Meolaa Raises Seed Funding Led by Manipal Group’s Ranjan Pai
- ByStartupStory | April 19, 2023
Manipal Education and Medical Group’s Dr. Ranjan Pai has led a seed funding round for ecommerce platform Meolaa, the startup announced on Tuesday, April 18. The exact amount of the funding was not disclosed, but Meolaa said it would use the investment to grow its business and attract new customers. The platform plans to use the funds to recruit leaders in primary functions such as marketing, logistics, customer support, product and engineering.
Meolaa, a Bengaluru-based D2C sales platform that helps brands and sellers self-manage their business and interact with customers directly, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a seed round led by Dr. Ranjan Pai of Manipal Education and Medical Group. The startup plans to use the fresh funds to expand its operations, hire key leadership team members across primary functions, including category, marketing, logistics & customer support, and product & engineering, and grow its headcount to 35 members in the next quarter. Founded in 2022 by Ishita Sawant, Meolaa aims to bridge the gap between sustainability and lifestyle by offering a platform for brands to sell their products. The platform claims to have onboarded over 750 brands and over 50,000 products across 6 major verticals, and had a team of 20 members and a user base of 3 Lakh as of March 2023. Meolaa had earlier received pre-seed funding from Dale Vaz, Sixth Sense Ventures founder and CEO Nikhil Vora, Lighthouse Funds founder Sachin Bhartiya, among others.
In reference to the recent funding, Ishita Sawant, the CEO and founder of Meolaa, stated, “We are thrilled to have Dr. Pai on board as an investor and advisor. His vast knowledge and experience in backing and mentoring flourishing startups will be highly valuable for us as we strive to expand our operations and create a robust leadership team. At Meolaa, we are dedicated to delivering an exceptional, personalized, and environmentally friendly shopping experience to our customers, and we are confident that Dr. Pai’s involvement will aid us in accomplishing our objectives.”
The ecommerce sector in India has witnessed tremendous growth in recent years, driven by increased internet and smartphone usage. The COVID-19 pandemic has further boosted the industry. By 2030, the Indian ecommerce market is projected to be worth $400 billion, growing at a CAGR of 19% from 2022 to 2030. While dominant players like Flipkart, Amazon, and Meesho currently lead the market, the Indian government launched the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) in 2022 to make ecommerce more accessible. PhonePe has launched a consumer-focused shopping app called Pincode on the ONDC platform to tap into the rapidly growing ecommerce market. Additionally, Axis Bank plans to launch an ecommerce platform for grocery delivery on the ONDC.
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