Franchised retail chain SuperK raises $5.5 mn in pre-Series A round

Franchised retail chain SuperK raises $5.5 mn in pre-Series A round

FPJ Web DeskUpdated: Monday, March 28, 2022, 07:39 PM IST
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The round was led by Binny Bansal-backed 021 Capital with participation from other investors./ Co-Founders: Neeraj Menta and Anil Thontepu |

SuperK, a tech-enabled grocery retail chain for small towns, has raised $5.5 million in its pre-Series A round. The round was led by Binny Bansal-backed 021 Capital with participation from other investors.

SuperK plans to utilize this investment for expansion, building a strong team and brand, enhancing technology and supply chain infrastructure.

Co-founded in 2019 with an aim to revolutionize the retail sector of small towns, SuperK is bringing modern retail experience through its asset-light, franchised grocery retail chain to India’s tier 3 towns and beyond. SuperK is enabling individual franchise partners to offer superior customer experience and effectively compete with large retail chains, it said in a press statement.

In India, traditional retail from small towns constitutes more than 80 percent of the retail market, employing millions of people. While grocery retail is a $600 billion market, organized retail chains account for less than 2 percent. However, poor sourcing and lack of access to technology have prevented small, rural retailers from taking advantage of the massive market opportunity.

SuperK says it has built an end-to-end integrated system that enables franchise stores to offer best practices such as standardized low pricing, consistent quality, discounts, cashback, and digital billing. It manages procurement, marketing, promotions, and merchandising for all stores through tech systems and a standard operating plan; so that the store owners can focus on what they are best at - building relationships and serving customers.

“The existing organized retail models are built for the metros and can’t scale deep into the semi-urban and rural markets. SuperK is on a mission to create thousands of entrepreneurs by enabling franchise partners to take advantage of the massive market opportunity while keeping the unique needs and challenges of rural retail in mind. We plan to scale rapidly and reach 200+ stores across 120+ towns in Andhra Pradesh by end of next year.” said Neeraj Menta and Anil Thontepu, Co-Founders, SuperK.

Sailesh Tulshan, Founder - 021 Capital said “India’s non-metropolitan customers’ aspirations and consumption powered by steady growth in their incomes have been driving demand over the last few years. This is accelerating the grocery category towards organized retail in these tier 3 towns in the country. SuperK’s unique business model is asset-light and operates with negative/minimal working capital, along with creating life-changing opportunities for individual franchise partners who are seeing multi-fold growth in their monthly incomes.”

Other investors who participated in the round included Saikiran Krishnamurthy (Co-Founder & CEO, xto10x), Ankit Nagori (Founder, Curefoods), Ashish Kacholia (Public market investor), Nipun Mehra (Founder & CEO, Ula), MarsShot Ventures (Razorpay Founders), Blume Founders Fund and existing investors.

SuperK is currently expanding its team and is looking to hire across Sales & Marketing, Tech & Product, Analytics & Data Science roles, it said.

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