Soptle, a retail commerce platform that focuses on software as a service (or SaaS), has raised an undisclosed angel funding round that was headed by Soonicorn LLP. A number of logistics investors, including Vaishnav Shetty (Executive Director and CDO of All-cargo Group), Pirojshaw Sarkari (CEO of Gati Ltd), and Saurabh Agarwal (Ex-Founder Fitso (Acquired by Zomato), among others, also participated in the round.
According to the release shared by the company, the money raised will go toward building out Soptle’s national distribution network, scaling up product capabilities, and expanding the staff.
Soptle has developed an asset-light one-stop platform that removes the disorganised and ineffective middlemen from the conventional supply chain by digitising and rewarding FMCG businesses. A $500 billion FMCG market is controlled by India’s estimated 10-15 million kirana outlets. This creates a promising possibility for a platform like this to use technology to build a capital-efficient and direct distribution network for the community of manufacturers and retailers.
Pravas Chandragiri, Founder of Soptle mentioned that he has identified that assortment of products, regional brands, poor margins, and zero-bargain power were some of the bigger pain-points of smaller neighborhood stores, which led him to start working towards solving them and help kiranas grow and scale.
He further added “We have a unique distribution approach to building India’s largest FMCG distribution SaaS platform that activates critical connections between FMCG manufacturers and distributors/wholesale as well as retailers. It also enables FMCG manufacturers to supply products to millions of retailers all over India, creating powerful, positive change for these stakeholders,”.
According to industry estimates, India has one food store (kirana) for every 100 households. As a result, there are about one million kirana stores that could be potential clients for a retail commerce model, giving them the chance to successfully compete with contemporary retail options both online and offline and expand their companies profitably.
Soptle funding
Soonicorn LLP, Partner, Saurabh Agarwal, said “We are excited to partner with Soptle as they approach their vision of creating a cutting-edge,asset-light, tech-driven model that enables FMCG Manufacturers and retailers in boosting their incomes. The company has achieved impressive growth in its retailer base in less than a quarter while simultaneously striving to enhance the lives of the FMCG Manufacturers they collaborate with.”
About Soptle
Soptle,a micro Saas-led 828 retail commerce platform that was established in May 2022 by Pravas Chandragiri who started on his entrepreneurial journey from a young age of 17 years and consolidated all of his learnings and network to start up Soptle. By utilising its nationwide network of more than 15,000 retailers, Soptle assists consumer goods companies with product distribution. Soptle is a platform that also includes 60 manufacturers and around 400 distributors.
Soptle seems to be an intriguing startup with inspiring development on internet marketplace platforms. All the best to the whole group. This will give them an enormous achievement in the future.
Shishir Gupta, Founder and CEO, StartupLanes
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