Online wholesale marketplace Wydr raises undisclosed amount from existing investors

The company would be using the funds to strengthen its product offering and expand its reach.

Online wholesale marketplace Wydr on Monday raised an undisclosed amount from its existing investors. The company said it will use the funds to expand its seller base, set up pan-India offices and strengthen its product and technology.

Wydr, which is being run by Techwider Network India Private Limited, was founded in March 2016 by Devesh Rai, an IIM-Calcutta alumnus, who was also a founding member of ShopClues. Wydr had earlier raised funds from Bessemer Venture Partners, Stellaris Venture Partners, Axis Capital, Singapore and Jungle Venture Partners in 2016.

Devesh Rai, founder and CEO of Wydr, said, "With over 1.2 million downloads, our belief that there is a market need for a platform that allows manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers to connect and transact directly and safely has been validated. On the seller side, large manufacturers from key hubs across the country are already on Wydr.in platform. We have also got great response from new brands wanting to enter the market.”

Wydr is a B2B app-based marketplace for retailers and wholesalers to buy directly from distributors and manufacturers. It allows buyers to connect with sellers on WydrChat to customise their requirements, negotiate prices and instantly close deals.

India is a $600-billion retail market, of which $400 billion is the unorganised, fragmented wholesale market. Setting an eye on the lucrative online wholesale market, even Amazon has jumped the bandwagon. Amazon's wholesale unit in India reported a tremendous jump in turnover of nearly 2,700 times to Rs 7,047 crore during FY17, from Rs 2.63 crore in the previous year.

Wydr’s closest competitors are Udaan and Wholesalebox. Udaan had raised Series-A funding from venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners India and Lightspeed US and was launched by Sujeet Kumar, Vaibhav Gupta and Amod Malviya, former senior executives at Flipkart. Wholesalebox’s investors included Manish Maheshwari, CEO of Network 18 Digital, and Contrarian Vriddhi Fund, among others.