Bengaluru-based B2B retail tech firm Arzooo has raised an undisclosed amount led by Zoom meeting app founder Eric Yuan and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Bill Tai.
This is the Eric's first investment in India, Bill Tai has 22 IPOs to his credit and was among the very first investors in Twitter, Zoom Video, Wish.com, Canva, and ColorGenomics.
In an exclusive interaction with YourStory, Khushnud Khan, Co-founder of Arzooo.com, said,
“Having one of the biggest tech entrepreneurs, who has built a $100 billion technology company with Zoom, is a great addition to the team. Alongside the investment, Eric’s entrepreneurial journey and experience will be a great intellectual capital for us.”
Founded in 2018 by ex-Flipkart colleagues and IIT-Kharagpur alumni Khushnud Khan and Rishi Raj Rathore, Arzooo is disrupting the offline retail space by empowering offline stores to compete effectively with larger ecommerce websites.
The startup helps its partner electronics retail stores address their persistent problem of inventory selection, pricing, and sourcing supply chain.
The retail tech startup will use the funds to scale operations in the Eastern and Western regions of the country. It currently operates in Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Chennai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad. It will also channelise funds to ramp its tech platform, Go Store.
Arzooo Founders: Rishi Raj (L) and Khushnud Khan
Assisting offline retailers
The startup, through its Go Stores, aims to solve the big problem of selection, price, and complex supply chain and sourcing for offline retailers. It aims to serve 50,000 retailers in the next year.
In July this year, the platform announced the launch of its new digital credit lending product, Arzooo Credit, for offline retailers. This will offer working capital cushion to Arzooo’s partner stores as the sector recovers from the impact of COVID-19.
With Arzooo Credit, retailers can avail from Rs 1,00,000 to Rs 10,00,000 credit on Arzooo platform. At present, the service is open to over 5,000 retailers across 10 cities.
In October 2020, the startup had raised $7.5 million in its Series A funding led by WRVI Capital.
Edited by Teja Lele Desai
Link : https://yourstory.com/2020/11/funding-alert-zooms-eric-yuan-bill-tai-invest-arzooo
Author :- Trisha Medhi ( )
November 16, 2020 at 11:37AM
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