Indian grocery startup Citymall raises $47M to challenge ultra-fast delivery giants

Summary

Indian e-commerce startup Citymall, which focuses on budget-focused grocery delivery for tier 2 and tier 3 towns, said today that it has raised $47 million in Series D funding led by Accel, with participation from existing investors including Waterbridge Ventures, Citius, General Catalyst, Elevation Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, and Jungle Ventures. The Series D round comes three years after the company’s $75 million Series C round led by Norwest Venture Partners. The valuation of the company at $320 million has remained flat over this period. According to sources familiar with the deal who spoke with TechCrunch, investors used nearly a 4x multiple of Citymall’s past year of revenue as a benchmark. The company has raised $165 million to date. Investors in Citymall told TechCrunch that the prior valuation reflected a bullish market environment at the time, which explains why the valuation has remained unchanged despite the company’s growth. However, they remain optimistic about the company’s trajectory. iMage Credits: Screenshot by TechCrunch “We have been an investor in Citymall since the Series A, and we wanted to double down with this investment because we think online grocery shopping, and the value segment within that, is the largest consumer market in India,” Pratik Agarwal of Accel told TechCrunch over a call. Citymall’s funding comes at a time of a quick-commerce frenzy in the Indian market. Companies like BlinkIt, Zepto, Swiggy Instamart, and Tata-owned BigBasket are rushing to serve customers within 10 minutes. Citymall wants to take a different approach by targeting a different customer segment. The startup targets value-conscious customers who make planned purchases of groceries instead of ordering for their immediate needs through quick-commerce apps. Citymall CEO Angad Kikla explained that the app offers about half the product selection (SKUs) of a quick commerce app but double the selection of an offline value store. (SKUs, or “stock keeping units...