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Photo credit: Keoni Cabral.

India’s leading ecommerce marketplaces Flipkart and Snapdeal had a rough time in 2016, with valuations dropping and losses mounting. This is unlikely to change in a hurry. Attention has shifted in the meantime to other plays in ecommerce.

One of these is the wholesale marketplace. It’s not as sexy as consumer-facing ecommerce. And it has to negotiate a tough road to adoption and scale.

The wholesale market in India is unorganized and fragmented.

But it’s a model that’s easier to monetize and there’s huge untapped potential for it in India. Industry reports peg the Indian retail market at US$490 billion currently and project it to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 6 percent to reach US$865 billion by 2023. Tens of millions of small retailers are part of that, and they face issues in sourcing and pricing, just as consumers do.

Investors see opportunity in this space amidst the hiatus in the broader ecommerce scene. Evidence of this comes in today’s announcement of follow-on funding in B2B (business-to-business) mobile commerce startup Wydr from its initial investors, Bessemer Venture Partners, Stellaris Venture Partners, and Jungle Venture Partners. Singapore-based Axis Capital also participated in this round. The amount was not disclosed.

See: 25 failed startups in India this year and what you can learn from them

Tons of action

Photo credit: Pixabay.

The Gurgaon-based startup was launched in March last year. Its founder and CEO Devesh Rai was earlier a founding member and VP of ShopClues, an ecommerce company with tier-2 focus.

Wydr is an app-based marketplace connecting retailers with manufacturers and wholesalers across categories like fashion, home, automotive, and electronics. It claims to have 1,000 merchants selling their products on the app, and that 200,000 retailers have downloaded the app. The fresh round of funding aims to expand its seller base, introduction of new categories, and technology upgradation to deliver more value to users.

“The wholesale market in India is unorganized and fragmented. We believe that there is headroom for technology innovation and business growth in this segment,” says Amit Anand, founding and managing partner of Jungle Ventures.

Another B2B marketplace Bizongo got series A funding from Accel Partners and IDG Ventures a couple of months ago.

India is home to eight significant players in this space:

• Noida-based IndiaMart, which raised funding of US$35.7 million
• Gurgaon-based Power2SME, which raised funding of US$34.8 million
• Mumbai-based JustBuyLive, which raised funding of US$20million
• Kolkata-based B2B portal for metals & coal trade Mjunction (with undisclosed funding)
• Gurgaon-based OfBusiness, which raised US$5 million
• Home construction and improvement marketplace Buildzar, which raised US$4 million
• Bangalore-based Shotang, which raised US$5 million
• Bangalore-based B2B groceries marketplace Ninjacart, which raised US$3 million

According to venture intelligence firm Tracxn, India also has more than 400 smaller B2B ecommerce startups.

In 2016, around US$85 million investment went into the sector in 2016 which drew just over US$21 million in 2015 – that is a 300 percent year-on-year growth.

Meanwhile, B2B ecommerce companies in China raised a total funding of over US$$950 million and those in the US raised over US$140 million last year. Alibaba’s moves in India are much anticipated, and India’s wholesale market will beckon the Chinese giant.

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