E-Commerce Post-Flipkart

As the horizontal e-commerce story - led by Flipkart - has played out for venture capital investors, Venture Intelligence takes a look at 40+ E-commerce companies funded by Venture Capital firms in the last 18 months. What are the themes investors are backing? What is setting them apart from the horizontal players? (Note: VC investments are defined as Seed to Series D investments in Startups with investment size capped at $20 million.)

Social Selling

Social selling/re-seller platform companies got a big boost as SAIF-backed Meesho raised a $11.5 million Series B led by Sequoia Capital India. This is the second firm in the segment - after Accel-backed Glowroad - to attract VC funding. Glowroad (earlier LocalQueen) had raised a $2.8 million Series A from Accel and RB Investments in Sep-2017. Recently, Sistema Asia-backed Wooplr, a fashion recommendation firm also pivoted to this model.

B2B E-Commerce

VCs began investing actively in this space towards the end of 2015. Startups from the segment that raised large rounds in 2017-18 included Udaan, Power2SME and Just Buy Live. Among recent VC investments, Bizongo attracted funding from B Capital Group and Wydr from Stellaris Ventures respectively. Office supplies startup Aahaa and Kobster also raised funding from seed investors. In 2017, B2B E-commerce companies focused on the agricultural supply chain - including Jumbotail and Ninjacart - began to attract VC attention.

Fashion

This segment is a favorite among VCs and has startups with various business models continue to find their favour. This segment was the most funded in the last 18 months with startups like Voonik, Fynd, eshakti, Mr Button, The Label Corp and Fashalot. (Quite a few startups in the Social Commerce as well as the used goods segments - Coutloot and Elanic - also operate in the fashion space.)

Rentals & Refurbished Goods

In 2017, Sequoia Capital India and Helion Ventures led a $9.4 million Series C in Zefo, which operates a marketplace focused on furniture and electronics. The company which raised its seed round (from Helion) in 2015, raised its next 2 rounds in quick succession in 2016 from new investors Sequoia Capital India and Beenext. Among the fashion focused companies in this segment, Coutloot raised funding from Chinese investor JadeValue Fintech & Artha India Ventures, while Elanic raised from Japanese firm Digital Garage.

These companies are differentiating themselves from the classifieds players like Olx and Quikr by providing customer services tailored to their verticals.

Bain Capital Ventures in its first investment in India led a $10 million Series B round in rentals company Rentomojo. The company had earlier raised funding from Accel India and IDG Ventures India. Other rental companies which raised funding recently include GrabonRent and Rentickle.

Daily Groceries

Even BigBasket, despite raising $507 million from the likes of Alibaba, Abraaj Group and Sand Capital, has not taken a crack at the difficult daily grocery delivery segment. Smaller startups like MilkBasket and DailyNinja - which are attempting to fill this niche - are finding investor support. MilkBasket recently raised a $10 million Series A led by Kalaari Capital.

The above trend was featured as a part of a discussion on ET Now's Startup Central show anchored by Chandra Srikanth.

Interested in knowing more about VC investments in the companies including valuations, transaction multiples, financials? Reach us here.

Venture Intelligence is India's longest serving provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India.