M.Panni, a startup dedicated to digitizing local retailers, has just raised $5.5 Mn (Rs 39 crore) in series A funding round spearheaded by clutch of investors. According to the press release released by the company, these investors include A C Ventures, Kevin Aluwi, Candy Ventures and Ryu Suliawan. Existing investors like Chirataee Ventures and Blume Ventures also took part in the funding round.
The Mumbai headquartered startup will utilize the funds for R&D purposes, speeding up the growth and ramping up growth across the country.
In the era of online shopping, M.Panni believes in empowering local retailers and kirana store owners by enabling them to join digitization bandwagon. To drive small retailers growth, the platform has designed many unique features like customer loyalty program, marketing & analytics and efficient customer relationship management.
The company claims that its app is helping in delivering sustainable growth to more than 50,000 retailers. Furthermore, the company claims that its platform has helped small retailers to increase their transactions by 25% and business growth by nearly 30%.
Kevin Aluwi, co-founder of ride hailing major Gojek, said that M.Panni has hands down knowledge about India’s local retailers, which is effortlessly demonstrated by its products and strategies. The Gojek’s co-founder also added that M.Panni has immense potential for growth across international markets.
Aluwi’s optimism certainly has the chance to stand the test of time in the Indian market, where local and small retailers still dominate India’s retail industry. This is true despite the unprecedented rise of e commerce industry and super markets during the last one decade or so. Experts claim that local retailer’s domination is least surprising considering the infrastructure problems and vast inequality plaguing the country.
Statistically, Local retailers or Karana stores roughly constitute 90% of India’s retail industry transactions.