New Delhi: PepperTap, one of India’s leading and fastest mobile-first hyperlocal grocery delivery services has received Series A funding of USD 10 million from SAIF Partners and Sequoia Capital. The funding will be leveraged for building a highly-skilled team that is in sync with global standards and for expanding the reach of PepperTap to 10 more cities in the country by the end of the year.

Launched in November 2014, PepperTap offers a wide-range of groceries and daily-need products. Currently PepperTap offers more than 15,000 SKUs across categories including Staples, food & dairy products, household items, fresh fruits & vegetables etc. Consumers can place their orders through a mobile app and deliveries are made in a span of two hours, making it one of the fastest services of its kind. The app is presently available on Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS platforms.

Navneet Singh, Co-founder, PepperTap commented, “Our sole focus is to build the best grocery and fresh product-buying experience for our customers. Through our unique business model, we are able to provide delight for our customers, increase sales for our partner stores; and create a concrete and sustainable business for our shareholders. Participation by quality funds like SAIF Partners and Sequoia Capital in our Series A funding establishes the fact that we are endeavoring to create a niche place for ourselves in the market. This investment will help us iron out any chinks in our armor, and build on our strengths to take our business from a single-city operation to a pan-India scale.”

Shailendra Singh, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India Advisors said, “We agreed to invest in Peppertap even before the name was finalized, and before the first engineer was hired. We liked Navneet so much and had such great chemistry that we felt we could partner with him to solve a very tough problem in a very large market. So we agreed to launch a grocery delivery business with him. A few months later, Navneet and team have far surpassed our expectations. We are delighted to co-lead the Series A with SAIF Partners and work with them to help make PepperTap a leading mobile commerce company in India.”

Ravi Adusumalli, Managing Director, SAIF Partners said “Grocery in India is a huge market and grocery shopping on mobile is already seeing strong adoption. We believe that PepperTap’s hyperlocal marketplace approach is the most efficient way to cater to this market, and can scale very rapidly. We are very excited to partner with Navneet in making PepperTap a big success.”

Prior to this round of funding, PepperTap also secured an undisclosed seed funding from Sequoia Capital recently. This capital infusion enabled the company to establish its operations, invest in strategic hiring and product development. It also gave it the much-needed support in enhancing its brand visibility and creating greater customer engagement.

Source : Lokesh Shastri