Srikanth
MobiGarage, a B2B e-commerce platform for refurbished smartphones today announced it has raised an undisclosed amount as part of its Pre-Series A round. The round was led by leading US venture capital fund SOSV (US$970 million AUM), which also saw participation from Artesian (Australia Based VC), Inflection Point Ventures, MobAvenue(Singapore based), AppyHigh Technology LLP, LetsVenture (Led by Veda.vc), and prominent HNIs include Nikhil Aggarwal, Mrunal Jhaveri, Priyanka Chawla, Nitin Uppal, Rishabh Bhatia, Soarabh Gupta and Amit Anand
Having grown 300% during the pandemic, MobiGarage is India’s leading player in the mobile recommerce space, the first of its kind to introduce AI to operationalize a robust supply chain. The funding will help the company scale operations in Tier 2+ cities and rural markets, strengthen the leadership team, build proprietary technologies and analytic engines and launch a focused D2C brand for Bharat.
“It’s an exciting time for D2C companies: India’s population in Tier 2+ cities is demanding more sophisticated products and a wider range of options. MobiGarage has beaten the pandemic blues to show tremendous growth in over 50 Tier 2+ cities thanks to its robust supply chain, and we’re excited to help the company scale all over India,” says William Bao Bean, General Partner at SOSV, Managing Director of MOX.
MobiGarage is innovating India’s multibillion dollar smartphone market with its omnichannel model that ensures hyperlocal services all over India, both through the ecommerce marketplace MobiGarage.com and through a unique hub-and-spoke retail model.
Ankur Mittal, Co-Founder, Inflection Point Ventures says, “India is already one of the largest smartphone markets in the World. Tier 2 and 3 cities are contributing a majority of new smartphone shipments. MobiGarage has the potential to become India’s most trusted brand in the second-hand smartphone category that can address the needs of those aspiring to upgrade their phones and those who are keen to join the digital economy by switching from feature phones to smartphones. The Company has the potential to conquer the MENA region in next 2+ years as well. This is a highly scalable idea and we are excited to back them in this journey.”
“The digital divide between metropolitan and Tier 2+ populations keeps increasing: there are 500 million people in lower tier towns and rural India, unserved by global brands but ready to adopt new technologies for shopping, entertainment and education. MobiGarage is addressing this multi-billion market gap by providing just-like-new, high-quality refurbished smartphones at a fraction of the cost of new phones, completely removing the biggest hurdle in the consumers’ digital journey. We are grateful for SOSV’s continued support as we scale all over India to become a flagship Bharat D2C brand,” said Munish Vashishat, Co-Founder of MobiGarage.
Already profitable since its inception, MobiGarage is processing 20,000 orders a month, growing 3x annually. The demand for refurbished devices has increased since the 1st wave of pandemic. Despite the extended lockdowns in the current as well as last year, the space boomed as restrictions eased, testament to the rapid growth witnessed by MobiGarage. The startup is looking to extend its retail and franchise partnerships across India in lower tier markets in the next few months.
