Online distributor connecting traditional retailers with consumer brands raises funding

Just Buy Live, an online distributor that connects mom-and-pop retailers to consumer brands, has closed its first round of funding from Mohandas Pai's Arin Capital and Alpha Capital Advisors for an undisclosed amount.

Founded in February, by Sahil Sani and Bharat Balachandran, Just Buy aims to offer an online distribution model similar to the offline distribution to cover 25 million retailers who operate in the unorganised traditional trade.

The company operates in 15 cities across 10 states with 25,000 registered retailers and targets one lakh users by March 2016, Chairman and CEO Just Buy Live Sani told PTI. Just Buy is purely brand aligned, supplying goods directly from brand to retailer wherein every product available is listed and priced by the brand.

"So far, Just Buy is the official distributor for over 1,000 brands, 3,00,000 products with over Rs 3,000 crore worth of inventory. The company aims to have 10,000 brands and one million products on offer reaching out to one million retailers with Rs 1,000 crore in credit lines deployed by the end of 2016," he added.

The firm aims to expand to 500 cities and towns by the end of 2016, he said. The company has a profit-based revenue model, Sani said adding, it has over 300 employees, with over 1,000 delivery staff, and also works with third-party e-commerce delivery companies like GoJavas, Delhivery and Fedex.

(Disclosure: Mohandas Pai is an investor in YourStory)