Mumbai: Solv, a zero-inventory full-stack online B2B commerce marketplace for MSMEs, today announced the appointment of Amit Bansal as its CEO and Board Member.
Amit will drive the company’s strategic direction through its commerce, credit and convenience services leading the start-up to achieve its core purpose of creating livelihood opportunities for India’s 65MN+ MSMEs.
Amit is an experienced leader who has spent over two decades in various roles spanning e-commerce and retail businesses across the globe. He possesses in-depth knowledge of the e-commerce space coupled with expertise across multiple domains such as product development, supply chain and fintech, honed through earlier leadership stints at Reliance Retail and Flipkart, among others. Prior to joining Solv, Amit was the Founder CEO of EZMall.com, a pioneer in the video commerce space. He was instrumental in building EZMall’s e-commerce infrastructure from the ground up, as well as forging partnerships with several key supply chain partners.
Commenting on the appointment, Jiten Arora, Venture Lead, Solv and Member, SC Ventures, said, “With a wealth of experience in global retail market and India’s e-commerce & merchant ecosystem space, Amit is a natural fit for this role. India is a core market in our strategy to develop disruptive and transformational solutions for the MSME sector globally, and with Amit’s able leadership, I am confident of Solv making great strides towards empowering Indian MSMEs digitally and helping them simplify their growth journey.”
Solv had announced commercial launch of its platform in Q4 of 2020 and has supported 50,000+ KYC-verified MSMEs with over 30% month-on-month growth in gross transaction value (GTV) on the platform in the last 6 months, with an aggregate value of around INR 250 crore of business till date. With B2B interactions going digital in a huge way after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Solv’s repeat transacting base has grown to almost 60%+ with an average of over 300-350 tonnes of goods delivered daily. With market operational hours being restricted to just 4 hours (per day) due to lockdowns in key cities like Delhi NCR, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, Solv was able to successfully redesign its supply chain network to be operational from 2 am every day. Critical supply chain interventions such as this by Solv, enabled micro & small entrepreneurs to receive goods at their doorstep and continue to deliver essentials to their customers from 6-10 am in the morning, in an uninterrupted & safe manner.
“We are building Solv as a powerful enabler for the growth of Indian MSMEs.We are constantly working to unlock their boundless energy and passion for growth by building a technology backed ecosystem; an ecosystem where millions of micro & small entrepreneurs will converge and help each other grow,” said Amit Bansal, CEO, Solv, on this development. “I look forward to working with and further strengthening an exceptionally talented team, as we continue to develop innovative and industry-leading solutions for the millions of small business owners in India, propelling them to growth and prosperity.”
Solv has worked closely with the MSME sector to address the challenges it faced due to the lockdown measures imposed to tackle the pandemic. These include the setting up of credit helplines, launching a pioneering buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) program in the B2B space, setting up a supply chain finance platform to support deep-tier anchor-led dealer/distributor finance, and providing doorstep delivery of goods. A recent round of fund infusion by Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) to the tune of INR 55 crores, has given Solv the ability to plan a significant boost to its full-stack offering for MSMEs. This recent round of funding is geared to help the company accelerate growth, meet the demands of its rapidly growing customer base and achieve scale.
