E-commerce enabler Kartrocket secures $6M for Kraftly

Delhi based DIY e-commerce platform Kartrocket has raised $6 million funding in new round led by Bertelsmann India Investments (BII), and existing investors, Nirvana Digital India Fund, Nirvana Digital Investment Holding Co. Ltd., 500 Start-Ups and Singapore-based Beenext also participated in the round.

The fresh proceedings will be allocated towards product development, talent acquisition, seller ecosystem development and performance marketing. Kraftly competes with Snapdeal’s mobile focused C2C platform - Shopo.

The company provides the following support to SMEs:

1. Build their web and mobile site.
2. Integrate payments and logistics capabilities.
3. In-built marketing and promotion tools.
4. Integrations with leading B2C marketplaces.

Kartrocket also forayed in C2C space and rolled out Kraftly to tap 50 million homepreneurs. Saahil Goel, Co-Founder & CEO, Kartrocket believes that the current eco-system is not supportive of integrating smaller sellers into e-commerce and aims at replacing them rather than including them. He shared that there are over 50M homepreneurs and small sellers in India that currently do not have a medium of launching their sales online.

Kartrocket snapped up close to $2 million investment from Nirvana Venture Advisors, 500 Startups and Japan-based Beenos (NetPrice) in October 2014. Earlier, it has also secured seed capital from 5ideas and 500 Startups.

The company competes with Zepo, Infibeam’s Buildabazaar in e-commerce enablement segment while Kraftly competes with Snapdeal’s Shopo and Paytm. Snapdeal is betting big on Shopo and according to a media report it's planning to surpass Snapdeal's merchant base this year.

Pankaj Makkar, MD, Bertelsmann India Investments, said:

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 O2O commerce in countries such as China, Singapore, US and Japan is further validation of this business opportunity.

The Indian e-commerce industry is projected to grow by 15 times in the next five years and is expected to become a USD 75 billion industry by 2020. On the other hand, the estimated number of unorganised sellers is about 50 million. Startups and e-commerce biggies have ventured to tap offline to online (o2o) sector. Snapdeal launched Shopo while Paytm floated zero commission marketplace for small merchants. Offline to online phenomenon is widely popular in China and stakeholders anticipate similar revolution in India with the increasing penetration of smartphones.

Besides enabling e-commerce to SMEs, Kratrocket seems to have a sharp focus on its mobile focused arm Kraftly and this round will help it to expand its reach among fledgling homepreneurs like bakers, craftsmen and others.