Jaldi.Com Plans To Raise Rs 20 Cr

City-based retail portal Jaldi.com will divest a minority stake to bring in funds to finance its expansion plans. The company

will soon initiate talks with various financial institutions and

venture capital funds to bring in about Rs 20 crore against an equity placement.

"This is the stage where we need venture financing to take our activities to the net level," Sanjay Trehan, vice-president of Contenet and Strategy told Business Standard.

Also, the company is charted out a two-pronged strategy to attract more customers. It is looking at a franchise model and Internet kiosks dedicated for shopping as a method to attract more revenues. The company is planning to appoint about 50 franchise in the coming six months.

 

These franchise entrepreneurs will work as the stockists and distributors for Jaldi's operations.

The company is in the process of setting up Internet shopping kiosks in 20 major Indian cities which will be known as Jaldi Kiosks. The company aims to set up 300 such kiosks within six months.

The Delhi-based e-commerce company would invest about Rs 3 crore to set up the Internet kiosks in 20 cities across the country. Currently, there are about 10 kiosks working in different part of New Delhi.

The company is looking at establishing kiosks in those cities where the Internet infrastructure is poor. According to Trehan, the company is planning on going solo in the kiosk project.

In addition to this, the company is also in the process of strengthening logistics. "Logistics is an area where we are going to make considerable investments and improvements. We will have multiple alliances in this area," he said.

The Jaldi.com portal features products ranging from household, kitchenware, electronics and personal care to health, finance, toys, apparel and sports products.