Indian business-to-business (B2B) retail tech startup Arzoo has raised $70 million in its series B round. The startup now boasts a host of celebrated investors, with DoorDash co-founder and chief executive Tony Xu making his first investment in Indian retail tech.
Besides Xu, Arzoo also raised funds from SBI Investment, an arm of Japanās SBI Group, and the Trifecta Leaders Fund. Earlier, the startup had bagged investment from Zoomās founder Eric Yuan. Existing investors Celesta Capital and 3 Lines VC participated in this round too.
With the latest fundraising, Arzooo has raised $85 million since it was founded by ex-Flipkart colleagues Khushnud Khan and Rishi Rathore in 2018, Arzooo. The startup plans to use the new funding to scale its technological arm focused on scaling storesā growth and market expansion.
āWe are pleased to welcome a new set of investors to the Arzooo rocketship with this round that was oversubscribed by 1.4X. While we truly appreciate the investor communityās interest, we are glad to get on board some amazing set of people with a shared vision to transform offline retail,ā Khushnud Khan, co-founder and CEO of Arzooo, said.
Arzoo, empowering small retailers to survive with e-commerce giants
Arzoo is building a tech platform for transforming offline retail in India by helping small retailers survive with e-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart. Headquartered in Bengaluru, Arzooās platform provides 30,000 retailers access to various stock-keeping units (SKUs) across leading and emerging brands in 22 states. It helps retailers overcome challenges like extensive inventory holding and access to pricing.
The retail tech startup last raised an undisclosed amount from Zoom founder Eric Yuan and Silicon Valley-based venture capitalist Bill Tai. The startup raised $7.5 million in Series A funding from US-based technology venture fund WRVI Capital, 3Lines Venture Capital, the UAE-based Jabbar Internet and other investors it didnāt name at the time.
āArzoooās business model is capital efficient and can meet the increasingly diversified requirements of retail shops and end customers. It is also great for them to have built a self-branded functional logistics system, which is one of the most important parts of the business. There is no limit to the companyās future, and we would like to support the company in their way to great success,ā said Yoshitaka Kitao, chairman and president of SBI investment.
