ZopNow, the online grocer has raised a funding of around $10 million that translates to Rs 62 crore. This funding was led by Dragoneer Investment Group based inSan Franciscoalong with its existing investors Accel Partners, Times Internet and Qual-Comm ventures.
ZopNow based in Bengaluru is estimated to be valued at $50 million and the money is claimed to be used for the expansion of the grocer’s services in more cities. Regarding this, Mukesh Singh, Founder and CEO of ZopNow claimed that the firm will be expanding to around 15 cities and it will continue to invest in technology and will hire more employees.
Notably, six months back, ZopNow was involved in managing its inventory and sourcing its supplies from HyperCity, the supermarket chain. He claimed that once a customer places an order, the executives in the store will pack the order and deliver the goods within three hours.
This quick approach in delivering groceries has helped the firm to scale at a much lower investment cost. The firm is in discussion with the offline retailers to implement such a model. Other than grocery, this model will also let the firm in partnering with other retailers dealing with electronics, footwear, apparel and other categories.
The on-demand online grocery service is booming readily and there is a huge competiton for the same. BigBasket, the leading grocery retailer in the county operates its warehouse on itself and Tiger Global backed Grofers influences its logistics network to render the order from the nearest shop.
A largest offline retail business inIndiais the greenery business and experts claim that a fraction of this market segment going online will be a huge progress. As per the India Brand Equity Foundation, the grocery and food products have made up to 69 percent of the $4900 bullion retail segment inIndiain the last year. This is followed by 8 percent of apparel. Also, a survey by AT Kearney claims that 52 percent of the respondents in the country buy groceries online, while the global average in this segment is 42 percent.
The online segment has attracted the attention of larger companies involved in commerce. Amazon also claimed that it will be coming up with an express delivery platform along with the nearby stores. Flipkart is also looking to enter the groceries business in the latter half of this year.
