New Delhi: GoKwik – an e-commerce enablement company, on a mission to democratize the shopping experience and increase GMV realization for e-commerce businesses, has raised INR 40 crores ($5.5 Million) in Pre Series A round led by Matrix Partners India. This round also saw the participation of global investor RTP Global.
Marquee Angel investors and serial entrepreneurs like Jitendra Gupta – Founder & CEO of Jupiter, Nitin Gupta – Co-founder of Uni, Utsav Somani – Partner at AngelList India, Amit Lakhotia – Founder at Park+, Pradeep Parameswaran – President, Mobility, the Asia Pacific at Uber, Manish Vij – Co-Founder of Smile Group, Asish Mohapatra – Co-Founder & CEO of OfBusiness, Arjun Vaidya – Ventures Lead, India at Verlinvest, Ramakant Sharma – Founder, LivSpace, Siddharth Puri – Co-Founder & CEO, Tyroo, Umang Kumar – Co-Founder, CarDekho, Anupam Mittal – Founder & CEO, Shaadi.com and other leading industry figures have also participated in the round.
Founded in the post-pandemic era, GoKwik is the brainchild of Chirag Taneja (CEO) and includes Vivek Bajpai (CTO), and Ankush Talwar (Chief Data Scientist) as part of the founding team. GoKwik believes in a ‘Merchant-First’ philosophy and uses AI/ML technologies to solve hard-hitting problems like Return to Origin (RTO) to solve & better Cash on Delivery (CoD) conversion rates for e-commerce players including D2C brands. GoKwik’s checkout and UPI solutions help improve checkout conversion rates ensuring higher GMV realization, increased profitability, reduced Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), and increased delivery rates.
On the fundraising, Chirag Taneja, Co-founder & CEO, GoKwik said, “E-commerce enablement players will play a pivotal role in fuelling the burgeoning Indian e-retail market which is projected to touch $120 billion in next 4-5 years. GoKwik is poised to redraft the traditional playbook by offering personalized solutions to improve overall conversion rates, help register higher GMV with increased RoI and provide protection against risks such as RTO to e-commerce and D2C brands. We are very delighted to partner with all our new investors as they bring in a wealth of experience that will help us create a robust enablement ecosystem.”
75+ brands including digitally native brands, traditional players, and marketplaces have put their trust in GoKwik leading to a million-plus monthly transaction, almost doubling every month. Many leading D2C brands like boAt, Mamaearth, The Man Company, Heads Up For Tails, The Moms Co., OZiva, TCNS Clothing Co. (W, Aurelia and Wishful), LimeRoad, ManMatters, Neemans, The Whole Truth, The Souled Store, EyeMyEye and more are already leveraging GoKwik’s solutions to empower their online businesses to deliver a BEST-IN-CLASS experience to their customers.
On leveraging the platform, Varun Alagh, Co-founder of MamaEarth, said, “Conversion rates across the funnel and RTO are major pain points for any e-commerce business in India, and GoKwik is focusing on solving exactly these problems. With a razor-sharp focus on propelling D2C businesses, the GoKwik team shows a lot of promise with its advanced AI capability and a deep understanding of the e-commerce space.”
The new investment will primarily be used for scaling up & establishing a footprint in MENA and SEA regions and hiring talent across tech, data, and product engineering. Also, the platform is going to invest heavily in building many industry-first tech and data solutions to optimize the conversion funnel for online brands.
“India is seeing a surge of direct to customer brands and the share of non-marketplace, digital transactions for traditional as well as new-age brands is increasing rapidly. Some of this is driven by Covid but the trend is secular. This will create opportunities for companies such as GoKwik, to offer unique to India solutions that help merchants to sell more effectively online. This market timing combined with Chirag, Vivek and Ankush’s deep and relevant experience to build such a company makes it a compelling investment for us. Globally the e-commerce enablement and especially the one-click checkout space is seeing significant interest with multiple large companies emerging over the last 18 months. We believe that the same will be true in India as well and we’re thrilled to be partnering with GoKwik on this journey of democratizing the e-commerce shopping experience! “ Commented Rajat Agarwal, Managing Director, Matrix India.
Galina Chifina, Partner at RTP Global, added: “The e-commerce industry is rapidly expanding across the globe and enablement tools such as those provided by GoKwik must grow and thrive at the same pace, which is why we have placed our faith in Chirag and the team. Given the recent spate of funding announcements in D2C brands, GoGwik will prove pivotal in the Indian Growth Story – but also for e-commerce clients of its own across the globe, as it expands internationally. We are delighted to be on board and supporting the team with their growth.”
