[Funding alert] B2B footwear marketplace ShoeKonnect raises Rs 11 Cr in Pre-Series A from WaterBridge and Info Edge

Delhi-based an online B2B footwear marketplace ShoeKonnect has raised Rs 11 crore in a Pre-Series A round of funding led by an early stage venture capital fund WaterBridge Ventures. 

The existing investor Info Edge India (Naukri.com’s parent) also participated in the round by investing Rs 4 crore, while the remaining amount of Rs 7 crore is infused by the Waterbridge Ventures.

ShoeKonnect, which crossed Rs 100 crore in annualised GMV last month, plans to use the capital for aggressive growth in the footwear segment. The startup claims to be growing at a run rate of 25 percent month-on-month and soon plans to enter into the B2B fashion and lifestyle space.

Siddharth Vij, Co-founder & CEO, ShoeKonnect, said,

"We believe that the Indian B2B story shall comprise of two segments, one will be FMCG & Fresh and the other will be Fashion & Lifestyle. While we have successfully executed the solution in the footwear category, now endeavoring to be the market leader in the fashion and lifestyle space, an $80 billion Indian market opportunity with 50 lakh registered fashion retailers in India."

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With this funding, ShoeKonnect has raised a total amount of Rs 24 crore since its inception including Rs 95 lakh from Indian Angel network and a total Rs 16 crore came from the Info Edge.

Founded in 2014 by Siddharth Vij, Chaitanya Rathi, Siddharth Rastogi and Shubham Agrawal, ShoeKonnect posted a revenue of Rs 36.8 lakh for the financial year ended March 2018, up from Rs 9.6 lakh the year before.

Owned and operated by Bizcrum Infotech Pvt Ltd, the startup enables footwear brands, manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers to connect, communicate and transact with each other for expanding their business. It claims to have over 15,000 manufacturers on its platform.

Apart from ShoeKonnect, Info Edge has backed startups like agritech startup Gramophone, foodtech startup Zomato, online insurance aggregator PolicyBazaar, print retail chain Printo, medical healthcare records platform MedCords, women's beauty products brand Happily Unmarried, real-estate risk assessment startup ZippServ, B2B ecommerce platform Shopkirana, and an edtech startup Univariety, among others.

While, WaterBridge Ventures has invested in companies including data democratisation startup Atlan, healthcare financing platform LetsMD, edtech startup Doubtnut, online lending platform ZipLoan, hyperlocal discovery and rewards platform Magicpin, legaltech firm MyAdvo, review generation tool Fame MS, and cooking robot maker Nymble Labs, among others.

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