28 November 2016, India :
Jaipur based B2B wholesale eCommerce venture Wholesalebox raised $2 million from a group of institutional investors and marquee angels including Contrarian Vriddhi Fund, an undisclosed tier-1 VC fund and Manish Maheshwari, CEO of Network 18 Digital and ex-Flipkart head of Seller Ecosystem, among others.
Wholesalebox is a platform for shopkeepers to buy apparel, fashion jewelry and home furnishing products directly at factory prices, without any travel, hence lowering purchase rates by 25-30% while adding to convenience.
Rohit Dangayach, Co-founder and CEO of Wholesalebox said, “Fashion and Lifestyle categories together represent more than a $150 bn market opportunity, with unbranded accounting for more than 80% share, and the largest channel margins across categories. We initially sold products sourced fromlocal market of Jaipur where we have been able to win the confidence of suppliers and hence got large number of suppliers onboard. The main objective is to provide doorstep delivery to retailers along with better choice while reducing their landing cost by 25%.” Rohit says, “We strongly believe that retailers should be able to focus more on their customers to help them have a better experience.”
Founded in 2015, Wholesalebox will utilize the funds to scale technology, roll out operations in new markets and improve the supplier and buyer experience. The company uses technology that helps small and medium manufacturers (primarily in the non-branded space) to scale byproviding pan India sales channel, while giving retailers an improved procurement experience, avoiding traditional hassles of logistics, negotiation, limited choice, quality validation and credit.
