MaxWholesale raises USD 3 mn from IAN Fund, Abu Dhabi's Al Falaj Investments

MaxWholesale, a B2B e-commerce platform for kirana stores, on Tuesday said it has raised USD 3 million (about Rs 21.4 crore) in funding led by IAN Fund-I and Abu Dhabi-based Al Falaj Investment Company (AFI). The Series-A round also saw participation from existing investor Maple Capital, along with Infoedge's ex-CFO Ambarish Raghuvanshi, Maple Capital's Abhinav Grover and Biba Group's Siddharth Bindra, among others, a statement said.

Raman Roy and Abdelghani have joined MaxWholesale's board as directors, it added. "With the investment, MaxWholesale will hire talent to develop its technology further and accelerate growth... MaxWholesale is also looking to expand its reach to Kirana stores in the coming months," it said.

The platform currently services 10,000 kirana stores in Delhi. The company manages various warehouses in Delhi-NCR with the delivery fleet of 60 vehicles in Delhi, Gurugram, Noida and Ghaziabad. "We felt that there was a dire need for technology in this sector and, hence, we introduced data science into this field to make restocking more predictable and organised," MaxWholesale founder and CEO Samarth Agrawal said.

With this approach, the company is aiming to change the way in which the business is done at these stores, he added. "In the last year, we clocked 20 times growth in terms of revenue. Going forward, we are excited to use this investment to extend our capabilities and drive a bigger impact for FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) chains and kirana stores through our technology-driven platform," he said.

He added that the company will soon open its ecosystem to NBFC (non-banking financial company) lenders for providing credit and working capital loans to its kirana stores. Pankaj Karna, managing director at Maple Capital, said that with the infusion of technology into the wholesale market, MaxWholesale has created an ecosystem for kirana stores wherein everyone can be benefitted.

"We are confident about the capabilities of the whole workforce building the product and we are happy to back them in their journey," he added.

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