Boonbox, a Chennai-based rural e-commerce platform, has announced that it has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in its pre-Series A funding round. The funding round was raised through Keiretsu Forum and existing investors Indian Angel Network.
Last year, the company had said that it was in talks with investors to raise Series A funding round of about Rs 25 crore to Rs 38 crore.
The company was also planning to launch its private labels in apparels and footwear. The start-up, which was operating on an hybrid model of both online and offline, was also planning to appoint agents for enhancing the last-mile connectivity.
Founded by financial experts Ramachandran Ramanathan and Kartick Natarajan, the startup works in the area of assisted e-commerce in the rural areas.
The company is now present in 8 states in India, including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa, Assam, Punjab and Bihar. It also delivers goods ranging from refrigerators and TVs to mobile phones in rural India.
Commenting about the startup, Ramachandran Ramanathan, co-founder of the company, said:
We start with places that have a population of below 50,000 and we now service 3,000 unique pin-codes. We will go deeper in these geographies in the upcoming months. The last month has been very encouraging. It takes a different formula to work with the rural areas because one has to tackle cultural issues as well. They want their independence while placing an order while at the same time, they want someone to advise them. We train our affiliates on the product catalogue so they can guide the buyer.
Boonbox’s portal has both B2B and B2C elements built into them. In the business-to-business segment, the company’s sales team reaches out to the retailers in rural areas.