Indian social commerce startup Simsim secures $8m in series B round

Online social commerce startup Simsim said Thursday it has raised US$8 million in its series B round led by existing investors Shunwei Capital and Accel.

The latest funding will be used to expand the firm’s network of influencers and further build its technology platforms. Only seven months ago, Simsim raised US$6 million in its series A round from the same investors.

Photo credit: Andriy Popov / 123RF

Started by Amit Bagaria, Kunal Suri, and Saurabh Vashishtha in July last year, Simsim leverages social media influencers to promote products by making small demonstrative videos. The app lists products in the category of fashion, electronics, beauty products, and health and wellness.

“Indian consumers are used to a set of different shopping experience offline, one of which is social and highly interactive. Of course, all these interactions are in the local language and dialects. This is the experience and method of shopping which we are replicating at Simsim,” Amit Bagaria told local media Economic Times.

Currently, the app is in three local languages apart from English – Hindi, Tamil, and Bengali – as it targets users from tier-three and four cities. Simsim said it will add 20 more vernacular languages on its platform by the end of this year, adding that it has over a million users as of now.

Social commerce companies in India have grown in the past couple of years as investors from China, as well as the US, have been increasingly investing in such ventures. Simsim competes with the likes of EkAnek, Facebook-backed Meesho, and GlowRoad that has raised money from CDH, Korean Investment Partners, and Accel. Recently, Alibaba launched its own social commerce platform Yoli in India.

Showing confidence in the sector, Meesho’s largest investor, Naspers, bought employee stock options worth US$1 million. Meesho has an 820-member team as of now. Last year, it raised US$125 million from Naspers, Shunwei Capital, Facebook, and Saif Partners.

This report was first published on KrAsia.