Bangladesh-based business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce startup, ShopUp has raised US$ 22.5M in a Series A funding round held in October 2020, co-led by Sequoia Capital India and Flourish Ventures. Other participants in the funding round include Veon Ventures, Speedinvest, and Lonsdale Capital (Singapore).
Sequoia Capital claimed in a statement that the funding obtained by ShopUp is the largest amount ever secured by a startup in Bangladesh, in a Series A round.
Proceeds from the funding round will be used to increase the startup’s reach, strengthen its partnerships with manufacturers, and build a technology-driven platform.
ShopUp, launched in 2017 by Afeef Zaman, Ataur Rahim Chowdhury and Siffat Sarwar, offers B2B sourcing, logistics, digital loan, and business management solutions to neighborhood shops and online vendors. It helps these small business owners increase their productivity and revenue by concentrating their efforts towards offering pleasing services and business expansion.
As stated by the e-commerce firm, there are 4.5 million small, family-owned shops in Bangladesh, which comprise 98% of the country’s retail sector. This renders Bangladesh as one of the most uneven retail markets in Asia. At the beginning of 2020, the startup opened its office in Bengaluru, India. Also, the startup recently merged with Indian e-commerce startup Voonik, which sells women’s apparel. Voonik is based in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It was launched as a personal mobile application, prior to developing a website. Post the collaboration, the founders of Voonik- Sujayath Ali and Navaneetha Krishnan, joined ShopUp as co-founders. ShopUp also said that it has witnessed an upsurge in demand amid Covid-19.
CEO Afeef Zaman quoted, “COVID-19 has further underscored the need for digital transformation for the country’s smaller businesses. The number of neighborhood shops using ShopUp’s platform weekly has grown by 8.5x between April and August, while its last-mile logistics team RedX is dispensing 13x more parcels daily than it did in April.”
ShopUp raised over US$ 1.6M in a seed funding round held in 2018, from Omidyar Network, followed by US$ 1.5M from Sequoia India’s startup accelerator Surge last year.
About Sequoia Capital India
Sequoia Capital India is a venture capital firm that operates in Southeast Asia and India, where they enthusiastically partner with founders from a broad range of companies, including BYJUs, Carousell, Druva, GO-JEK, OYO Rooms, Tokopedia, Truecaller, Zilingo, Zomato and many more. The majority of the VC firm’s profits, over US$ 16B since 2000, have been donated to great causes, like the Ford Foundation, Mayo Clinic and MIT.
It was acquired by US-based venture capital firm Sequoia Capital in 2006, prior to which it was called Westbridge Capital Partners.
About Flourish Ventures
US-based Flourish Ventures is a venture capital firm investing in entrepreneurs whose inventions help people achieve financial well-being and prosperity. It is the investment arm of the Omidyar Network, a philanthropic investment firm that has committed more than US$ 992M to non-profit organizations and for-profit companies across multiple investment zones. Flourish mainly invests in the banking, consumer lending, data and analytics, digital payments, insurtech, personal finance, regtech, and infrastructure segments. As an evergreen fund, they deploy patient capital with a long-term outlook.
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 e-commerce startup, ShopUp has raised US$ 22.5M in a Series A funding round held in October 2020.){kind=link}