[Funding alert] LMCE’s platform Xpand raises $1.5 M in pre-Series A round

Xpand, a platform of Last Mile Channel Enhancement (LMCE) on Wednesday announced that it has raised $ 1.5 million in a pre-Series A round, at a valuation of approximately $ 10 million.

The company aims to use the funds to enhance the in-house tech capabilities and build a trained, tech-savvy, and efficient geo-local sales force.

The round was led by Akash Prakash (CEO, Amansa Capital) in his personal capacity along with other highly successful professionals and HNIs, including Madhu Jayakumar, Dipinder Sandhu and Shagun Khandelwal.

Xpand, a two-month operational startup, was conceived by Sanjay Kaul along with industry veterans Sanjay Panigrahi, Sankalp Potbahre, Pradeep Kaul and Nidhi Singh. Xpand under LMCE is a B2B aggregator helping brands enhance their rural footprints.

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Sanjay Kaul, Founder and CEO, LMCE, stated, “With Xpand, we are connecting retailers and companies on a single platform to solve their last-mile challenges. Simultaneously, we would empower and enable traditional Kiryana to leverage technology to streamline their operations and widen their portfolio.

We have already made substantial investment in the pre-incorporation stage towards technology & market prioritization. The raised funds will help us further our goal of “speed to scale” and give thrust to our tech endeavors. We are delighted to have received this support from marquee investors like Mr. Akash Prakash at the early stage."

Arun Shah, Managing Director, Prime Securities, said, “Government policy initiatives like doubling rural income, jandhan yojana, spending on housing, electrification, sanitation etc. has ensured strategic priority of industry and corporates towards the rural segment. Furthermore, mass digitization and newer aspirations have led to the consumer becoming more knowledgeable and seeking quality products.

Nikhil Kaul, COO, LMCE added, “ Xpand is built on three core fundamentals - ‘where to play, how to play, and digital disruption’ across the value chain - the app analyzes, predicts, and recommends consumer behavior. The process is basis the data collected from 2.5 lakh rural stores to brands, distributors, and local kirana stores. With Xpand we aim to reach to 16 states, 30K villages, and over 3 lakh+ retailers by 2023. It further plans to strengthen its hold in rural India by expanding to at least 18 percent of kirana stores and scaling up to 33 percent of the total potential by 2025. “