Frendy, a Community Group buying platform increased the size of its Series A Fundraise, closing at INR 23 crores. The company had raised a smaller tranche from investors in December’21. Frendy’s new round has seen the renewed participation of the Desai Family office and new investors via Let’s Venture Angel Fund led by MARV Capital from New York, Centera Fund UK and Angel investors such as Shalabh Mehrish of Vinson Cap Advisors, Jon Piebenga, Partner, Social Venture Partners Charleston, Brian Giarocco, Ground Swell Capital, Raza Hasnani MD, Africa50 Fund, Kunal Shah – MD, Nomura, Arthur Farme – CEO Grupo H Brazil, Vivek Baliga – MD, BMO and Chetan Vig MD, Teachers Pension Fund, Vikas Lunia, Lunia Capital.
Frendy, founded by Sameer Gandotra a Wharton MBA and Gowrav Vishwakarma, a tech entrepreneur, has a team of 100 professionals including its in house technology team. The startup has seen amazing traction and has expanded in stealth mode with operations in 25+ Tier 2-6 towns and over 4,500+ products. The company has recently expanded its reach by foraying into Rajasthan with Madhya Pradesh next on the cards.
Frendy has an asset light franchised local distributor model that serves it well in Tier III markets. “Entrepreneurial frugality coupled with local knowledge and relationships has been the hallmarks of successful rural distribution businesses and Frendy has adopted the same to scale quickly & sustainably with a low capital requirement. It is on account of the above that the Company has very quickly got Product Market Fit and has notched up a Revenue of INR 43 Cr in its first year of operations with a limited burn,” said Sameer Gandotra, Founder, Frendy.
“This compares quite favourably to what other community group buying companies have managed in a similar stage of growth,” he added.