What is Shop101? Shop101 Review

Basic Introduction

Shop101's two co-founders are Abhinav Jain and Aditya Gupta, who allow merchants on their platform to sell products online through social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram. On the merchant side, Shop101 provides almost all the services they can provide, such as helping merchants update website and email content, and providing SMS notifications, payment gateways, finding logistics and transportation partners and other services. In addition, the company's main source of income is logistics services and payment services, and they will charge merchants a certain service fee in proportion to the amount of each transaction.

In addition, Shop101 will help small businesses promote their products to users of social media platforms, and provide online merchants with order placement, payment, and bill clearing and settlement services through its built-in order processing system. In order to better serve small and medium-sized businesses and sellers, Shop101 has also launched an online product display service, allowing consumers to quickly understand product information without even opening their own social media applications. It is worth mentioning that in order to extend the service to a wider range, Shop101 has also built a supply chain platform to help small and medium-sized buyers purchase goods directly from distributors and manufacturers.

Service Content

1. Social media marketing: The platform helps merchants promote their products to users of social media platforms and enables consumers to quickly learn about product information through online product display services;

2. Logistics and payment services: Merchants can use the platform's order processing system to provide order placement, payment and settlement services, but the platform will charge a corresponding fee for each transaction. In addition, the company will also help merchants find logistics and transportation partners;

3. Supply chain integration: Shop101 also provides a supply chain platform to help buyers, distributors and manufacturers establish connections and trade goods directly.

Financing experience

In July 2018, the company raised 340 million rupees (approximately 5 million U.S. dollars) in its Series A funding round. The investor was the well-known venture capital firm Stellaris Venture Partners, and participating investors included Vy Capital, TaxiForSure co-founder Raghunandan G, and Livspace co-founder Ramakant Sharma.

In December 2018, the company received Rs 800 million in Series B financing, led by Kalaari Capital and Unilever Ventures, a venture capital firm under Unilever. Participants included Stellaris Venture Partners, Vy Capital and Livspace co-founder Ramakant Sharma, who had previously invested in the company.

In March 2020, C-Round raised $3.9 million, led by its holding company O(1) Holding, and the remaining investors were existing investors Unilever, Kalaari Capital and Stellaris Venture. Among them, O(1) Holding will acquire 27.2% of the shares on behalf of VY Capital Holdings at a price of 136.6 million rupees, Unilever Ventures invested 91 million rupees to acquire 7.84% of the shares, Kalaari injected 45.5 million rupees to acquire 8.14% of the shares, and Stellaris Venture Partners India-I invested 13.6 million rupees to acquire its 16.85% stake.

References

• 1. Simsim enters the blue ocean of Indian social e-commerce: Sohu [cited on 2019-11-28T16:00:00.000Z]
• 2. The Indian version of "Pinduoduo" "Shop101" completed a US$3.88 million Series C financing, aiming at the 100 billion-level Indian e-commerce market: Sina Finance [cited on 2020-03-16T16:00:00.000Z]
• 3. Indian social e-commerce Shop101 plans to raise $12 million to compete with Meesho invested by Lei Jun: White Whale goes to sea [cited on 2018-12-02T16:00:00.000Z]
• 4. E-commerce seller service platform Shop101 raises 340 million rupees: ebrun [cited on 2018-07-10T16:00:00.000Z]