DotPe onboards Google to cap table in $27.5 mn fundraise

Offline-to-online merchant platform operator DotPe on Friday said it has secured a Series A stage fundraise of $27.5 million from PayU, Info Edge Ventures, and new investor Google. 

The fresh capital will be deployed towards accelerating product development, market expansion and scaling technology, as per a statement. 

The round was led by its early investor, PayU, the payments and fintech business of Prosus, resulting in an increase in the existing stake in the company, the statement said. Info Edge Ventures, it added, has doubled down on its seed investment in the company made last year, and more than doubled its shareholding. 

Read: Fresh off stealth mode, Dot bags $8 mn from PayU, Fosun, Info Edge  

“We see DotPe as an integrated commerce and fintech platform that empowers merchants and enables them to control their digital presence, discoverability, commerce, payments etc. to complete their offline-to-online journey and are excited about the possibilities ahead,” Kitty Agarwal, a partner at Info Edge Ventures, said.  

The Gurugram based company was founded by former PayU co-founder Shailaz Nag with former PayU executives Gyanesh Sharma and Anurag Gupta in 2020. Post PayU, IIT Delhi graduate Sharma headed technology at MakeMyTrip and ShopClues. Gupta was a company vice president at PayU. 

It digitises quick service restaurant themed models, ranging from enterprises to small businesses, with its solutions of in-store and remote ordering, online payments, and delivery. 

On the enterprise side, it has so far integrated the platform with over 10,000 restaurants and food courts, including leading global and domestic F&B brands. On the small businesses front, DotPe’s Digital Showroom has onboarded over 5 million merchants within six months of launch in September 2020. 

Digital Showroom enables merchants to sell online by creating a digital storefront and accepting orders through WhatsApp. In the last 12 months, over 5 million Indian consumers have switched to ordering and buying from DotPe’s merchants using its platform, the statement added. Over 38% of orders daily are now through repeat consumers. 

“This new partnership will empower businesses (big or small) to be more discoverable, expand business avenues and conduct commerce like never before. Pandemic or not, we are here to reimagine the way offline businesses work and bring the digital revolution to the doorstep of every entrepreneur,” Nag said.  

Search engine giant Google’s other notable bets in the Indian startup industry include those in hyperlocal logistics player Dunzo, adtech player InMobi-owned lock screen features creator Glance, and news aggregator and content platform Dailyhunt.