Regional snacks now a click away

Last week, the start-up raised $1.5 million from Brand Capital, private equity arm of the Times Group

If you are staying away from home and have a craving for sandesh from Kolkata or khakra from Gujarat or any other regional snack, you can now order these online from stores best known for these products: Ganguram in Kolkata or Shree Keteshwar Sweets in Anand in Gujarat.

Salebhai.com, an online market place for regional food and ethnic products, enables you to buy these from 260 sellers in 100 cities.

It also offers spices, handicrafts, paintings, puja items and herbal products.

Last week, it raised $1.5 million (Rs 10 crore) from Brand Capital, private equity arm of the Times Group. It will also hold a minority stake in the start-up. Earlier this year, it had raised Rs 2 crore from 12 customer-turned-investors.

One can place the order on the website and it flows into the bucket of the respective seller and then the seller dispatches the product.

The company charges an average 27 per cent commission from sellers. The customer pays for the product and shipping, included in the product price. However, the portal does not provide cash-on-delivery facility.

Founded in September 2015 by Vishwa Vijay Singh, Purba Kalita and Pramod Rao, the start-up avails the services of Bluedart, FedEx and Aramex for delivery. "The funding will be used for customer acquisition and we are targeting a gross merchandise value of Rs 1 crore in October and if we achieve our target, we will break even," says Singh.

Based in Ahmedabad, the company has a customer base of 10,000 and aims to grow it 10-fold within a year.