Blubirch raises $2M from Chicago Capital, Sanjay Mehta, others

Bangalore-based Green Enabled IT Solutions Pvt Ltd, which operates IT reverse logistics startup Blubirch, has raised $2 million (around Rs 13.3 crore) in angel funding from Chicago Capital Ventures, angel investor Sanjay Mehta and others.

The funds will be used for scaling up operations, geographical expansion and ramping up the company's technology infrastructure, it said in a statement.

"Our main focus is to assist our clients manage their complete range of technology assets," said Sapan Jain, CEO of Blubirch.

"The sheer addressable market size makes Blubirch an attractive proposition. There is an exponential growth opportunity in multiple categories," said Sanjay Mehta, angel investor.

Founded in April 2014 by Sapan Jain, Jeby Cherian, Amit Goel, and Jayathirtha P. Katti, Blubirch is an independent end-to-end IT reverse logistics provider which helps liquidate returned products from three categories of customers—the online marketplaces, the offline sellers and the industries. The company deals with assets ranging from enterprise machines to mobiles. It claims to have more than 30 clients in its enterprise category alone.

"We will continue focusing on bringing incremental value to our clients by extending the life of technology products and making these second-life quality products affordable for companies and individuals," said Jain.

Headquartered in Bangalore and with offices in Mumbai and Singapore, Blubirch aims to expand its operations to Mumbai and Delhi within the next couple of months. As part of its expansion plans, the company plans to build a big refurbishment warehousing centre in both Delhi and Mumbai.

According to Jain, the addressable market for reverse logistics in India is $20 billion. Blubirch also has an online marketplace—named value4price.com—where registered sellers can list their products—mobile phones, accessories and electronics---upon verification by the company. Currently, it has more than 1500 resellers on its platform.

Blubirch will compete with the likes of Delhi-based Reverse Logistics Company Pvt Ltd (RLC), which operates GreenDust, an e-commerce platform for refurbished goods.

In September last year, Techcircle.in had reported that Greendust was in talks to raise over $100 million for its Series B round of funding. 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.