Zoomtail raises seed capital led by Matrix Partners India

Zoomtail Technologies, which runs a fashion focused e-commerce platform, has raised an undisclosed amount in seed capital from investors led by Matrix Partners India. The round also saw participation from V1 Capital, Kunal Shah, Anshuman Bapna and Shamik Sharma.

The Bengaluru-based startup plans to expand its 30-member team and strengthen its technology platform with the cash raised. It was co-founded in May last year by Varun Jain, an IIT Kanpur and Stanford University Graduate School of Business alumnus, and Swadesh Srivastava, an IIT Madras and University of Minnesota alumnus.

“We are primarily focused on catering to small retailers in the unorganised unbranded fashion space, and enabling them to do better with their offline and online operations. We are building tools to help them get and engage customers, manage inventory, as well as procuring supplies from large distributors,” said Jain who started his career at the Boston Consulting Group, and was most recently a product manager at Myntra.

Srivastava led product and supply chain development at Apple, Lam Research and Intel, and most recently headed supply chain automation at Flipkart.

With the rise of ecommerce and social media interactions there is an increasing demand from existing retailers and wholesalers to build online presence, particularly in sectors such as fashion and household items where products are diverse and the industry is dominated by small and medium businesses.

Zoomtail competes with Sequoia Capital and SAIF Partners backed Meesho and VY Capital, and Stellaris Ventures backed Shop 101. Both platforms enable small merchants and resellers to sell to their customers on social media platforms including WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, and also procure supply from distributors and manufacturers at competitive prices.

“We believe that India’s retailers can play an integral role in serving consumers the right fashion selection at the right cost-to-serve including logistics and returns,” said Rajinder Balaraman, director, Matrix India.