The company plans to utilize the funds to grow its team in India, and to invest in scaling its technology platform.
Craftsvilla.com, online marketplace for ethnic products has announced that it has secured $18 million in Series B funding led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from Nexus Venture Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners and GFC.
The company plans to utilise the funds to grow its team in India, and to invest in scaling its technology platform as it embarks on its next phase of growth.
In just four years, Craftsvilla.com has become the clear leader for Indian ethnic products and is now the fastest growing and largest online marketplace with close to 2 million unique products from more than 12,000 artisans and designers across the country. The vision of Craftsvilla.com is to become the destination for ethnic products globally.
Speaking about the fundraise, CEO and Co-founder of Craftsvilla.com, Manoj Gupta, said, “We started Craftsvilla with the objective of providing people across the globe a way to reconnect with their roots. Today, we are one of the fastest growing ecommerce companies in India with a profitable business model. We are excited to partner with Sequoia and get the benefit of their company building experience in taking Craftsvilla to new heights.”
“We are now facilitating over 100,000 transactions per month, and growing rapidly. This Series B funding will help us in building a brand, and in investing in technology to serve our merchants and customers better. We are aspiring to be 10x our current size by the end of this year, with 20 million products on our platform”, said, COO & Co-founder of Craftsvilla.com, Monica Gupta.
“Craftsvilla has been growing rapidly below the radar, and has now become the leading e-commerce marketplace for ethnic products in India. Manoj and Monica are an inspirational founding team who bootstrapped the company for the last several years after facing a prolonged period of slow adoption of ethnic products in e-commerce in the early years. Such founders are rare and special and we are honored to partner with them,” said, Shailendra Singh, MD, Sequoia Capital India Advisors.
“Craftsvilla.com has brought the traditionally disorganized ethnic craft industry on to a structured platform and has enabled micro-entrepreneurship at a scale. Customers gain access to well designed, high quality products at reasonable prices and craftspeople get fair prices by removing intermediaries. With increasing global travel, cultural integration, and the desire for bespoke design, this platform can serve customers and craftspeople across nations,” said, Sandeep Singhal, MD, Nexus India Capital Advisors.
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