NDTV's e-commerce arm Gadgets 360° raises funding from One97, ex Apple's CEO and others
One97 Communications (owner of consumer brand Paytm) along with Inflexionpoint (Co-founded by John Scully, former Apple CEO), Pramod Bhasin (Founder, Genpact), Sixth Sense Ventures (Founded by Nikhil Vora), Vindi Banga (Former Chairman, Unilever), Hiro Mashita (Founder and Director of M&S Partners) have invested in NDTV’s recently created e-commerce arm Gadgets 360°.
Earlier this month, NDTV secured an undisclosed amount of VC funding for Gadgets 360° and Fifth Gear Auto. NDTV claims to have over 20 million monthly unique visitors on its gadget focused website. Besides gadgets and automobiles, NDTV also added food and movies verticals.
NDTV Gadgets has always been the most credible go-to destination for all gadget enthusiasts in India and it is very exciting to see them move to a transactional model with Gadgets 360°. We are looking forward to partnering them in this journey and creating a compelling marketplace experience which marries content, curation and commerce.
In May this year, NDTV’s online retail venture Indianroots had raised $5 million from KJS Group at valuation of $85 million.
Importantly, this is the first unconventional funding by One97 which had invested in logistics, delivery and local services like Jugnoo and Zovi's founders initiated offline to online platform Little App. Gadgets 360° has raised funding at a valuation of close to $50 million.
Announcing the additional funding, Kawaljit Singh Bedi, Managing Director, Gadgets 360° said,
I am personally very excited to have such great investors in Gadgets 360° and to leverage their experience in building this into a large and meaningful business in India and globally. The investors have been pioneers in their field and with their incredible knowledge of building big businesses, they will be crucial for our success.
NDTV recently appointment Bhawna Agarwal as the CEO of Gadgets 360°. With over 16 years of experience, Bhawna had stints at brands such as Yatra.com and Seventymm among others.
Vikram Chandra, Group CEO, NDTV, stated,
Gadgets has become one of the most exciting areas of expansion for the NDTV Group. We had built a powerful brand connect in this thanks to our digital platform NDTVGadgets.com and our TV programming with popular shows like Gadget Guru and Cell Guru. I am delighted to welcome Paytm and Vijay Shekhar Sharma, as an investor in Gadgets 360°.
