[Funding alert] Ex-Flipkart's B2B artisan startup Lal10 raises $1.1M

Tech-led B2B artisan startup Lal10 announced on Friday that it has raised $1.1 million. The round was led by Sorenson Impact from Utah. Indian angel investors including Slideshare's Amit Ranjan, former Flipkart CTO Mekin Maheshwari, Praveen Gandhi of Seedfund also participated in the round. Besides, Beyond Capital, Pegasus Finvest, Upaya Ventures, Angellist Collective, and Gemba Capital were also a part of this round.

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“In pursuit of bringing light in the lives of our artisans, I named it Lal10 (lalten)” - Maneet Gohil

Lal10 was founded by IIT Madras alumnus and former-Flipkart employee Maneet Gohil, Sanchit Govil, and Albin Jose, in 2016.

In a statement, Maneet said,

"Leveraging technology for the first time amongst the rural artisans and SMEs, Lal10 creates efficiencies in the supply chain by connecting 1,500 artisans to global retailers. We will utilise the funds to create a strong technology product to achieve supply efficiency and focus on more international B2B retailers. We will digitise 10,000 artisans in 2020."

The startup helps Indian artisans and SMEs reach out to global retailers. It provides sustainable livelihood to more than 1,500 Indian artisans across eight low-income states.

Lal10 does this by connecting them with more than 300 global retailers from across 18 countries, including Zara, Anita Dongre, Toast, Wills Lifestyle, FabIndia, Four Seasons, and Taneira.

Amit, Founder of SlideShare, said:

"Lal10 is executing brilliantly to digitise and bring structure to the B2B commerce market for artisanal products. They have created an innovative model for artisanal micro-entrepreneurs from India's rural heartlands – they connect these artisans to global retailers by digitising their inventories via a mobile CRM solution."

The mobile-first platform also empowers artisans with required skills and knowledge of contemporary designs and helps them manage their inventory and ordering process better, ensuring seamless delivery and transaction efficiency.

"The team is high-energy, self-driven, with an innate ability to think and act from first principles. Lal10 looks poised to build out a category-defining, tech-driven, profitable ecommerce business, that also has a strong impact on rural livelihoods and employment generation," Amit added.

(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)