MUMBAI: LimeRoad, a social-shopping platform for women, has raised a series C financing following rapid growth in community engagement, scrapbook creation and revenue growth.
This two-year old company has raised total funds to the tune of $45 million in the past year and this round comes within ten months of its Series B financing. Tiger Global Management, an existing investor, leads the new round with participation from existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and Matrix Partners India.
Over the last year, LimeRoad has been steadily nurturing a unique hyperactive community that takes products from thousands of sellers from across the country and shows users how to transform even the most basic white t-shirt into a style statement.
The community posted more than 1.5 million style statements as “scrapbooks” last month alone, with per day postings reaching 100,000+, achieving 100x growth in less than a year.
“It’s transformational,” said a graphic design student in Delhi Komal, who has made 800 scrapbooks. She added, “Scrapbooking on LimeRoad makes me feel ultra stylish. It's a daily routine that is a release after a hard day.”
A homemaker in Jharkhand, Jhanvi, who has created 2000+scrapbooks, stated, “I feel like I am getting out of my town. It has helped me personally develop, changed my sense of style. I purchase my looks for myself and love it. Now I try so many new things.”
LimeRoad’s machine algorithms rank order and display the highest quality scrapbooks for millions of users to find the trendiest products and styles.
LimeRoad was founded by Suchi Mukherjee, Prashant Malik and Ankush Mehra, who collectively have previously held leadership roles at eBay, Skype, Facebook, Samsung and Reliance Hypermarkets.
LimeRoad founder and CEO Suchi Mukherjee said, “We are revolutionizing the way lifestyle products are discovered and ultimately bought in India, and in doing so, we are changing social order. Smaller unique sellers from across the country are getting discovered, women from across the country are using scrapbooks as a medium of style expression, and millions of users are getting access to highly affordable and unique style.”
“We grew GMV 600 per cent in the last 12 months, thanks to our passionate users who visited our app on average more than 38 times in the last six months. That’s a delightful 76 times a year! As a result 80-85 per cent of our orders come from organic traffic.”
Tiger Global partner Lee Fixel said, “The uniqueness of LimeRoad lies in the passionate user base and the mission of providing an engaging platform for smaller brands to thrive. We love this approach and are investing behind it and behind the team executing the strategy.”
Lightspeed Advisory Services India managing director Bejul Somaia added, “We continue to be highly supportive of LimeRoad. This is a truly exceptional team that has already disproved many accepted notions in Indian online commerce as a result of which they are showing extraordinary organic traction.”
Matrix India managing director Avnish Bajaj said, “The LimeRoad team is a unique combination of a crystal clear vision combined with sheer execution prowess. We continue to be amazed by their sheer passion, sharp thinking and their core engagement metrics.”
