An Indian kirana store is not just an everyday store where you get items of everyday use. It is the backbone of the Indian grocery market, which until some time back, was in dire need of modernization. However, now, after a particularly long two years of the pandemic, that forced almost every walk of life to go digital and online, the traditional kirana store too has seen a transformation which is playing a crucial role in everyday life.
Let’s see four Indian startups that are helping traditional retail and grocery stores expand their reach with the help of technology.
1. Snapbizz
With a phenomenal rise in using digital presence for kirana stores, Bengaluru-based retail startup Snapbizz works with the massively unorganized sector in cities like Pune, Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai. The startup helps them in managing supply chain and guiding them on finance-related issues. Snapbizz now has more than 2400 merchants now.
2. Kirana King
The Jaipur-based grocery aggregator’s focus is on assuring high-quality supply chain. It works with top FMCG brands along with local brands to enhance consumer connection and also assist retailers.
Found by Anup Kumar, Deepak Dusad and Balwant Singh Rana, the company found in 2017, raised a round of funding amounting to 7 crores in order to enhance various business factors like manpower and also facilitate expansion in retail network.
3. Max Wholesale
In 2016, IITian Samarth Agarwal, discussed the problem of a lack of technology in his neighbour Rohit Narang, whose family owned several kirana stores in Delhi, which led to him developing an app for Narang’s retail stores for sales management.
Delving into supply chain problems, they realised that it just wasn’t the supply chain, but also getting the right products at the right place, that was proving to be problematic. And so was born Max Wholesale, a deep tech start-up to help kiranas go digital.
The company, which serves 20,000 retailers, today has 100 per cent of its sale coming through the app. In an effort to making them a B2B2C company, they have also introduced and app Called Radius, by which any retailer can connect to customers within 2 kms radius of one’s shop.
4. Jumbotail
The country’s new retail platform, this online B2B marketplace for food and grocery needs, connects more than 30,000 kirana grocery stores with brands, producers and farmers. The startup helps the unorganized market of local kirana stores network with a last-mile delivery supply chain network, a fintech payment platform, credit answers for store owners as well as warehousing.
Found in 2015, by Stanford graduates Ashish Jhina and S Karthik Venkateswaran, Bengaluru-based Jumbotail raised $85 million in a Series C Round of funding in December 2021, with an aim towards expanding its presence across 100 cities and towns in the country
