ShopUp, a startup that is digitizing neighboring stores in Bangladesh, has raised 75 75 million in a new financing round, the largest in the South Asian market.
Peter Thall’s Waller Ventures led ShopP’s بی 75 million Series B financing round. In addition to Process Ventures, current investors Floresh Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, and Vivan Ventures also invested in this period. The new investment, which adds more than 100 100 million to startups at all times, is Process’s first contract in Bangladesh for more than 100 million Internet users.
Like its neighbor India, Bangladesh passes through more than 95% of the country’s retail stores. There are about 4.5 million mom and pop stores in the country and most of them do not have a digital presence.
As in India, Pakistan and many other Asian countries, these small shops face many challenges in Bangladesh. They do not have access to a large catalog for inventory selection and cannot negotiate good prices and fast delivery. And for these small retailers, more than two-thirds of all their sales are processed on credit instead of cash or digital payments, leading to a massive liquidity crisis. Therefore, most of these businesses are in dire need of working capital.
ShopUp is trying to address these challenges. It has built what it calls a full-stack business-to-business commerce platform. Startups provide many basic services to these stores, including wholesale marketplace inventory, logistics (including delivery of last mail to customers) and working capital. (Like many startups in India, ShopUp has banking and other partners to provide working capital.)
Afif Zaman, co-founder and chief executive of ShopUp, told TechCrunch that over the past year, the startup has expanded its offerings and deepened its foothold in Bangladesh. For example, it has partnered with the country’s largest manufacturers, producers and distributors to secure and supply inventory to small stores.
He said startups, like many others, were affected by the epidemic, but as the country began to open up, shoplifts began to recover. Overall, he said, business has grown 13-fold in the past year.
“The leadership team at ShopUp has shown strong execution capabilities over the last 12 months. They have become clear market leaders with double digits in three products made for insecure small businesses in Bangladesh. Fast as in Bangladesh. In emerging border economies, small businesses are a key driver of the economy. “We look forward to partnering with Afif’s vision of building an integrated product ecosystem,” said James Fitzgerald, a founding partner at Waller Ventures.
This is a developing story. More to follow