ShopClues raises third round of funding from Nexus Venture Partners and Helion Advisors

ShopClues.com, an Indian eCommerce marketplace has successfully completed its third round of funding. In a tough market, the company raised close to $10 million (Rs. 54 crores) from Helion Venture Partners and Nexus Venture Partners. Nexus Venture Partners had previously led the Series A investment in the company in Feb 2012. With this round, ShopClues.com has raised over $15 million in capital so far. Anup Gupta from Nexus Venture Partners had joined the board last year which has now been expanded with Sanjeev Aggarwal from Helion.On the investment, Sanjeev Aggarwal, senior MD, Helion Advisors believe the time is ripe for smaller business to jump onto the online retail bandwagon, given the prevalence of online shopping among Indian consumers. He says smaller business may lose their share of the marketplace if they do not have an online strategy in place. “This is why ShopClues.com is relevant, and it has proved to be invaluable numerous merchants. On the consumer front, ShopClues.com offers a great comparison engine, a vital shopping tool. The growth that we’ve seen in this company is proof of its leadership and vision”, says Sanjeev.

ShopClues has other investors like Series B investors Helion and Nexus and a Japanese Internet company. Prior to Series A, ShopClues had raised a round (in Aug. 2011) from angels including from early employees of companies like Google, Netscape and many serial entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley.

Nexus Venture Partners have been impressed with ShopClues.com’s differentiated approach to eCommerce, which they think is highly scalable and capital efficient. “Sandeep Aggarwal and the team at ShopClues have single minded focus on execution and are solving fundamental issues for E-Commerce by bringing India centric innovations based on their global learning” said Anup Gupta, MD, Nexus Venture Partners.

The gross revenue transacted on the platform is up nearly 110 times from February 2012 to February 2013. ShopClues was started in Nov 2011 and is on of the fast growing eCommerce platforms. ShopClues.com had launched India’s first managed marketplace, a model that proved disruptive for ShopClues helping it grow faster. ShopClues works with thousand of merchants across India to sell online using ShopClues as a platform. It has a large catalog of products and brands in India with very low prices.

According to Sandeep Aggarwal, founder & CEO of ShopClues.com, the site wants to help small and medium businesses in the country that struggle to garner a toe-hold in this growing marketplace. “At least a third of the 30 million SMBs will benefit from the visibility and marketplace that we offer, albeit at lower transactional costs than doing it alone, all by themselves”, he says.