Dubai’s Jabbar, once parent of ‘Arab Amazon’, backs B2B e-commerce startup Arzooo

Arzooo.com, a business-to-business e-commerce platform launched by two former Flipkart executives, has raised $1 million (Rs 7 crore at current exchange rate) in its pre-Series A funding. The round was led by Dubai-based Jabbar Internet Group and a consortium of investors from India and the United Kingdom (UK).

Jabbar Internet Group was the parent of Souq.com, an e-commerce marketplace serving West Asia based out of Dubai. In early 2017, Amazon acquired Souq.

With the fresh funds, Arzooo.com plans to expand its presence across India, besides investing in product enhancement, new talent recruitment and boosting its technology to encompass wider network of cross-sector retailers, the company said in a statement.

With its mobile app Arzooo Go Store, the retail tech company offers physical retail stores a virtual inventory, which enables them to offer a large selection to customers.

“With Arzooo Go Store, we have made an immediate and measureable impact on physical retailers. Not only are our retailers empowered with increased earnings, they are now on the same pedestal to compete with e-commerce giants,” Khushnud Khan, co-founder and chief executive, Arzooo.com, said. 

The company has 500 partner stores on its platform across Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai.

The firm was founded by Khan and Rishi Raj in October 2016. The latter studied at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur. Khan set up large appliance business at Flipkart and later worked on setting up the e-commerce firm’s grocery business, Nearby. Raj was a key member of the team that built FQuick, a hyperlocal logistics platform, and later worked on Nearby as well.

In May, Arzooo.com raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from early-stage investment firm Omphalos Ventures India.

“We are confident that the Arzooo Go Store technology, when integrated across a broad category of retail, will have a positive impact on the economies of scale. Backing this venture, we see a disruption in physical retail in India with an immediate impact on sustainable business in the traditional format of onground touch and feel sales, better leveraged by technology,” Hussam Khoury, president and co-founder of Jabbar Internet Group, said.