WhatsApp-based Shopping Startup ChattyBao Bags $5 million seed fund

Delhi-based startup ChattyBao, which connects users with local businesses and provides a complete shopping experience over WhatsApp, raised more than $5 million in a seed funding round. The round was co-led by Vertex Ventures South East Asia, India, and Info Edge Ventures.

ChattyBao is a shopping platform built on WhatsApp and was founded in 2021 by Kumar Aditya, former Chief Business Officer at Paytm and Varun Gupta, former director at B Capital Group. The company which ChattyBao aims to transform local commerce in India also saw participation from 7Square Ventures and various prominent angel investors in their seed round.

Kumar Aditya, the co-founder of ChattyBao, said, “Local firms in India have long fought off competition from larger players thanks to their entrepreneurial spirit. ChattyBao will considerably improve their ability to provide an e-commerce experience to their users, allowing them to compete effectively with online players.”

ChattyBao saves the user from downloading multiple apps

The platform connects users with local businesses, shops and services to provide a complete shopping experience over WhatsApp. Users can discover, chat, order and get home delivery from their local merchants without downloading multiple apps.

Chinmaya Sharma, the partner at Info Edge Ventures, said, “The founding team of ChattyBao has a thorough understanding of Indian consumers’ and retailers’ requirements and behaviors, which will enable them to create solutions that will enable local business owners to compete on an equal footing with internet businesses.”

The startup provides local merchants access to conversational commerce over WhatsApp. Their offering demonstrates their customer-centric approach and in-depth understanding that provides the platform an edge over other such players to transform local trade in India.

Kanika Mayar, Partner, Vertex Ventures South East Asia and India, said, “Small merchants and service providers are the backbones of the retail industry in India. ChattyBao can strengthen their value proposition further and become a catalyst in enabling more customers to come online and transact with the same comfort they already experience in WhatsApp conversations.”