The renowned Indian company, Syska LED group has given a pre-Series A round of funding to the Pune-based hyperlocal delivery startup Tokri. According to Neeraj Kansa, the co-founder of Tokri, the firm has been able to raise $2.5 million (almost Rs 16.7 Crore), with a commitment from Syska to put in more money in the near future.
With this funding, Tokri plans to upgrade their technology in order to improve the customer experience as well as will set up new warehouses in Pune and many other cities around the nation. A part of the money will also be used in to increase their brand value and in marketing and promotions.
Orange Etokri India Pvt. Ltd, the patterning body of Tokri was founded by Kansa and Ishant Goyal back in April 2015.Kansa is a B.Tech graduate from Punjab University while Goyal is an ex-student of IIM Ahmedabad. Goyal has worked for a consulting firm previously and also led projects on finance, marketing, and business development.
The start-up company, Tokri goes by a hybrid model of distributing grocery from the marketplace, inventory, distributors, and wholesalers to neighboring stores. It also buys vegetables and fruits directly from the farmers and then distributes it to the stores.
During this transaction between Orange Etokri and Syska LED group, the Felix Advisory group acted as the financial advisor of Tokri. The director of Felix Advisory, Amit Jindal said, “We support ideas from the time they are born to the time they are self-sustaining.”
The startups in the grocery segment are currently going through a rough patch as multiples such startups, such as GrocShop, GetNow.at, AAGAAR.com, PepperTap, Nearby all had already wrapped up their operations in the last couple of months. So, on that aspect, Tokri is lucky to have such kind of funding in such a turbulent time.
Although, the Pune-based startup company has every right to get such massive amount of fundings, as they are witnessing steady growth and doing about 200 transactions daily in Pune. Tokri has also signed Shradhha Kapoor as their brand ambassador and aiming to reach the daily transactions to 400.
As per the company claims, the average value of each transaction on the platform costs Rs 800-900 and the interested buyers can place order through the mobile app or from logging into the website. Tokri also operates in oflline mode, where the customers can place orders without an active internet connection.
The startup company works in two delivery models. The popular model is based on the appointment or slot-based delivery system where a potential user can book a slot for the delivery out of the four slots—two in the morning and two in the evening.
The other model is based on on-demand delivery or bullet delivery where the company claims to deliver grocery in just 45-75 minutes. To get the free delivery, a user has to order the minimum of Rs 500.
Tokri delivers huge segments of products, including fresh product, kirana, sweets and namkeen, cakes and bakery, snacks, personal care, pet food, flowers, and gifts. The firm is also planning to expand into electronics and mobiles as well as to other metro cities like Mumbai and Delhi-NCR by October.
