In its Series D round last year, ElasticRun raised $75 million at a valuation of $400 million.
SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Goldman Sachs Asset Management led a $330 million investment round for ElasticRun, a B2B e-commerce platform. The firm was valued at $1.5 billion in the most recent financing (Series E). The firm was valued at $400 million in the previous round, Series D, which took place in April 2021.
Chimera and Innoven, as well as long-term investor Prosus Ventures, participated in the most recent round.
The investment would enable the firm to expand its rural reach across the country, allowing over a million kirana (neighbourhood retail) stores to easily access huge consumer brands and food brands via its e-commerce platform.
ElasticRun will also utilise the capital to extend its national offerings, like as credit facilities for shops, in order to improve the value and experience that kirana businesses provide to their consumers.
Over 12 million kirana stores exist in India, with 10 million of them located in rural marketplaces. Due to the high-cost architecture of existing distribution networks, rural kirana stores’ great distances from cities, and modest order amounts, these rural businesses continue to be ignored by consumer brands.
“We are proud of the transformational impact of our business, which has empowered rural store owners and consumers across the length and breadth of the country. Through the pandemic, our robust logistics and channel framework ensured uninterrupted supply and support to our rural kirana partners,” said ElasticRun CEO and co-founder Sandeep Deshmukh.
Narendra Rathi, Vice President, SoftBank Investment Advisers, said, “With its deep reach in rural India and tech-led platform, we believe ElasticRun is well-positioned to unlock the next wave of e-commerce. We have been closely tracking the company and have been impressed by their growth, focus on unit economics and value creation for kirana store partners and brands.”
ElasticRun predicts that kirana shop sales in rural marketplaces would reach $600 billion over the next five years. Aside from delivering e-commerce to rural customers through its tech-first strategy, the platform gives actionable insights to more than 300 companies by unlocking data on rural commerce.
In 2016, Sandeep Deshmukh, Shitiz Bansal, and Saurabh Nigam created ElasticRun. Prosus Ventures (previously Naspers Ventures), Kalaari Capital, and Avataar Ventures were among the company’s earliest investors.
