Excl: Refurbished goods e-tailer GreenDust in talks to raise $50M in Series B funding

Delhi-based Reverse Logistics Company Pvt Ltd (RLC), which operates under the brand GreenDust, an e-commerce platform for refurbished goods, is in talks to raise $50 million in its Series B round of funding, according to Sandeep Murthy, partner at Lightbox Ventures, an investor in GreenDust. GreenDust, which has offices in the Middle East, will use the money to expand its footprints into various markets in Southeast Asia and Africa.

"GreenDust is looking for fresh investments, which will be used for expanding to overseas markets and adding more categories. We have started conversations with a variety of people, including large growth-stage PE and VC investors in India and overseas. We are also getting interests from various investors," said Murthy.

He, however, declined to share more details.

In a separate chat with Techcircle.in at our Mobile Forum 2014, GreenDust's founder and CEO Hitendra Chaturvedi admitted that the company is looking for fresh investment, but added the firm has not made a final decision on the quantum of funding.

"It is too early to disclose the details such as the names of the investors and the quantum of investment. However, our existing partners will participate in the fresh round. We will find out exactly what the deadline would be, in 30 days," he noted.

According to some other media reports, GreenDust is looking to raise as much as $100 million.

In June 2012, the company had raised $40 million (then Rs 171 crore) in funding from Vertex Venture Holdings Ltd, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers (now Lightbox) and Sherpalo Ventures.

Established in 2009, GreenDust works with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to pick factory-rejected products and refurbishes them to sell online and also through its 250-plus franchise stores across India. The firm claims to have partnered with more than 40 brands for over a lakh products.

According to the CEO, a major chunk of the revenues comes from categories like consumer electronics, home appliances, IT and mobiles. GreenDust claims it is clocking Rs 100 crore in revenues on a monthly basis, and is eyeing $250 million in revenues by the end of the current fiscal year (FY14-15).

The firm is now looking to expand its product portfolio. "We are looking at categories such as apparels, shoes and medical equipment. In the medical devices segment, we will work with OEMs to pick their factory-rejected devices, refurbish and sell them to tier II and III hospitals," mentioned Chaturvedi, an IIT Roorkee alumnus who also holds an MBA from Southern Methodist University in the US.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)