Hyper-local grocery delivery services provider PepperTap on Tuesday said it has secured $36 million in Series B funding. The fresh round of funding was led by leading e-commerce market place Snapdeal along with existing investors Sequoia India and SAIF Partners. The round also saw participation from new investors such as Ru-net, JAFCO and BeeNext.
PepperTap will utilise the fresh funds to expand its presence to 75 cities across India by the end of the current fiscal year. Apart from the expansion plans, it also plans to invest in strengthening its technology and supply chain capabilities.
To achieve these goals the company is planning to hire more people to take its total headcount over 5,000 by the end of the year. Presently, PepperTap operates in 17 cities in India and employs over 2,500.
“Investment by an established player like Snapdeal is a stamp on our asset-light, low burn business model and our execution track record. We look forward to leveraging Snapdeal’s experience to help our partner stores develop their capabilities and multiply their sales,” said Navneet Singh, Co-Founder and CEO, PepperTap.
The Gurgaon-based company was founded in November 2014 by Navneet Singh and Milind Sharma. PepperTap partners with local grocery stores to take their inventory online, and help customers in the relevant hyper-locality order from the local stores.
The company has so far raised around $47.2 million including a $1.2 million seed round from Sequoia India and $10 million Series from SAIF Partners and Sequoia India. The company also aims to close an additional $20 million towards the current round in the coming weeks.
According to the company, with the current run rate it expects to touch Gross Merchandise Value of over $250 mn by the end of the year. It also claims to have about 20,000 transactions per day.
“We are excited to be entering into a strategic partnership with PepperTap. We look forward to working closely with PepperTap to make them very successful, leveraging the capabilities we have built in Snapdeal’s ecosystem,” said Kunal Bahl, Co-Founder and CEO of Snapdeal.
