Rural commerce startup VilCart raises $13M in Series A round

Rural commerce startup VilCart has raised $13 million in a Series A funding round led by Asia Impact, with participation from Nabventures Fund and Texterity Private Limited.

VilCart has passed a special resolution to issue 68,761 Series A and 405 Series A1 Compulsory Convertible Preference Shares (CCPS) at an issue price of Rs 15,411.6 per share to raise Rs 106.6 crore or around $13 million.

The company will utilise the capital for the purpose of operations and business development, the company’s regulatory filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) noted.

Asia Impact has led the funding round with Rs 91.96 crore, followed by Nabventures Fund—an agri, food, and rural-focused venture capital fund started by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD)—which poured in Rs 14 crore. Texterity Private Limited infused Rs 62 lakh,

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Post the financing round, Asia Impact holds 31.28% shares in VilCart, while NabVentures own a 12.36% stake. Texterity Private Limited and Test Yantra Software Solutions command 0.17% and 3.18% stakes, respectively.

Founded in 2018 by Prasanna Kumar and his co-founders—Mahesh Bhat, Rajasekhar, and Amith S Mali—VilCart helps village kirana stores easily procure inventory and manage logistics and supply chains.

It started business in one district in Karnataka and has now rapidly expanded to multiple districts, including Mandya, Kolar, and Bengaluru rural. It currently services nearly 5,000 villages in Karnataka and has 45,000 kirana stores on its network.

In an earlier interaction with YourStory, Prasanna had said VilCart is eying profitability in the ongoing fiscal year (FY23) and targeting Rs 12,000 crore turnover in the coming three years.