[Funding alert] B2B ecommerce startup MaxWholesale raises $3M in Series A

B2B ecommerce platform for kirana stores, MaxWholesalerecently raised $3 million as a part of its Series A round led by IAN Fund-I and Abu Dhabi-based private family office Al Falaj Investment Company (AFI).

Existing investor Maple Capital Advisors also participated in this round along with Info Edge’s former-CFO Ambarish Raghuvanshi, Maple Capital’s Abhinav Grover, and Biba Group’s Siddharth Bindra, among others.

The startup will be using the investments to hire new talent and develop its technology stack further while accelerating growth, and expand its reach to kirana stores in the coming months.

Samarth Agrawal, CEO and Founder of MaxWholesale, said,  

“We are thrilled to partner with IAN, AL Falaj, and Maple Capital as we further scale our operations. We felt that there was a dire need for technology in this sector and hence, we introduced data science into this field to make restocking more predictable and organised. With this approach, we are aiming to change the way in which the business is done at these stores.”

Samarth also added that the startup will soon be opening up its ecosystem to NBFC lenders, which will provide credit and working capital loans to the kirana stores, on the platform.

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Commenting on the market opportunity, Mohamad J. Abdelghani, Director of Business Development at Al Falaj Investment Company, said,  

“We believe MaxWholesale is solving a major problem of FMCG supply chain and kirana stores in India. It is a fragmented and cluttered industry, which needs an infusion of technology. MaxWholesale has brought a dynamic change in the way these businesses operate. We are glad to support them as they scale to new heights.”

Raman Roy, Co-founder of IAN, stated that kirana stores in India form the backbone of Indian retail by market share. He also added that the time is apt for the kirana industry to have the same technology-led advantages as major retail chains.

Founded in July 2016, and headquartered in Gurgaon, MaxWholesale is a B2B ecommerce platform, which helps kirana stores to source inventory online and discover price and schemes on various FMCG brands and products for ordering and reselling.

Speaking about their investment, Pankaj Karna, Managing Director at Maple Capital added,

”MaxWholesale’s rapid growth and ability to unlock real value for FMCG supply chains and kirana stores have been impressive. With the infusion of technology into the wholesale market, they have created an ecosystem for kirana stores wherein everyone can be benefitted. We are confident about the capabilities of the whole workforce building the product and we are happy to back them in their journey.”

The company also manages inventory in its warehouses and has developed its own logistics arm for next-day delivery of orders. It has also developed its own UPI payment gateway called MaxPay for the specific payment needs of its partner retailers and distributors to make a cashless supply chain.

At present, the startup services 10,000 kirana stores in Delhi. In addition to this, it manages various warehouses in Delhi NCR with a delivery fleet of 60 vehicles in Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, and Ghaziabad.

(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)