Rozana, a rural commerce startup, has raised $22.5 million (around INR 186.5 crore) in a fresh funding round led by Bertelsmann India Investments (BII). This funding round also saw participation from Fireside Ventures, Vivek Gupta, co-founder of Licious, and existing investor 3one4 Capital.
The fresh capital secured by the startup will be allocated towards expanding its warehousing and logistics infrastructure, enhancing its technology stack, and bolstering hiring efforts across technology, product, and operations departments.
Established in 2021 by Ankur Dahiya, Adwait Vikram Singh, Mukesh Christopher, and Prithvi Pal Singh, Rozana functions as both an ecommerce platform and a logistics network, with a primary focus on catering to the requirements of rural communities in India.
The startup asserts its presence in 13 districts, boasting a network of approximately 18,000 peer partners.
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“With this funding, we will continue building out our logistics and supply chain infrastructure to reach new districts and empower rural communities with access to essential products,” said Dahiya.
“The opportunity in rural India is greatly underappreciated and this team is the ideal one to unlock it. The possibility to create meaningful impact in millions of lives excites us and we are thrilled to partner with Rozana on this journey,” said Rohit Sood, partner at Bertelsmann India Investments.
Kanwal Singh, founder and managing partner at Fireside Ventures, said, “Rozana’s focus on providing a wide range of products across categories in rural markets and the unique background of their founders make them well-poised to build a very successful business.”
Before this, Rozana had raised a total of $4 million in funding through two previous rounds.
It competes with Peel-Works, Jumbotail, ElasticRun, Copia Global, and Kasha.
The Indian ecommerce market, expected to reach $400 billion by 2030, saw a significant reduction in startup funding in 2023. Reports indicate that Indian ecommerce startups raised $2.6 billion during the year, marking a 32% decline from the $3.8 billion raised in 2022.
Meanwhile, the number of deals also decreased by 33.6% to over 192 from over 288 a year ago. Overall, ecommerce funding reverted to 2019 levels when the sector secured a total of $2.5 billion across 130 deals.
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