Watch: Ashish Jhina on how Jumbotail is turning kiranas into omni-channel grocery stores

Bengaluru-based food and grocery business-to-business (b2b) ecommerce platform Jumbotail is targeting expansion in three to five new South Indian cities on the back of its recent $11 million fundraise.

The company, which provides 4,000 products to its network of 30,000 kiranas plans to also invest in its private label business, Ashish Jhina, cofounder of Jumbotail said in an interview to TechCircle. He added that close to 65-70% retailers on the platform buy at least one Jumbofarm private label product every month.

“We will also create a supply chain network for fresh produce for our J24 stores,” Jhina said, adding that as part of the co-branded programme, Jumbotail offers point-of-sale devices, analytics and other insights to these stores. It also helps the stores become discoverable online by listing on Dunzo, Swiggy and other platforms. 

The company has also created a separate entity for its warehousing and logistics unit as well as its credit services vertical, which provides working capital loans to kiranas through NBFCs (non banking financial company) and fintech companies. “We have managed to disburse Rs 200 crore over the last four years through this and we plan on growing this over time,” he added.

Founded in 2015 by Stanford University batchmates Jhina and Karthik Venkateswaran, the company claims to have built out its operations in Bengaluru with close to $1 million investment in capex. It is also working on mechanical automation to drive efficiency in the supply chain. 

While Covid-19 hit the distribution network and wholesale markets, Jumbotail saw the demand from its kirana store customers growing. For an average store, which purchases from 100-125 suppliers, Jumbotail commands anywhere between 15 to 30% of the wallet share of the store’s purchases.

With new entrants like Jio Mart, Flipkart Wholesale and others entering the space, Jhina is not worried. “The space requires deep focus to solve the issues and we can keep at it and we will still not solve all the problems for b2b retail. It is good that there are new players,” he added.