Prime Venture Partners pumps $4.7 M into self-checkout solution Perpule as part of its first retail investment

Perpule's Series-A round also saw participation from existing investors Kalaari Capital and Venture Highway. 

Early-stage venture fund Prime Venture Partners on Wednesday announced that it has invested $4.7 million in Series-A funding in self-checkout solution Perpule, along with exisitng investors Kalaari Capital and Venture Highway.

The company intends to use the funds for significant expansion into thousands of retail outlets across 10 cities, over the course of next year.

Started in 2016 by Abhinav Pathak, Saketh BSV and Yogesh Ghaturle, Perpule allows users to self-checkout and self-order at offline stores, food outlets, malls and cafeterias, in turn improving customer experience by saving them the hassle of standing at long queues.

Through the data insights collected at their offline stores, the company also helps offline commerce players create powerful campaigns and makes the buying experience more personalised for the shoppers.

Further, the app suggests users competitive pricing of similar products during the shopping experience. On entering the offline store, the users have to scan the products they want to buy, pay on the app after the purchases and scan the QR code at the end of the shopping experience.

These partner stores are typically over 2000 sqft in size.

Similarly, at cafeterias or food joints, users can skip the queue by pre-ordering their food, pay on the app and are notified to collect their orders at the counter, once ready. The firm also launched the Perpule Digital Cafeteria Solution for QSRs recently, for cafeterias and food courts in corporate tech parks and malls, and is currently being used by more than 20 companies across India.

Speaking to YourStory, Abhinav said,

“This is a great milestone for us and we are delighted to partner with Prime and continue our relationship with Kalaari and Venture Highway. Omnichannel retail and consumer commerce will redefine the shopping experience for customers. We believe that using the right technology and the power of mobile, we can better such experiences and build solutions which work seamlessly across all platforms.”

By the end of 2016, the Perpule app, which is available on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, went live in three cities and three stores.

Today, the platform boasts of more than 500,000 consumers using the app across several retail brands, including Big Bazaar, Vishal Mega Mart, SPAR, MORE, HyperCITY, etc., and QSRs such as KFC, among others.

In a statement, Sanjay Swamy, Managing Partner, Prime Venture Partners, added,

“Retail shopping is the next playground for disruptive innovation and Perpule has quickly established itself as big brands already partner with them to bring cashier-less stores. We see great value in the technology that Perpule is building and the company has scope to take on multiple directions in the future to deliver this.”

While the founders made an initial investment close to Rs 40 lakh in the business from their own pockets, the firm also raised a seed round of $650,000 from Kstart, the seed fund of the Kalaari Capital, Venture Highway and Raghunandan G in 2017.

Vani Kola, Managing Director, Kalaari Capital, added,

“Perpule growing significantly in their customer base in the last 18 months is a testament to the disruptive online-to-offline solution they have built. Tailor made to suit Indian retail conditions, the platform adds significant value to offline retailers. We’re excited to continue backing the team and are looking forward to achieving more milestones together.”

Working with a SaaS and reference store revenue model, the company charges its clients a fee to enable the solution at stores, and also takes a small percentage of a customer’s transactions as commissions.