[Funding alert] Y Combinator-backed online delivery startup KiranaKart raises Rs 5.33Cr in pre-seed round

KiranaKart, a Y Combinator-backed online grocery delivery startup, on Thursday said it has raised Rs 5.33 crore or $730,000 in a pre-seed round led by Global Founders Capital. 

Other investors, including Contrary Capital, 2 AM Ventures, and angel investors from India and Silicon Valley also participated in the round. The Mumbai-based online grocery delivery startup is founded by 18-year-old Stanford students — Kaivalya Vohra and Aadit Palicha.

With this funding, KiranaKart aims to expand its 45-minute grocery delivery service across Mumbai, and grow aggressively in the city before expanding to other metros. It expects to make the first 1,50,000 deliveries at a delivery cost of Re 1. 

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Speaking on the investment, CEO and Co-founder Aadit Palicha, said, “As our Y Combinator journey unfolded, we focussed on finding a loyal segment of users and iterating on our product. We’ve kept ourselves under the radar, but now we’re ready to move this forward. We've already onboarded enough kiranas and major retail chains to comfortably deliver to 80 percent of Mumbai, and we're excited for our all-city launch in the next three weeks." 

According to the The Boston Consulting Group, the Indian retail industry is expected to grow from $750 billion at present to $1 trillion by 2025. 

Kaivalya Vohra, CTO and Co-founder, KiranaKart, said, “We believe our technology-first approach will be a powerful edge over incumbents in this space. Unlike food delivery or ride-sharing, the grocery delivery market in India is far from conquered, and we’re excited to tackle it head-on with a different approach.” 

Kaivalya added that the team is presently hiring engineers. The hyperlocal delivery startup has partnered with general stores from Borivali to Colaba, selling everything from loose dal to imported pop-tarts. Beyond that, it’s also closing deals with major retail chains across Mumbai.