Unbxd’s story behind raising Series A round: Helping eCommerce companies understand their consumers better
There is no series A crunch for companies which clearly disrupt and create value for its customers, says Pavan Sondur, co- founder, Unbxd that recently raised $2 million series A from IDG Ventures India and Inventus Capital Partners. Unbxd, a TechSparks 2011 TECH30 startup, connects users and products in real-time with its smart and engaging platform, which recommends products to users while they interact with the eCommerce site irrespective the ways they are interacting. The startup claims to improve conversions on eCommerce sites anywhere from 50-200%.
Offered solutions and evolution of Unbxd
Unbxd understands users likes, dislikes, past behavior, affinities for brands, price ranges, styles, categories of products, and tries to guess what they might be looking to buy and suggests to them. For instance, a user who likes Louis Philippe shirts gets a different set of shirts compared to somebody who has bought a lot of 'Peter England' shirts. Currently, the company offers four solutions - Pulse, Greyhound, Navigator and Connect.Pulse gives the eCommerce site a glimpse into how personal their site is and how far their site personalizes products for their users while Greyhound is the eCommerce-ready site search component that understands eCommerce context in search relevancy and personalizes results per user. Navigator is the category navigation section which personalizes product recommendations when users browse various categories for products. On the other hand Connect is the underlying personalization technology that marries context and relevance to get unique personalized product recommendations for unique users.
At present, Unbxd has around 20 customers on the platform including Trendin (Madura Garments), Caratlane, travelguru (part of Yatra) and Singapore-based redmart. When asked about journey so far, Sondur says, “The journey has been a crazy roller-coaster ride. From understanding how to build a product, we realized that we need to build a company after we raised our first round of funding last year”.
On raising series A
Launched in 2011, Unbxd had secured angel investment from Indian Angel Network (IAN) in September last year. Besides this, it recently raised $2 million from IDG Ventures India and Inventus Capital Partners. “Most of the capital would be used for expanding the business outside of India. We're looking at strengthening our global presence using the cloud and build a sales and marketing team focused on North America,” adds Sondur. Apart from this, it will also infuse proceedings on product development and ramping up R&D efforts while driving innovation.
While there might be a dip in the eCommerce companies raising funds, Sondur feels that the eCommerce story is strong and growing in India and the technology product companies are just at a tipping point. “In my opinion there is funding available for companies that clearly disrupt and create value for customers,” emphasizes Sondur.
What next
Unbxd aspires to create experiences for online shoppers which resemble the offline world using its technological solutions. ‘’Every shopper is unique and every such shopper deserves a unique experience on the web and mobile. We will build a team and strategize to put this message across to all the retailers out there and create value for them and their businesses,” adds Sondur.