Hyperlocal ecommerce platform Lovelocal on Thursday said it raised $18 million (Rs 143 crore) in a pre-Series B round led by Vulcan Capital. The financing round also saw the participation of Klarna Founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski’s Flat Capital and Alumni Ventures Group and Commerce Ventures.
Angel investors, including Nami Zarringhalam (Co-founder, Truecaller), Sriram Krishnan (General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz), Anna Lambert (Director of Product Acceleration at Shopify), Sarah Jones Simmer (CEO of Found, and ex-COO of Bumble), Arpan Sheth (Senior Partner at Bain & Company), and others, also participated in the oversubscribed round.
Founded in January 2020 by Akanksha Hazari, LoveLocal’s current funding round marks the largest round ever raised by a solo woman tech founder in India. The company provides subscription-based software solutions to local retailers and operates a hyperlocal online marketplace. The ecommerce platform focuses on hyperlocal daily needs categories like grocery, medicines, fresh fruit, vegetables, and dairy and charges a subscription fee ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 8,000.
LoveLocal said it has seen 40X growth since inception and currently serves over 35 cities and 1,300 pin codes across India. In 18 months, the company said it has signed up more than 100,000 retailers and fulfilled more than a million orders. It is seeing 35% plus month-on-month growth.
“We have always believed in the local retailer. They win on every consumer consideration: service, quality, product selection, value, credit, free delivery and speed of delivery. Local businesses also account for more than 40% of jobs in India. They are a bedrock of our communities and the economy. LoveLocal is bridging the technology gap to ensure that our local retailers not just survive but thrive in India 2.0 and beyond,” Akanksha Hazari, founder & CEO of LoveLocal, said.
