB exporters, artisans and farmers reach new markets and increase their sales.
Read more: Indian Government Launches B2B Digital Marketplace for SMBs
The portal was created in response to the pandemic, which generated a new dependence on eCommerce in India, to say nothing of the rest of the world.
“It is witnessed during the pandemic, that online platforms such as eCommerce have shown immense potential in supporting millions of businesses to sustain themselves,” Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Smt. Anupriya Patel said last month, adding the business portal should help more startups, artisans, farmers and other smaller operations pursue exports.
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