Rediff.com« Back to articlePrint this article

MySmartPrice raises $10 mn from Accel, Helion Ventures in series-B round

July 15, 2015 08:09 IST

Proceeds will be utilised to expand company's hyperlocal shopping services to over 50 cities

MySmartPrice, a Hyderabad-based price comparison shopping and product discovery service portal, has raised $10 million (around Rs 64 crore) in a Series-B round of funding led by its existing investors Accel Partners and Helion Venture Partners.

The proceeds from the fresh fundraising will be utilised to expand the company's hyperlocal shopping services to over 50 cities across the country, besides enabling over 100,000 local retail stores to reach their customers online and super-charge its growth to reach a gross merchandise value (GMV) of $1 billion in the next 24 months.

MySmartPrice has done a GMV (a term used in online retailing to indicate a total sales value for merchandise sold through a particular marketplace over a certain time frame) of $120 million so far this year. While its offline partners are doing a GMV of $3 million every month, the remaining is being generated by 50 online stores, including Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon.

"The fresh round of funds will be used to build an omni-channel platform, which will facilitate users to search, decide and buy any product from any store, whether online or offline," said Sulakshan Kumar, co-founder and chief executive of MySmartPrice.

"Since its inception, MySmartPrice has had a healthy, organic growth that is both sustainable and aggressive at the same time. It is one of the largest product discovery platforms in the country. We believe it will continue to lead the space in the future too and are excited with the growth path that the company is on," Rahul Chowdhri, partner at Helion Advisors, said in a release on Tuesday.

Founded in 2010 by Sulakshan Kumar and Sitakanta Ray, alumni of National Institute of Technology-Rourkela, MySmartPrice had raised $350,000 in May 2012, and $1 million in a Series-A funding in December 2013 from Helion and Accel Partners.

The five-year-old startup has ventured into offline listing of mobile phones in Hyderabad, Bengaluru and New Delhi early this year, enabling users to get the best possible price for a product, both online and offline in these cities.

According to Kumar, MySmartPrice's Android app is currently enabling users in Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Delhi to get to see the price of mobile phones among offline retailers in their vicinity. "The service has recently begun in Chennai and is expected to be launched in Mumbai next month," he added.

K Rajani Kanth in Hyderabad