Yodacart, an e-commerce start-up by XLRI Jamshedpur student Vikas Sharma, has announced pre-seed funding of 225,000 USD from Ajith Daniel, a New York-based Angel Investor, an LP in several Investment funds, a serial entrepreneur with 3 successful exits over US$200 Million, and a Strategic Growth Advisor to many start-ups. Incidentally, Ajith is also an XLRI alumni.
Yodacart specialises in last-mile logistics and same-day delivery and support, helping ease decision-making on the purchase of consumer electronic products through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). The current online penetration in appliances is merely 2-3%, and Yodacart aims to drive it up to 10%. As such, the funding will further enable it to reinforce its tech offerings and expand its presence in the Indian market.
Founded in 2019, Yodacart originally began as Adofix, a last-mile logistics company for large consumer and commercial appliances, serving the Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane areas. As sales increased and revenues spiked, Vikas also very quickly noticed a vast gap in consumer expectations while shopping, delivery and installation of purchases, post-purchase customer experience expectations, and actual ground reality, and in 2020 started laying the foundation for an immersive hyper-personalized customer-centric, easy to use platform, which intuitively helped customers find the right product for their unique requirements.
Powered by the latest and best in technology, Yodacart uses Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, AR and VR, and conversational AI, to create a seamless, real-time, omnichannel, hyper-personalized product discovery, pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase delivery and installation management with a unique customer experience. This allows customers to browse and purchase products efficiently, as well as book maintenance and after-sales services, from the same window.
With an existing presence in Maharashtra and covering more than 350 SKUs, the company plans to use the funds to enhance the platform, expand product categories, and expand nationally, growing its services by 50X within the next year. As part of the funding investment, Yodacart will also receive support from two portfolio companies headed by Ajith Daniel.
Speaking about the funding, Ajith Daniel, said, “Yodacart has a keen understanding of the ground realities in this dynamic space. Having gotten their hands dirty over the last few years, they have poured their learnings into this unique platform and customer-centric approach. Their revenue growth over the last few years instils confidence in their capabilities to transform the way consumers purchase electronic products and enhance their post-purchase experiences. Through this investment, I expect Yodacart to further enhance and deliver highly personalised and simplified product discovery solutions for its customers, fundamentally transforming customer experience”
Founder and CEO of Yodacart, Vikas Sharma, said, “So far, our specialisation has primarily been in five consumer electronics categories, including Air Conditioners, Televisions, Washing Machine, Refrigerator, and Water Purifier. Through this funding, we aim to further enhance the user experience for our customers, expand operations on a country-wide scale, and deliver efficient and easy solutions for the evolving customer of today.”
In addition, the company will be launching in Pune in January 2022, with further plans to expand to Delhi and Gurugram, later in the year.