Checkers India Technology Pvt. Ltd, which operates business-to-business platform Excess2Sell, has raised $1 million (Rs 7.6 crore at current exchange rates) in funding, a company statement said.
The Mumbai-based company raised this funding from Gautham Madhavan, an angel investor and a director at growth-stage private equity firm Florintree Advisors. As part of the transaction, he will also join the startup’s board of directors.
Apart from Excess2Sell, Madhavan has investments in companies operating in sectors such as merchant banking, non-banking finance, media and entertainment, and real estate.
Excess2Sell says that it focusses on excess inventory liquidation and that its platform provides a smart business assistant for virtual support to buyers and sellers. The company was set up in 2016 by Rajan Sharma, Navinder Chauhan and Anant Chaturvedi.
The startup said it will use the capital to enhance its technological infrastructure, as well as expand its geographical reach and the number and variety of B2B buyers and sellers registered on its platform. Excess2Sell currently has a presence in over 50 cities in India and plans to expand to a network spanning more than 100 locations.
“With liquidation opportunities from large-format retailers and big sellers from e-commerce marketplaces, an organised liquidation platform like ours has a huge potential,” Sharma said.
Madhavan said Excess2Sell would be able to leverage synergies with other Florintree portfolio companies and that it would be able to set up a sustainable B2B e-commerce business. “The B2B business needs an in-depth industry experience and the know-how of different markets, geographies and dynamics,” he added.
According to VCCEdge, the data research arm of Mosaic Digital, Checkers India had raised funding from other angel investors such as Ashima Brejesh Chhalill, Jyoti M Nair and Sandeep Vyas in 2017 and 2018.
Deals in the B2B segment
The bet on Excess2Sell is another commitment to a startup operating in the B2B segment, which in the past few years has received far more investor attention as the business-to-consumer market in India has shrunk to a few players.
In December, Tiger Global led a $20 million Series A funding round in Infra.Market, a marketplace for real estate and construction materials. Accel and Nexus Venture Partners also participated in the round. Infra.Market had raised $3.5 million in a seed funding round from Accel in August.
In November, wholesale-focussed Jumbotail raised about $2 million from existing investor Nexus Venture Partners. The development came after Jumbotail in June raised almost $12.5 million in its Series B funding round led by Heron Rock, an omni-stage venture fund with offices in Toronto and San Francisco.
In September last year, Udaan raised around $300 million in its Series D funding round from investors including Altimeter Capital and Footpath Ventures. The funding came a year after the startup raised $225 million in its Series C round from DST and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
