Social e-commerce platform CityMall raises $11 mn in new funding round

CityMall, a social e-commerce and online grocery platform, has raised $11 million in a Series A funding round led by Accel Partners. Elevation Capital participated in the investment after leading the $3 million seed round in June 2020.

CityMall will use the funds to strengthen its supply chain, logistics and expand to 20 new cities. 

“India’s next 300 million internet users from smaller cities, towns, and villages depend on assisted commerce formats driven by pricing, trust and feasibility to encourage online purchase for everyday products. The accelerated pace of our growth in past 10 months is a testimony of our ability to create a sustainable and effective model to address the challenges faced by traditional e-commerce models in Tier II, III and IV markets of India,” said Angad Kikla, co-founder, CityMall.

Founded in 2019 by Kikla and Naisheel Verdhan, CityMall is a community commerce platform designed for 400 cities, towns and villages for everyday use products like grocery and home products. Its ‘community group purchase’ model aims to help new internet users in towns and small cities to use the internet and e-commerce and become entrepreneurs. 

CityMall said has its revenue has grown 25 times since 2019 and it serves more than 200,000 customers. 

“Tier 2+ grocery is a very large opportunity, which has remained untapped because of unique challenges that traditional e-commerce models have struggled to address. Citymall’s community group buying model has allowed it to bridge this gap and offer a high trust and super convenient purchase experience,” said Akarsh Shrivastava, Vice President, Elevation Capital, which was formerly known as SAIF Partners.

“We hope CityMall sets an example for Indian founders to innovate and serve the next 500mn Indian consumers while building very valuable businesses in the process,” said Pratik Agarwal, Vice President, Accel Partners.