RainCan in talks to raise Rs 6.4 crore

RainCan is a Pune-based grocery e-commerce startup

RainCan, a Pune-based grocery e-commerce start-up, is in talks with venture capitalists and angel investors to raise Rs 6.4 crore. It recently raised Rs 63 lakh in seed funding.

RainCan, founded by Indian Institute of Technology Bombay graduates Abhijeet Kumar and Munendra Singh, is a subscription-based service provider dealing in home delivery of dairy, meat, bakery, fruits and vegetables.

"Everyday we have a problem in terms of daily planning of groceries. We are trying to solve that problem. The whole idea is to promote fresh eating," said co-founder Abhijeet Kumar.

In its over two months of existence, the start-up is doing about 100 orders a day and plans to scale it up to around 500 in the next couple of months. It aims to reach 10,000 orders a day in the next six-seven months.

The startup begins delivery of groceries at six in the morning and plans to spread wings in Pune before expanding to other cities in months to come.

"We are in talks to raise another $1 million. This would be used to enhance infrastructure and technology," said co-founder Munendra Singh.

Being technology graduates, Singh and Kumar have introduced a number of technology innovations in the space to further spread the word on RainCan. These include pre-emptive analytics driven forecasts for individual customers and providing top up services where customers can order daily essentials which can be delivered during daytime. The services can also be paused or stopped online as desired by the customer.

"The target is to deliver in the morning slot but as a top-up we are offering deliveries during the day also. Target group includes nuclear families, bachelors and college going students," added Kumar.

The start-up has tied up with distributors of Nestle, ITC and P&G among other fast moving consumer goods companies and earns 10-15 per cent margin on the a range of products. RainCan has over 4,000 varieties of products on its shelves, and is planning to add more. It would also be expanding its team from the present 12 to 40 in the next two quarters.