Women e-commerce firm GlowRoad raises funding; Mark Mobius-backed investor bets on BookEventZ

Bengaluru-based GlowRoad, an online portal for women which enables them to sell products in neighbourhoods, has raised $10 million (Rs 69.4 crore at current exchange rate) in a Series B funding round led by Chinese private equity firm CDH Investments. Existing investor Accel, which is a venture capital firm, also participated in the funding, first reported by 36Kr Media.

GlowRoad, previously called LocalQueen.com, enables women to source non-branded products from suppliers on the portal and sell them in their community and neighbourhood.

At present, the platform claims to have over 100,000 resellers, 300,000 buyers and over 20,000 suppliers of clothes, furnishings, shoes and mobile accessories. Accel had invested $2 million in the platform in September 2017.

Kunal Sinha, co-founder of GlowRoad, told TechCircle, “We will utilise the funds for growth and for improving our technology stack. As a one-and-a-half-year-old company, we want to grow our daily orders from 15,000 to 100,000 per day in a year. Some of the capital will be spent on digital marketing. Also, we are less than 100 people today and will look to expand our technology team as well.”

He added that close to 62% of the company’s transactions came from Tier-II and Tier-III cities, covering 26,000 pincodes. Of the total resellers on the platform, 60% are homemakers, 20-25% are female students who sell in their friend circles and the rest are small entrepreneurs.

“We charge a commission of 10% on what our supplier prices the product at and the commission added by the reseller is paid to them,” said Sinha.

BookEventZ raises funding

Separately, Mumbai-based online event venue booking platform BookEventZ has raised an undisclosed amount in a Series A funding round for geographical expansion, a financial news publication said.

According to The Economic Times, Urban Online Services Pvt. Ltd, which owns the venture, received the funding from Mumbai-based venture capital firm Equanimity Investments.

The investment firm counts veteran emerging markets fund manager Mark Mobius as one of its backers.

Shriti Chhajed, co-founder of BookEventZ, told the publication that the fresh capital will be used to increase the number of venues to 100 in Mumbai as well as to boost the brand identity.

Currently, BookEventZ claims to have over 30 venues on its platform in Mumbai. It also claims to have served over 350,000 events so far and lists over 10,000 properties in India.

Chhajed expressed her inability to immediately respond to TechCircle’s queries.

BookEventZ was founded by Chhajed and Harsh Baid in 2012. Chhajed holds an MBA degree from SP Jain School of Management, while Baid is an alumnus of IIT-Mumbai and IIM-Lucknow.

BookEventz enables consumers to organise parties and select vendor services from the platform. It also offers vendors for weddings, birthday parties and corporate events.

In 2016, it raised an undisclosed amount in a pre-Series A round from Lead Angels, Mumbai Angels and LetsVenture.