[Funding alert] AnKa SumMor closes Rs 11.6 Cr in Pre-Series A led by Inflection Point Ventures

Bengaluru-based sales and distribution (S&D) enablement platform AnKa SumMor has closed its pre-Series A funding round at Rs 11.6 crore led by Inflection Point Ventures (IPV). 

Angel investors like Pratul Shroff from Waao Partners; Brijesh Agrawal, Co-founder and Director, IndiaMart, and other leading industry figures have also participated in the round.

This investment will predominantly go into geographical expansion, building the tech stack critical to managing complexity at scale efficiently and effectively, and enhance predictive capabilities to provide market insights to brand partners. The startup will also invest in increasing infrastructure and resources to increase the number of outlets serviced to deliver growth for brand partners.

Ashok George, Co-founder and CEO, AnKa SumMor Foods Pvt Ltd, said, 

“S&D enablement players will play a pivotal role in fuelling the burgeoning Indian retail market which is projected to touch $260 billion in the next 4-5 years. AnKa SumMor is poised to redraft the traditional playbook by offering professional S&D solutions to improve the overall value chain and provide protection against risks such as continuity due to attrition, trade spend leakages due to lack of transparency to challenger and new age brands.”

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Inflection Point Ventures leads pre-Series A funding in FMCG startup AnKa SumMor

In April 2021 AnKa SumMor raised Rs 3 crore as a part of its pre-Series A round and now with this new additional investment of Rs 8.6 crore the round is closed at Rs 11.6 crore.

"Success of FMCG businesses depends on how well and deep their distribution model is. India is a complex geography and it has taken global FMCG companies decades to cover the entire country by heavily investing in setting the distribution infrastructure. The new-age brands don’t have to invest millions in setting up their distribution channel when a company like AnKa SuMor can do this for them. A shared distribution network would mean lower operational costs and better pricing for the consumers," added Vinay Bansal, Founder and CEO of Inflection Point Ventures.

Incubated and funded by Fireside Ventures in April 2018, AnKa SuMor was founded by Ashok George and Rajiv Joshi. It provides emerging, challenger brands like McVities, Wai Wai, Yoga Bar, Yellow Diamond, Bauli, Tru Earth, Om Bhakti, and Paper Boat among others, access to modern trade outlets, supermarkets and speciality stores at half the S&D costs they would have otherwise incurred by doing it on their own.

The ‘SumMor Model’ claims to simplify the distribution value chain by consolidating and aggregating CFA/Super Stockists, multi-distributors for multi-channel distribution in a metro city or state into a single point operation under one roof.

Besides giving the brands reach and presence across relevant outlets in a city or state, the startup provides them with outlet level sales data in real-time with visibility of sales by SKU at each outlet, improved order fill rates of 90-95 percent, up from 70-75 percent; assistance with stock rotation at outlets to maintain product freshness, improved trade scheme utilization, reduced market expiry and damage, and market mapping.

AnKa SuMor claims to have grown by 65 percent during and post the pandemic, and now has more than 12 brands benefiting from its S&D solutions covering over 8,000 retail outlets across Hyderabad, Chennai, and Bengaluru and plans to exit FY22 covering 23,000 retail outlets with an ARR of Rs 60 crore.

Over the next five years, the startup aims to establish its operations in 15 cities and coverage of 200,000 relevant retail, achieve an operational break-even in FY 2023, and deliver Rs 500 crore in annualized revenue in FY 2025.