Cloud and ERP player Gofrugal to build presence tier-2 cities, rural market

Sees huge talent pool in this market, along with large base of aspirational businessmen who may want its digital support

Gofrugal, a company that offers cloud and mobile ERP solutions to retail, restaurant and distribution businesses with over 30,000 customers across India, said it is expanding its presence in tier-2 cities and emerging markets and is expected to double its turnover during the current financial year.

“For all the problems the pandemic has caused, it has also presented us with new opportunities to go rural and grow more rural. Apart from the enormous amount of talent in tier-2 market, we also witnessed small towns having a large share of aspirational businessmen who long for our hand-holding and digital support,” said Kumar Vembu, chief executive officer and Founder, Gofrugal. He added that the company is expected to double its turnover on the back of rising business. During the past one year, the company’s customer base increased by around 6,000-7,000.

The firm is expanding its presence in emerging markets with its first office launch in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, which it launched with an employee strength of 90. It plans to grow its talent pool to 150 in the region.

With an existing customer base of 2,000 small and medium-sized businesses in the town, Gofrugal aspires to maximise digitisation of retail businesses in Madurai, in the same manner as its contemporaries in Tier 1 cities have done, through simplified solutions. The Madurai office is multi-floor with about 15,000 sq ft where 150-plus staff can work. The company also plans to set up an exclusive walk-in experiential center for customers to get a firsthand understanding of a digital store. This will give them the confidence to automate their processes and transform their businesses through technology.

While Indian businesses in emerging tier-2 cities were not fully using the power of technology due to lack of awareness and need for better infrastructure, the Covid-19 pandemic pushed small businesses, traders, retailers from tier-2 and 3 cities to go digital and meet the needs of changing consumer’s behaviour. From selling products online to sending digital copies of invoices to consumer’s phones, business owners can greatly use technology and obtain their objective via contactless business process, the company said.