Jumbotail, a business-to-business e-commerce startup that distributes groceries to mom-and-pop retailers, stated that it has secured a Series C investment of $85 million.
The funding was led by Artal Asia Pte. Ltd., an affiliate of Invus, a global equity investment firm with over $10 billion of evergreen capital under management. The round was also attended by Ajax Capital, the family office of renowned FMCG entrepreneur Ajay Gupta. This Series C round included both primary and secondary investments, with early investors Nexus Venture Partners and Kalaari Capital participating in the secondary in a small capacity. This brings the company’s total capital raised to $125 million. The valuation was not disclosed by the company.
Jumbotail plans to treble its engineering, product, design, data science, category management, marketing, and finance staff with the cash. It will also expand its core B2B marketplace from 38 cities to 100 cities and towns throughout India, invest in large-scale kirana entrepreneur skill development projects, and boost its Go-To-Market services to help regional and new wave FMCG businesses.
It also intends to expand its J24 store network. The firm has partnered with kirana shop owners to co-brand their stores and provide additional perks. Jumbotail not only serves these retailers, but it also has POS machines, inventory management, real-time analytics, and merchandising intelligence to enable it fulfil online deliveries.
“We nearly quadrupled our scale in 2021 and are looking to further accelerate our growth trajectory in the coming year,” said Ashish Jhina, cofounder and COO of Jumbotail.
The company competes with bigger rivals like Bengaluru-based Udaan and Reliance’s wholesale arm, Jiomart Partner.
