On the back of strong demand for personal protective equipments and a faster rebound across categories, Bengaluru based B2B sourcing and selling platform Shakedeal said it aims to grow at 300 per cent this fiscal.
"We have managed to grow 300% compounded annually for the last two years now and seem to be well positioned to clock similar growth this fiscal as well. It is our hedged portfolio of categories that has allowed us to stay ahead of the curve and ensure that we can navigate these troubled times effectively," Akash Hegde, Co-founder and MD of Shakedeal, said.
He informed that while they always had health and safety as a category, they had to quickly ramp up the category once COVID-19 struck.
"In the lockdown months, PPE as a category was contributing 60-70% to sales; however, that figure has now rationalised to around 30%. While PPE continues to be contributing significantly to the business, we are now seeing healthy sales coming in from our MRO, gifting and office supply verticals as well," Hegde said.
Founded in 2016 by brothers Akshay and Akash Hegde, and their friend, Santhosh Reddy, Shakedeal was acquired by US-based Vora Ventures, a private equity firm, in 2018. Going ahead, the firm said it will be concentrating on acquiring new customers, strengthening relationships with existing clients and improving technology offerings.
When asked about the impact of Covid-19 on operations, Hegde said the sudden lockdown imposed due to covid-19 impacted business and movement of goods initially. "Because offices were shut, business took a hit during the first month of lockdown. However, as clients started working at 20-30% capacity, we saw demand getting back to normal. By June, we were back to pre-covid levels of business," he said.