Lovelocal raises $18mn in pre-series B round led by Vulcan Capital

LoveLocal, which has grown 40x since inception is changing how India shops by empowering local retailers and is digitising the $1.1 trillion unorganised retail market

LoveLocal, a hyper-local e-commerce platform for local retailers, has raised $18 million (Rs 143 crore), in a Pre-Series B investment round led by Vulcan Capital. The round also had participation from Klarna Founder & CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski’s Flat Capital, Alumni Ventures Group and Commerce Ventures.

Angel investors Nami Zarringhalam, Co-founder of Truecaller, Sriram Krishnan, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, Anna Lambert, Director of Product Acceleration at Shopify, Sarah Jones Simmer, CEO of Found & ex-COO of Bumble, Arpan Sheth, Senior Partner at Bain & Company, and others also participated.

Existing investors Blume Ventures, AC Ventures, HenkelX Ventures, Chiratae Ventures also invested, with Candy Ventures significantly increasing its ownership in this round.

Tommy Teo, Managing Director & Head of South Asia at Vulcan Capital, said: “LoveLocal’s rapid growth in the past 18 months is a testament to the team’s singular focus on empowering local retailers and a demonstration of the resilience and relevance of the neighbourhood store in the daily lives of Indian homes across the country.”

Launched in January 2020, LoveLocal is changing how India shops by empowering local retailers and digitising the $1.1 trillion unorganised retail market. LoveLocal has grown 40x since inception and currently serves over 35+ cities and 1300+ pincodes, across India. In just 18 months, LoveLocal has signed up more than 100,000 retailers and fulfilled more than 1 million orders. It continues to grow rapidly at over 35 per cent, month-on-month. The firm has India’s largest online catalogue of daily essential items with 55,000 products sold across 145 categories.

Akanksha Hazari, Founder & CEO of LoveLocal, says: “We have always believed in the local retailer. They win on every consumer consideration: service, quality, product selection, value, credit, free delivery and speed of delivery. Local businesses also account for more than 40% of jobs in India. They are a bedrock of our communities and the economy.”

Focused on the hyperlocal daily needs categories i.e. grocery, chemist, fresh fruits & vegetables, dairy, & more - LoveLocal provides a full stack digitisation platform to local retailers that takes their businesses online.

Indian retail is powered by over 60 million local businesses, representing 95 per cent of the $1.1 trillion retail market.

Anna Lambert, Director of Product Acceleration at Shopify says: “Based on my experience in this domain, I have confidence in LoveLocal’s product and business model.”