Rural Commerce Startup Rozana Raises USD 22.5 Mn from Bertelsmann, Fireside Ventures and others The Delhi-based startup will utilise the fresh funds to fuel its expansion into new districts, upgrade its technology platform, and increase hiring in technology, product, and operations teams.
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Rural commerce startup Rozana has announced the raising of USD 22.5 million funds led by Bertelsmann India Investments (BII) with participation from Fireside Ventures and existing investors.
In April 2022, the startup raised USD 2.5 million in its pre-Series A round from 3one4 Capital and Europe's IEG – Investment Banking Group.
According to the official release, the new funds will be used to expand Rozana's warehousing and logistics reach into new districts, enhance its technology platform, and boost hiring across technology, product and operations teams.
Ankur Dahiya, CEO and Co-founder of Rozana, said, "Rural India represents a massive and underserved e-commerce opportunity consisting of nearly a billion people. With this funding, we will continue building out our logistics and supply chain infrastructure to reach new districts and empower rural communities with access to essential products."
Founded in 2021 by Ankur Dahiya, Adwait Vikram Singh, Mukesh Christopher and Prithvi Pal Singh, Rozana operates an e-commerce platform and logistics network focused on serving the needs of rural communities in India.
Through a network of more than 18,000 peer partners, it claims to serve about 12,000 villages dispersed throughout 13 districts in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana currently .
Rohit Sood, Partner at Bertelsmann India Investments, said, "The opportunity in rural India is greatly underappreciated and this team is the ideal one to unlock it. The offering created by Ankur, Adwait and Mukesh is outstanding and it is hard to find a company with such consumer love. The possibility to create meaningful impact in millions of lives excites us."
"Rozana's focus on providing a wide range of products across categories in rural markets and the unique background of their founders make them well-poised to build a very successful business. The Rozana model of appointing peer partners from within the village communities, especially women, is equally commendable," added Kanwal Singh, Founder and Managing Partner, Fireside Ventures.
