Category: prozo

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/funding/prozo-raises-rs-75-cr-from-sixth-sense-ventures-others/articleshow/89929960.cms Prozo raises Rs 76 crore from Sixth Sense Ventures, others Bengaluru: Supply chain and warehousing startup Prozo has raised Rs 76 crore from Sixth Sense Ventures, Jafco Asia, and high net-worth individuals, founder Ashvini Jakhar told ET. Prozo will use the fresh funds to expand into other regions, acquire customers, invest in technology and hire people, Jakhar said. Dexter Capital Advisors was the financial advisor for the round. Prozo sells its clients - mostly direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands - a supply chain service that helps them replicate Amazon Prime’s promise of same day or next day delivery The company offers a plug-and-play, pay-per-use model. “Many years back, the product was the differentiator, then branding became a differentiation, in the internet era ratings and reviews became a differentiation, then pricing became a differentiation. But private labels killed the pricing differentiation,” Jakhar told ET. “Today, the true differentiation is fast fulfillment. What started as good to have has become an important differentiation. Today, the supply chain has become a revenue enabler. Your distribution is your differentiation.” Amazon has become the chosen destination for the top 10 brands and small as well as big brands have found it difficult to compete with the ecommerce platform’s private labels, he said. This has made brands start their own ecommerce portals and invest in other supply chains, he added. Prozo will start providing one-day delivery to most regions in the country, he said. "…we are covering the country from the perspective of four zones - North, South, East, West," he said. "To cover the entire country from a one or two- day delivery standpoint, you need a minimum of 8 locations. We can do even better with 16 locations," he added. The company, founded in 2016, provides warehousing, freight, technology, and distribution services on over 20 online marketplaces on a pay-per-use model. Clients include Reliance JioMart, McGraw Hill, Lavie, WinMagic Toys and other D2C brands across more than 10 categories. "Between the product and the market, there is a lot of noise," he said, referring to the various channels that brands need to interact with for e-commerce. Brands usually have to go to separate platforms for freight, offline, B2B and B2C channels. Prozo claims to offer a multi-channel, end-to-end platform for its clients. The company’s technology stack includes a warehouse management system, unified order management system, freight recommendation, transport management system, intelligent inventory placement, and insight and analytics products. Prozo has a 250-member team and it has been growing 40% month on month. Prior to this round, Prozo had raised capital from Earlsfield Capital Partners LLP and other angel investors. “Prozo is solving a key problem in a very large market,” said Nikhil Vora, founder Sixth Sense Ventures. “By 2025, India’s e-commerce market is expected to cross $200 billion, and there would be nearly 340 million e-commerce customers. Hundreds of enterprises, thousands of D2C brands and over a million SMEs will compete to serve this humongous customer base.”