MobiGarage raises pre-Series A round funding

MUMBAI: MobiGarage, a B2B e-commerce platform for refurbished smartphones, on Monday announced it has raised an undisclosed amount as part of its pre-series A round.

The round was led by leading US venture capital fund SOSV ($970 million AUM), which also saw participation from Australia-based VC Artesian, Inflection Point Ventures, Singapore-based MobAvenue, AppyHigh Technology LLP, LetsVenture (Led by Veda.vc), and prominent HNIs include Nikhil Aggarwal, Mrunal Jhaveri, Priyanka Chawla, Nitin Uppal, Rishabh Bhatia, Soarabh Gupta, and Amit Anand.

The funding will help the company scale operations in tier 2+ cities and rural markets, expand the leadership team, build proprietary technologies and analytic engines and launch a focused D2C brand for Bharat.

The company saw a growth of 300% during the pandemic.

"It's an exciting time for D2C companies: India's population in Tier 2+ cities is demanding more sophisticated products and a wider range of options. MobiGarage has beaten the pandemic blues to show tremendous growth in over 50 Tier 2+ cities thanks to its robust supply chain, and we're excited to help the company scale all over India," says William Bao Bean, general partner at SOSV, and managing director of MOX.

MobiGarage is innovating India’s multibillion dollar smartphone market with its omni-channel model that ensures hyperlocal services all over India, both through the e-commerce marketplace MobiGarage.com and through a unique hub-and-spoke retail model.

“India is already one of the largest smartphone markets in the World. Tier 2 and 3 cities are contributing a majority of new smartphone shipments. MobiGarage has the potential to become India’s most trusted brand in the second-hand smartphone category," said Ankur Mittal, co-founder, Inflection Point Ventures, adding that the company has the potential to conquer the MENA region in next 2+ years as well.

Profitable since its inception, MobiGarage has been processing 20,000 orders a month, growing 3 times annually, the company said, adding that demand for refurbished devices has increased since the first wave of pandemic. Despite the extended lockdowns in the current as well as last year, the space boomed as restrictions eased, giving a fillip to the company's growth.

The startup is looking to extend its retail and franchise partnerships across India in lower-tier markets in the next few months.