Sequoia Capital India Looks To Double Down On Commerce Startup Bikayi
Sequoia Capital India looks to double down on commerce startup Bikayi
A new funding round of approximately $50 million is being discussed by four people familiar with the matter at Bikayi Bikayi, an Indian startup that assists small businesses in setting up and operating their e-commerce stores. Bikayi Bikayi is seeking to scale its platform for assisting small businesses in setting up and operating their e-commerce stores.
According to sources who requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the discussions, Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital India are in discussions with the Indian startup about leading its Series B round of funding. The round is expected to be led by Sequoia Capital India, which led Bikayi's $10.8 million Series A funding in September, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
Responses to requests for comment from Bikayi, Sequoia Capital India, and Tiger Global were not returned.
In addition to accepting digital payments, Bikayi allows businesses to aggregate and fulfill orders from a variety of online and offline sources. Also available through WhatsApp's platform are the ability for businesses to establish e-commerce stores on the platform and to develop their own apps for distribution to customers.
Collaboration with delivery companies
Aside from that, the startup collaborates with delivery companies to assist businesses in shipping their products to customers. It is being described as "creating a powerful tool that unifies the entire commerce infrastructure onto a single platform" by one of its investors.
Numerous services provided by Bikayi are free of charge to commercial clients. According to the company's website, if they wish to expand their online product catalogs, they will be charged a small fee for this service.
"Merchants can access a centralized dashboard for all of their needs because the entire platform has been designed to be easily integrated with other applications. Seeing the positive impact their product is having on small businesses – as well as the country's employment rate – is even more exhilarating "Shraeyansh Thakur, a principal at Sequoia Capital India, wrote about this in a blog post last year.
There are a slew of companies, including India's largest retailer, Reliance Retail, e-commerce giant Amazon, and startups such as Nexus Venture Partners-backed Jumbotail, Tribe Capital-backed Khatabook, and Lightspeed Venture Partners-backed Dukaan, that are assisting merchants in digitizing their businesses and expanding their customer base — sometimes in the same way, but also in their own unique ways.
According to an investor deck reviewed by TechCrunch last month, DotPe, another startup in the space, has more than 9 million customers and generates $4 million in annual revenue. Over 26 million transactions have been facilitated by the startup, according to its investor presentation deck.
As reported earlier this month by TechCrunch, ElasticRun, which provides inventory and working capital management services to hundreds of thousands of neighborhood stores in hundreds of Indian cities and towns, is in talks with SoftBank to raise approximately $200 million at a $1 billion valuation. The company is valued at $1 billion.
