ChattyBao Technologies raises over $5M led by Info Edge, Vertex Ventures

ChattyBao, a Delhi-based ecommerce startup built on WhatsApp, has raised over $5 million in a seed funding round. The round was co-led by Vertex Ventures South East Asia and India, and Info Edge Ventures. It also saw participation from 7Square Ventures and various prominent angel investors. 

“The entrepreneurial spirit of local businesses in India has always helped them survive and fight competition from larger players. ChattyBao will significantly enhance their ability to provide an ecommerce experience to their users, helping them compete effectively with online players,” said Kumar Aditya, Co-founder at ChattyBao.

Founded by Kumar Aditya, former Chief Business Officer at Paytm, and Varun Gupta, former Director at B Capital Group, the ChattyBao platform connects users with local businesses (shops and services) and provides them with a complete shopping experience over WhatsApp. The platform enables users to discover, chat, order, and get home delivery from their local merchants, without the need to download multiple apps.

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Kanika Mayar, Partner, Vertex Ventures South East Asia and India underlined that small merchants and service providers are the backbone of the retail industry in India.

“ChattyBao can strengthen their value proposition further, and become a catalyst in enabling more customers to come online and transact with the same comfort they already experience in WhatsApp conversations,” added Kanika.

According to Chinmaya Sharma, Partner, Info Edge Ventures, “ChattyBao founding team's deep understanding of the consumer and merchant needs and behaviour in India will allow them to build tools that empower local shop-owners to compete on an equal footing with the online players. We are excited to partner with Kumar and Varun to enable conversational commerce over WhatsApp for merchants. Their customer-centric approach and deep understanding are apparent in the product they are rolling out. We believe the team will be able to scale the product and build a platform that will change the face of local commerce in India.”