LatestOne secures Rs 20 cr funding from Palred Technologies
Online tech accessories store LatestOne has raised Rs 20 crore from existing investor, Palred Technologies Limited (PTL). The company will use funding to ramp up operations to 6,000 orders per day and establish its third warehouse in Mumbai. With this round the company had raised Rs 50 crore in total funding.
Unlike horizontal and niche marketplaces, LatestOne follows inventory model and claims to ship 4,000 orders every day. According to a press statement, PTL has already raised Rs 9 crores through preferential share allotment to non-promoter investors, Koh Boon, Singapore Airlines, Passage to India Master Fund, and Ashish Dhawan.
The chairman of PTL, Palem Srikanth Reddy, said, “LatestOne.com has grown from 100 orders per day to 4,000 orders per day in a span of 15 months. It stocks and sells over 10,000 SKUs from Delhi and Hyderabad warehouses.”
Launched in June 2014 by Reddy, Latestone.com offers a one-stop complete solution in tech accessories such as mobile covers, tablet accessories, cables, power banks, Android TVs and CCTVs. It’s the only public listed e-commerce platform in the country.
In an earlier interaction with YourStory, LatestOne said about raising Rs 150 crores from domestic investors for global expansion. However, it seems like the company didn't pull off aforementioned amount and had deferred its international expansion.
The company claims to be on track of crossing the net revenue milestone of Rs 10 crores in this quarter with losses reduced by 60 percent as compared to the previous quarter. It claims to become Rs. 500-crore revenue company in the next three years.
YourStory take
As per LatestOne estimate, the market size of tech and mobile accessories, including cables, cases, chargers, power banks, headsets, speakers, and smart watches etc. in India is about Rs 25,000 crores. There is a huge market opportunity to grow in this particular segment as unlike other niche market it’s not crowded.
With increasing penetration of mobile and other tech devices, complimentary accessories have become a must-have. Horizontal players also sell accessories with mobiles and gadgets but finding a complete range is still a pain. LatestOne competes with horizontal players along with a few niche focused startups.