Former Flipkart directors show sellers how to crack ecommerce

Sellerworx plans to use the SaaS (software-as-a-service) model to simplify e-commerce for sellers across India, reports Tech in Asia

Until last year, Venkat Potluri and Ganesamurthi G were directors at Flipkart. They were in charge of the supply chain and marketplace operations for the firm. Their KRAs (key result areas) were to bring quality sellers to the platform, help them stabilise and ensure they were profitable.
 

Then in February and March last year, Venkat and Ganesamurthi quit one after another. They decided to launch their own start-up, with the aim of solving the challenges they faced in executing the goals assigned to them at Flipkart.
 

Sketchy product catalogs, outdated lists, weak backend systems, delayed deliveries, poor pricing strategy – a host of factors were affecting the sellers and their customers. The unsatisfactory customer experience also reflected badly on the marketplace as a whole.

Venkat and Ganesamurthi decided to get involved at a micro level with some of the vendors to see how they could help them do better. This eventually led to their quitting Flipkart and launching a start-up to focus on solving the problem for online sellers across the country, whichever e-commerce platform they used. With an estimated 12 to 15 million SMEs (small and medium enterprises) in India, the scale of the opportunity is massive. 
 

To turn this vision into reality, the two got on board Chandramouli K as co-founder and chief technology officer.

Bengaluru-based Sellerworx came out of stealth mode earlier this year when it raised funding from Axilor Ventures, an incubator set up by Kris Gopalakrishnan and SD Shibulal, of Infosys. Sellerworx was Axilor’s first investment.

Neither Axilor nor Sellerworx disclosed the amount of funding when it was first reported. Venkat says the start-up raised close to $2 million. 

This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here.