Unicorn alert! B2B startup Jumbotail nears $120 million funding round at $1 billion valuation

Jumbotail was founded in 2015 by Karthik Venkateswaran and Ashish Jhina, a third generation apple farmer who went on to graduate from IIT Delhi and Stanford.

Jumbotail, the business to business (B2B) platform that connects mom-and-pop stores (kiranas) to suppliers, is in advanced stages to raise $120 million (around Rs 1,000 crore) from SC Ventures, Invus and others in a fresh round that values the company at $1 billion (or about Rs 8,500 crore), people aware of the developments told Moneycontrol.

A unicorn is a privately held company that is valued at or over $1 billion.

SC Ventures is an arm of Standard Chartered Bank which invests in new-age companies and was also an investor in Solv, the B2B startup that Jumbotail acquired on March 26. New York-based Invus is an existing investor in Jumbotail.

Gautam Jain, Chairman of Board, Solv India and Operating Member, SC Ventures will also be joining the Jumbotail’s board as part of the acquisition agreement.

The developments come weeks after Moneycontrol reported that Jumbotail was acquiring Solv to expand its reach in the B2B space. Investors returning to back the larger entity only shows their increased conviction around the space and the company.

“The ongoing round is set to close in roughly a month’s time,” one of the persons cited above said.

Once complete, Jumbotail will likely be the first unicorn of this year. “The valuation of the larger entity – Jumbotail plus Solv – is being pegged at around $900 million (about Rs 7,650 crore) and a fresh capital infusion of around $120 million  (about Rs 1,000 crore) will take the company’s post-money valuation to a just little over $1 billion,” a second person aware of the developments told Moneycontrol.

Post-money valuation is a company's estimated worth after taking into account the investment amount and adding it to the pre-money valuation.

The larger entity’s fresh valuation of around $900 million is a significant markup from Jumbotail’s valuation of around $300 million in 2021 and Solv’s valuation of $200 million a few years ago.

Jumbotail was founded in 2015 by Karthik Venkateswaran and Ashish Jhina, a third generation apple farmer who went on to graduate from IIT Delhi and Stanford.

Additional capital will help Jumbotail compete more closely with Lightspeed-backed Udaan, a dominant player in the B2B space and Jumbotail’s key rival. SoftBank and Prosus-backed Elasticrun is another key player in the space. Other companies like Tiger Global-backed Dealshare and InfoEdge Ventures-backed Shopkirana have shrunk in size.

Jumbotail, SC Ventures and Invus did not reply to Moneycontrol’s queries.

This will be Jumbotail’s largest fundraise since its inception in 2015. At a larger level, once complete, this will be one of the few large ticket, cheques over $100 million in size, deals that would have materialised in the past few months. Moneycontrol had earlier reported that stock trading platform Dhan is also negotiating a fundraise of over $100 million at a valuation of over $1 billion.

Similarly, payments firm Juspay is also negotiating a $150 million round at unicorn valuation, as reported exclusively by Moneycontrol. 

Apart from Jumbotail, Dhan and Juspay, which are on the verge of becoming unicorns, the Indian startup ecosystem, the third-largest in the world, has 111 unicorns in total.

Krutrim, Perfios, Porter, Rapido, Ather Energy and Moneyview were six of the 111 unicorns that were minted last year.