Presently, working with over 300 vendors across India, Delhi-based Pavitra Retail Pvt Ltd, which runs an e-commerce marketplace for organic products JoybyNature, has secured about Rs 6.4 crore in a pre-Series A round of funding.
According to a press statement, JoybyNature has raised about US$ 1 million from Mumbai Angels, Contrarian Vriddhi Fund and a bunch of high-net-worth individuals (HNI) including Abhimanyu Munjal of Hero Group and Vaaman Sehgal of Samvardhana Motherson Group.
Reportedly, the company will use the proceeds to ramp up the technology base and marketing strategy, induct talent at the senior level and launch a private label with the fund raised.
Significantly, in a joint statement, investors Samir Shah, Taha Nabee and Ajit Surana, who led the investment by Mumbai Angels disclosed, “JoybyNature has shown tremendous traction in a short period of time. Not only does it offer an array of 10,000 products from trusted brands, but it also has experts that give advice through live chats and aims to educate people about health-related issues.”
Established in early 2014, Joybynature.com was founded by Shailesh Mehta and Rahul Kumar. Mehta is an INSEAD management graduate and an IIT-Bombay alumnus, while Kumar is an IIM-Ahmedabad and IIT-Delhi alumnus.
The website claims to address a critical gap of discovery and awareness about safe, organic and natural products in India, which is potentially a $10 billion industry in India, suggested the company statement.
Equity Crest was the financial advisor to JoybyNature.com for this fund-raising round.
There are a bunch of other firms in the organic products e-commerce domain and some have also raised funding in the past: Organicshop.in raised Rs 30 lakh from Rajasthan Angel Investor Network (RAIN) two years ago; Freemont Partners Pvt Ltd invested in Natural Mantra. There are other peers such as Times Internet’s Satvikshop.com.
