MobiGarage Raises Pre-Series A Round The funding will help the company scale operations in tier-II cities and rural markets, strengthen the leadership team, build proprietary technologies and analytic engines and launch a focused D2C brand for Bharat
By Prabhjeet Bhatla •
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B2B e-commerce platform for refurbished smartphones MobiGarage on Monday announced it has raised an undisclosed amount as part of its Pre-Series A round. The round was led by leading US venture capital fund SOSV, which also saw participation from Artesian (Australia Based VC), Inflection Point Ventures, MobAvenue (Singapore-based), AppyHigh Technology LLP, LetsVenture (Led by Veda.vc), and prominent HNIs include Nikhil Aggarwal, Mrunal Jhaveri, Priyanka Chawla, Nitin Uppal, Rishabh Bhatia, Soarabh Gupta and Amit Anand
Having grown 300 per cent during the pandemic, MobiGarage is India's leading player in the mobile e-commerce space, the first of its kind to introduce AI to operationalize a robust supply chain, the platform shared.
"It's an exciting time for D2C companies: India's population in tier-II cities is demanding more sophisticated products and a wider range of options. MobiGarage has beaten the pandemic blues to show tremendous growth in over 50 tier-II cities thanks to its robust supply chain, and we're excited to help the company scale all over India," said William Bao Bean, general partner, SOSV, managing director, MOX.
The funding will help the company scale operations in tier-II cities and rural markets, strengthen the leadership team, build proprietary technologies and analytic engines and launch a focused D2C brand for Bharat.
"India is already one of the largest smartphone markets in the World. tier-II and tier-III cities are contributing a majority of new smartphone shipments. MobiGarage has the potential to become India's most trusted brand in the second-hand smartphone category that can address the needs of those aspiring to upgrade their phones and those who are keen to join the digital economy by switching from feature phones to smartphones. The company has the potential to conquer the MENA region in next 2 years as well. This is a highly scalable idea and we are excited to back them in this journey."
"The digital divide between metropolitan and tier-II populations keeps increasing: there are 500 million people in lower tier towns and rural India, unserved by global brands but ready to adopt new technologies for shopping, entertainment and education. MobiGarage is addressing this multi-billion market gap by providing just-like-new, high-quality refurbished smartphones at a fraction of the cost of new phones, completely removing the biggest hurdle in the consumers' digital journey. We are grateful for SOSV's continued support as we scale all over India to become a flagship Bharat D2C brand," shared Munish Vashishat, co-founder, MobiGarage.
Already profitable since its inception, MobiGarage is processing 20,000 orders a month, growing threefold annually. The demand for refurbished devices has increased since the first wave of the pandemic. Despite the extended lockdowns in the current as well as last year, the space boomed as restrictions eased, testament to the rapid growth witnessed by MobiGarage. The startup is looking to extend its retail and franchise partnerships across India in lower tier markets in the next few months.
