Will establish a presence in top 8-10 metros in two years thus covering the entire country
Online wholesale marketplace for food and grocery products Jumbotail has launched a pilot in the Hyderabad market after establishing a significant presence across thousands of small and medium grocery retailers/ kirana stores in the Bengaluru metropolitan area. Once operations in Hyderabad stabilises, the company management plans to spread its wings in other top metros at a later stage.
Ashish Jhina, co-founder and chief operating officer, Jumbotail Technologies Pvt Ltd (JTPL), said, the platform currently caters to kirana stores in the four-hour radius of Bengaluru metro area. “The objective there (Hyderabad) is mainly ironing all systems and processes for a multi-city operation by way of ensuring that the technology is ready to scale. It's been on for a few months now is still in a pilot mode. It will continue to remain a pilot for a few more months. Our current focus is in the Bangalore market, in terms of getting to a certain scale and profitability target that we have set internally. This is in addition to making sure that we are ready to expand towards the latter part of this year,” he said.
On whether the company will largely focus on the South India region for expansion, Jhina said, the ambition is to go national and establish a presence in eight to 10 top metros over the next couple of years and cover the entire country from that perspective. “If you can look at the grocery, we believe it's best to do it first regionally. That's because it allows you to actually get scale on the sourcing side and leverage that scale across multiple locations,” he said.
Launched in 2015, the company recently (June 2019) raised $12.9 million in Series B funding from Heron Rock, with participation from Capria Fund, BNK Ventures and William Jarvis and existing investors, Nexus Venture Partners and Kalaari Capital. Total funding raised by the company currently stands at $23.4 million.
Catering to over 20,000 kirana stores in Bengaluru metro area, the platform currently does 10,000 tonnes of delivery on a monthly basis. “We are well within reach of achieving operational profitability in a matter of few months,” said Jhina adding that close to 15% of its sales are from private label Jumbofarms that largely comprises staples.
An estimated 12 million kirana stores are currently operational in India controlling over 95% of the $350 billion food and grocery market. With development in technology, supply chain and fintech solutions space, a host of business-to-business (b2b) entities like Udaan, Ninjacart, Jumbotail, BigBasket, Amazon etc. in addition to marquee names like Walmart, Reliance Market, Metro Cash and Carry India among others have begun to aggressively tap the small and medium grocery/ kirana retailers across the country.
According to media reports, Reliance is already running a pilot called Jio Prime Merchant (to allow kirana stores to sell online) in some markets. In fact, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani is expected to make some announcements on that front in the annual general meeting (AGM) on August 12, 2019.
On how is Jumbotail viewing competition brewing in the b2b e-marketplace space and the likely impact on its business, Jhina said, “We believe there is room for multiple partners. Besides, the moment a decision is made by the small kirana store operator to actually switch to an online ordering mechanism, it's a very big shift in their mind. And what then we start looking at is, service level, predictability, reliability and things like that,” he said.
Akin to other e-marketplaces, kirana stores access the Jumbotail platform through a mobile app that's being made available in four different languages. Everything from staples, rice, pulses, sugar, spices and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) products can be bought from the e-marketplace.
“We also manage and orchestrate the entire supply chain, something that is unique to the way we do it. From fulfillment/ distribution centers, the last mile delivery to payments, we make sure all of it passes through our platform. Kirana store owners can pay at the time of delivery using a variety of payment mechanisms ranging from cash, UPI app, and other digital payment mechanisms in addition to credit that we provide to third-party tie-ups,” said Jhina.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "Warehouses")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}