Direct-to-consumer (D2C) gifting platform Join Ventures, which houses brands like IGP.com and Interflora India, has raised $23.5 million in its series B funding round led by Motilal Oswal Alternate Investment Advisors (MO Alts), the startup said on September 22.
The round also saw participation from Convivialite Ventures and existing investors DSG Consumer Partners, Venture Catalysts, ZNL Growth and other high net-worth individual (HNI) investors.
The firm plans to utilise the funds to enhance technology and expand its captive dark stores' network to drive the growth of its portfolio brands, the company said in a statement.
Founded in 2020 by Tarun Joshi, Join Ventures owns and operates a portfolio of digital-first brands across fresh food, home and fashion categories.
Join Ventures' house of brands include IGP, a D2C brand for celebrations; Interflora, a D2C brand for premium flowers; IGP for Business, which is a brand that helps partner in reward management and corporate gifting, and Masqa a D2C brand for indulgent foods.
The gifting solutions company operates in the Indian Occasions' Online Retail market, which is expected to grow to $90 billion by 2025.
"Such a vast market size is driven by evolving Indian consumers who are looking beyond generic products and moving towards personalised, unique, and theme-based products, and we believe that our curated & personalised design-to-delivery consumer experience fulfills their evolving needs,” Joshi said in the statement.
The company also plans to use the funds to launch new products and categories in the next 18 months based on the insights gathered from its existing customer base of over 3 million, Joshi added.
Join Ventures is also working to deliver a better consumer experience through AI-enabled discovery and hyper-personalisation.
The brand has raised its second round this year, just after the company’s $10 million series-A round in February 2022.
“Our investment in Join Ventures marks our second investment into the tech-enabled consumer franchisees who have the first mover advantage in large unorganised categories,” said Vijay Dhanuka, Director and Head of Consumer Sector at MO Alts.
Join Ventures claims to have grown its business three times in the last two years to reach a Rs 250 crore annualised revenue run-rate.
The company says it services customers in more than 100 countries through its same-day delivery network powered by three mother warehouses and over 40 dark stores.
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