Kirana commerce startup ElasticRun has raised $300 Mn in a fresh round of funding led by Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank. The new round makes it India’s 5th unicorn of 2022.
New round of funding also saw participation from New York-based Goldman Sachs, Prosus Ventures (earlier known as Naspers Ventures), Innoven Capital, and Abu Dhabi’s Chimera Investment, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi’s Royal Group.
According to ElasticRun’s regulatory filings, the startup has allotted 19,958 Series E CCPS to these investors to raise INR 2,259.7 Cr. As per Inc42’s estimates, the round values ElasticRun at around $1.5 Bn.
The new investment comes almost a year after it had raised $75 Mn in Series D funding round led by Avataar Venture Partners. The round also saw participation from Prosus Ventures, and Kalaari Capital among others. The round valued the startup at around $400 Mn. This means, the latest funding has thrusted the startup’s valuation by 3.75X.
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Started in 2016 by former Amazon executives Sandeep Deshmukh, Shitiz Bansal and Saurabh Nigam, the company enables small kiranas across the country to source goods, especially in the FMCG space, from leading brands. It also offers working capital, analytics services and aggregation of fulfilment services. It also works with leading ecommerce firms like Amazon India to reach customers in rural markets through its kirana network that helps in delivery of goods as well.
The startup, as per its website, claims that it has operations in 28 states, across 500 locations and has partnered with 500 brands. The startup also works closely with Amazon, ITC, Pidilite, Reliance Retail, Wipro, among other major brands.
The Pune-based startup competes with the likes of B2B ecommerce giant and now IPO-bound startup Udaan, social commerce platform unicorn Meesho and Dealshare among others.
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