Social ecommerce startup Coutloot on Sept 9 said it has raised Rs 59 crore in a funding round, led by venture capital firm Ameba Capital. SOSV, 9Unicorns and Astarc Ventures also participated in the round. Existing investor Venture Catalysts also took part in the funding round. It is planning to raise further around Rs 180 crore.
Coutloot plans to use the funds for launching more services for retailers, scaling its B2B supply chain, and stepping up hiring activities across verticals, said the company in a press release.
Founded in 2016 by Jasmeet Thind and Mahima Kaul, Coutloot allows buyers and sellers to bargain while shopping. It helps sellers list non-MRP (non-fixed-price), unbranded local market products across fashion, electronics, home decor, sports and other boxed categories that makeup 75% of India’s retail sector at present. Its app allows buyers to chat in their preferred language, which gets translated into the seller’s preferred language.
“Most commerce still happens offline for various reasons, including low trust and bargain. Coutloot helps sellers and buyers with that power to decide the prices after a bargain on the chat. We are trying to create Coutloot as India’s Taobao, which is one of the fascinating e-commerce success stories around the world,” Coutloot co-founder and CEO Jasmeet Thind said in the statement.
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The startup claims to provide business opportunities to over 500,000 offline retailers, mom-and-pop stores, home sellers, and street hawkers and has over 20 million listings on its app.
On investing in Coutloot, Kevin Wang, managing partner at Ameba Capital, said: “Coutloot has best addressed the needs from the rising consumption of 500 Mn-plus tier 2 and 3 population in India, by converging online and offline retail. The incoming fast 4G mobile rollout in the country will land successes like what’s happened in China, like Taobao, Tmall and Pinduoduo or even TikTok creating conversational social commerce supported in India’s local languages.”
The company claims to have grown 11 times during the pandemic and has been growing at a compound annual growth rate of 300% over the last three years. Coutloot is looking to clock a platform GMV of Rs 1,000 crore in 2022 on the back of rising demand coming from smaller towns.
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