HYDERABAD: Bikayi, a Hyderabad-based e-commerce enabler startup is helping small merchants create an online store with payment gateway and order tracking in just two minutes. A catalogue management solution for businesses, the year-old B2B venture founded by Sonakshi Nathani and Ashutosh Singla, both graduates of IIIT-Hyderabad, allows small businesses to create their online stores and gives them the right tools to manage their business on Whatsapp.
The merchants – wholesalers, retailers, grocers from across India – using the platform are doing business worth Rs 2 crore, according to the company. Presently, the app which is available on Android has onboarded 75K+ stores across 3,000 towns in India, and has over three million monthly shoppers. “At least 53 per cent merchants are from Tier III and IV cities,” informs Sonakshi.
“We decided to build Bikayi after watching our family grocery store struggling to accept orders over WhatsApp; seeing them resort to using pen and paper, we knew we could build them something better,” shares Sonakshi about the startup’s idea. Digitising kiranas and equipping them with technology services around reconciliation, digital payments, store inventory, and digital credit has helped them manage their business better.
Sonakshi, 26, worked for Microsoft until 2018, but always had an urge to run her own business. Managing with a team of 14-members, she says, “Life is easier in Hyderabad as compared to other tech cities. IIIT-H has promoted entrepreneurship since the beginning and having our office inside IIIT-H in T-Hub, helps us focus on our product and not worry about space.” The YCombinator-backed startup recently raised a seed funding of $2 mn from a clutch of global investors.
“Pandemic has been a great time for us as a brand. Our growth accelerated to 120 per cent as Covid-19 disrupted supply chains with the local kiranas being the only ones selling daily essentials,” says the driven co-founder. The company intends to use the funds for growth and expansion by hiring more talent and onboarding newer merchants on its platform. Sonakshi, who got a good command of technical depth and learnt how big teams are structured and managed while working at Mircrosoft, says, “Personally, I wouldn’t stop until we are able to see all 60 million merchants powered by Bikayi!”
— Tamanna S Mehdi tamanna@newindianexpress.com @tamannamehdi