Mobile commerce startup Bikayi raises $10.8 mn funding round led by Sequoia

Set up in 2019, Bikayi helps SMBs scale up on digital platforms, enabling them to reach out to a wider audience base

Bikayi, one of the fastest-growing mobile-commerce enablers, has raised $10.8 million in Series-A funding round led by Sequoia Capital India. Earlier in August 2020, the company had raised $2 million as a part of its seed round of funding led by Y Combinator.

Founded in 2019 by IIITians Sonakshi Nathani and Ashutosh Singla, Bikayi helps small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) scale up on digital platforms, enabling them to reach out to a wider audience base. The platform provides businesses with a digital storefront, professional features, and tools to help them grow. Some of the features include a dedicated business coach, catalogue listing, shipping facility, payments, and also insights on customer behaviour to manage their e-commerce stores through a single platform.

“Our vision is to empower every small business to win in the emerging online market by providing them with affordable tools, helping them achieve unimaginable goals,” said Sonakshi Nathani, co-founder and CEO, Bikayi. “We are on a mission to fulfil the aspirations of millions of small businesses that drive our economy. There are merchants who have made more than a million dollars via Bikayi e-stores in the span of a year. Such stories keep us obsessed to do better for our customers every single day.”

With its merchant base growing at 5x over the last eight months, Bikayi's annual Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) has grown 1,800 per cent alongside. The company currently has more than 4 million registered users on the platform. Bikayi is helping them sell their products across India and stand tall in the constantly evolving online commerce industry. With the aim to scale up product offerings, the company plans to use this capital to accelerate product development, acquisition, and talent hiring.

Shraeyansh Thakur, vice president, Sequoia Capital India, said India is on the cusp of an e-commerce revolution and small and medium businesses will play a pivotal role in shaping this landscape over the next decade. India is home to over 75 million SMBs, which account for over 30 per cent of India’s GDP, employ over 130 million, and form the backbone of the economy.

“Rapid digitization of SMBs and the deepening of the e-commerce ecosystem are huge trends in India,” said Thakur. “Bikayi is building a next-gen product that sits at the confluence of both these trends, integrating the entire infrastructure of commerce onto one single platform.”