Springboard Ventures and Brand Capital, corporate venturing subsidiaries of media group Bennett, Coleman & Co (BCC), have provided Rs 5.3bn ($52.1m) of capital for India-based e-commerce platform Qtrove, VCCircle reported on Wednesday.
The round consists of funding from Springboard and advertising credit from ad-for-equity unit Brand Capital, and the total will be supplied across a five-year period. BCC owns print, radio, television and online media assets.
Founded in 2016, Qtrove runs an online marketplace that sells homemade or small-scale food, wellness and household goods across 40 categories.
The company has more than 400 merchants on the platform but aims to provide a curated service that is more specified than mass-market rivals such as Flipkart.
Qtrove had not previously disclosed any external funding. Company founder Vinamra Pandiya told the Economic Times: “Funding from Springboard will fuel the next level of growth in helping us create a trusted marketplace for today’s consumers.
“We expect the company to reach out to 3 to 5 million customers in the next five years, from the current 100,000 users.”