B2B company ElasticRun to raise $300 million at over $1 billion valuation – Times of India

New Delhi: Grocery Commerce Forum elastic run, which helps businesses reach deeper parts of rural India, is on the verge of raising $300 million in a funding round. softbank, which would value the company more than $1 billion.
While SoftBank will invest about $ 200 million. Goldman Sachs And existing investor Prosus (Naspers) will also participate in the round, three people with knowledge of the matter said. “The company is very interesting in the current pandemic scenario and is growing very fast,” said a source. “They’ve managed to add new services over time.”
The Pune-headquartered startup was valued at around $400 million in April last year when it raised $75 million from Avatar Ventures and Prosus with participation from Kalaari Capital. ElasticRun, founded in 2016 by Sandeep Deshmukh, Shitiz Bansal and Saurabh Nigam, serves as an extended arm of the distribution reach of FMCG companies. The traditional distribution network manages to reach two million out of a total of 12 million kirana stores across India, the company said.
Logistics tech startup that has over 100 brands and works with companies like ITC, HUL, P&G, Marico and Dabur, uses data from its network of grocery stores to forecast demand and help companies cut costs in efforts to expand their reach directly to under-served markets. ElasticRun raised $2 million in a seed round in 2016 from Kalaari Capital and Norwest Venture Partners.

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