[Funding alert] 1K Kirana Bazaar raises $7M in Series A round from Info Edge, FalconEdge, others

Gurugram-based 1K Kirana Bazaar (also known as 1K) on Tuesday said it raised a Series A funding round of $7 million co-led by Info Edge Ventures and Falcon Edge.

The round also saw participation from existing investor Kae Capital, and angel investors Bigbasket's Hari TN, and Blackbuck co-founders Rajesh Yabaji and Chanakya Hridaya.

1K Kirana Bazaar will use the funds to increase its presence by partnering with over 1,000 kirana stores in the next year. It also aims to cater to more than a million customers.

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“The changing landscape of consumer demand has got us to focus on the real issue of meeting the demand and supply gap, especially in non-urban India. With these funds, our efforts are to bring parity to products and experiences to meet the rising standards of living among Bharat’s new consumers,” said Kumar Sangeetesh, Co-founder, 1K Kirana Bazaar.

He added, “With our superfast but organic growth, we are confident that we will be able to expand to more markets in northern India and bring about a positive change in the lives of millions of consumers."

Founded in 2018 by Kumar Sangeetesh and Sachin Sharma, who were working at BlackBuck earlier, with IIM-Ahmedabad graduate Abhishek Halder — 1K Kirana Bazaar works with the unorganised kirana stores to set up both online and offline capabilities to retail customers and help in sourcing, which leads to improved efficiencies.

So far, the startup claims to be scaling to 150 touchpoints and serving 100,000 customers.

“1K has pioneered an asset-light omnichannel retail strategy for Tier III and IV towns of Bharat, which is first of its kind. Their unique business model and strong execution skills is going to transform the way consumers are getting served in rural and suburban India. Instead of creating entirely new networks, they are focused on empowering the existing network through the power of technology and innovation," said Gaurav Chaturvedi, Partner at Kae Capital, in a press statement.

During the pandemic year, retail saw a major boom as shopowners were looking to get digitised — be it kirana stores or any other retailer — as more and more people were shopping from the comfort of their homes.

1K Kirana Bazaar has a similar proposition as Bengaluru-based Gully Network, which partners with mid-size retail stores in Tier I and II cities to offer full-stack solutions, including inventory management, among other services. The Gurugram-based kirana store caterer also competes with digital solution providers, including Shoopy and India Quotient-backed Neo Dove, among others.