Shotang raises $5 mn from Exfinity, Unitus

Business to business e-commerce marketplace Shotang.Com has raised USD 5 million in a first round of funding (Series A) from Exfinity Venture Partners and Unitus Impact Livelihoods Fund.
The company plans to use the funds to grow its team, expand into the top 10 cities in the country and to strengthen its core technology infrastructure over the next one year.
Bengaluru-based Shotang is an online marketplace for retailers, distributors and manufacturers to help them manage their businesses better.
Shotang aims to enable small and medium retailers to order and pay online for the entire inventory that they sell from their offline stores.

The company currently has presence in two metros with nearly 3,000 retailers transacting every week, it said.
In the last six months, Shotang has sold goods worth over USD 6 million, it said in a statement.

It had raised funds about a year back from Bitchemy Ventures.
The core team at Shotang comprises Anish Basu Roy, Anterpreet Singh and Vishal BG, who have worked with consumer brands including Nokia, Coca Cola and Britannia across various emerging economies.
"We believe we are poised to lend disruptive growth and efficiency to the traditional distribution channels, which comprise 15 million retailers, over 100 thousand distributors and nearly 20,000 manufacturers. This will lead to the creation of a truly omni-channel ecosystem", Anterpreet Singh co-founder of Shotang said.

The India retail distribution market is estimated at about USD 630 billion and comprises over 15 million retailers, and is currently witnessing double-digit growth, according to industry estimates.