Frendy Closes Series A Fundraise at $3 Million The company has recently expanded its reach by foraying into Rajasthan with Madhya Pradesh next on the cards
By S Shanthi •
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Community Group buying platform Frendy increased the size of its Series A Fundraise, closing at $3 million. The company had raised a smaller tranche from investors in December'21. Frendy's new round has seen the renewed participation of the Desai Family office and new investors via Let's Venture Angel Fund led by MARV Capital from New York, Centera Fund UK and Angel investors such as Shalabh Mehrish of Vinson Cap Advisors, Jon Piebenga, Partner, Social Venture Partners Charleston, Brian Giarocco, Ground Swell Capital, Raza Hasnani MD, Africa50 Fund, Kunal Shah – MD, Nomura, Arthur Farme - CEO Grupo H Brazil, Vivek Baliga - MD, BMO & Chetan Vig MD, Teachers Pension Fund, Vikas Lunia, Lunia Capital.
Frendy, founded by Sameer Gandotra and Gowrav Vishwakarma, has a team of 100 professionals including its in-house technology team. The startup has expanded in stealth mode with operations in 25+ Tier 2-6 towns and over 4,500+ products. The company has recently expanded its reach by foraying into Rajasthan with Madhya Pradesh next on the cards.
The company has achieved a revenue of INR 43 Crores in its very 1st year of operations with break-even unit economics. Frendy is building a "digital supermarket" with neighborhood homepreneurs in Bharat. Frendy focuses largely on women consumers & women community leaders & by building a community around them. "I was attracted to Frendy because of its unique culture and vision. I have enjoyed working in rural India on complex supply chains and in mission-oriented companies and I believe that the "Main se Hum" (ME to WE) movement of Frendy presents an incredible opportunity to build a scalable & sustainable business."Harshad Joshi, COO, Frendy.
Frendy claims that its frontline team of direct sales and training professionals have collectively nurtured over 1 million independent women homepreneurs between them. "We understand how to make a micropreneur business successful. A partners' monthly income is our North Star Metric. A stable monthly income assures higher retention of partners which in turn ensures customer retention and overall sustainability of the model. We have disbursed more than INR crores to our active microentrepreneur community and the average income our Frendy Partner earns is several times higher than what is typically seen in other reseller or micropreneur platforms," said Gowrav Vishwakarma, co-founder, Frendy.
Frendy has an asset-light franchised local distributor model that primarily serves Tier 3-6 markets. "Entrepreneurial frugality coupled with local knowledge and relationships has been the hallmarks of successful rural distribution businesses and Frendy has adopted the same to scale quickly and sustainably with a low capital requirement. It is on account of the above that the company has very quickly got product-market fit and has notched up a Revenue of INR 43 Cr in its 1st year of operations with a limited burn" said Sameer Gandotra, founder, Frendy.
