Indian Angel Network, World’s largest network of angel investors has invested an undisclosed amount of investment in ShoeKonnect, a business to business (B2B) marketplace for leather products. Sahil Kejriwal has led this round of investment on behalf of IAN who will further be joining the company board to monitor the team in becoming a market leader globally. With ShoeKonnect, IAN has made the 22nd investment this year.
ShoeKonnect is the first business venture of BizCrum, a family of connection centric B2B apps created to facilitate communication amongst entrepreneurs locally and globally. The company is the brainchild of three economic graduates from Delhi University - Siddharth Vij, Chaitanya Rathi and Siddharth Rastogi who have a strong family background of foot wear and apparel manufacturing and has entered into the business considering they understand the market and the huge opportunities it offers. Currently the team size is around 10 members primarily comprising of Delhi University Economics graduates, Footwear experts & experienced engineers. ShoeKonnect is next generation B2B mobile platform for the global footwear industry based out of Agra that makes it easy for the retailer to buy products directly from the manufacturer, reducing the cost and logistical issues.
“We understand that there lies a huge gap among producers and buyers in the market. A gap that restricts the manufacturers from increasing their customer base and sales volumes and retailers from getting better variety and quality of products. With ShoeKonnect, we aim to bridge this existing gap by simplifying and enhancing trade possibilities for these players in different industries. We are living in a technological advanced world today, which gives us immense opportunities to help scale the struggling businesses. The world is walking towards collaboration and now is the right time for the B2B industry to benefit from the same.” Said Siddharth Vij, CEO & Co-Founder at ShoeKonnect.
The current round of funding will be used to expand the business operations, enhance technology and product development and bolster their marketing and development. They also plan to launch the IOS version of the app soon.
Lead investor Sahil Kejriwal commented on the investment saying,“India is often referred to as the sleeping giant in terms of footwear. With changing lifestyles and increasing affluence, domestic demand for footwear is projected to propagate at a faster rate than it has been seen. With the growing challenges faced by SMB’s in the footwear sector related to quality, discovery and fulfilment shoekonnect is well placed to explode and distrupt the b2b interactions in footwear. Once we see good traction here we hope to replicate our success across other categories. The team, category and timing is just a perfect recipie for success the way we see it. We are bullish!!”
According to reports, India is the second largest footwear producer in the world, with footwear production accounting for approximately 9 per cent of the global annual production – 22 billion pairs as compared to China, which produces over 60 per cent of the global production. India annually produces 2.1 billion pairs of which 90 per cent are consumed internally while remaining are exported primarily to European nations which include United Kingdom, Germany, USA, Italy and France, as per market analysts.
At present, ShoeKonnect connects around 5,000 footwear businesses including manufacturers, suppliers, traders and retailers from India and neighbouring countries. They cater to an entire Value chain of the Industry from footwear manufacturers & brands to traders and component material manufactures and traders. The Platform has achieved 95% Stickiness from the buyers which is a major parameter to judge the health of business in B2B.
ShoeKonnect is the first business venture of BizCrum, a family of connection centric B2B apps created to facilitate communication amongst entrepreneurs locally and globally. The company is the brainchild of three economic graduates from Delhi University - Siddharth Vij, Chaitanya Rathi and Siddharth Rastogi who have a strong family background of foot wear and apparel manufacturing and has entered into the business considering they understand the market and the huge opportunities it offers. Currently the team size is around 10 members primarily comprising of Delhi University Economics graduates, Footwear experts & experienced engineers. ShoeKonnect is next generation B2B mobile platform for the global footwear industry based out of Agra that makes it easy for the retailer to buy products directly from the manufacturer, reducing the cost and logistical issues.
“We understand that there lies a huge gap among producers and buyers in the market. A gap that restricts the manufacturers from increasing their customer base and sales volumes and retailers from getting better variety and quality of products. With ShoeKonnect, we aim to bridge this existing gap by simplifying and enhancing trade possibilities for these players in different industries. We are living in a technological advanced world today, which gives us immense opportunities to help scale the struggling businesses. The world is walking towards collaboration and now is the right time for the B2B industry to benefit from the same.” Said Siddharth Vij, CEO & Co-Founder at ShoeKonnect.
The current round of funding will be used to expand the business operations, enhance technology and product development and bolster their marketing and development. They also plan to launch the IOS version of the app soon.
Lead investor Sahil Kejriwal commented on the investment saying,“India is often referred to as the sleeping giant in terms of footwear. With changing lifestyles and increasing affluence, domestic demand for footwear is projected to propagate at a faster rate than it has been seen. With the growing challenges faced by SMB’s in the footwear sector related to quality, discovery and fulfilment shoekonnect is well placed to explode and distrupt the b2b interactions in footwear. Once we see good traction here we hope to replicate our success across other categories. The team, category and timing is just a perfect recipie for success the way we see it. We are bullish!!”
According to reports, India is the second largest footwear producer in the world, with footwear production accounting for approximately 9 per cent of the global annual production – 22 billion pairs as compared to China, which produces over 60 per cent of the global production. India annually produces 2.1 billion pairs of which 90 per cent are consumed internally while remaining are exported primarily to European nations which include United Kingdom, Germany, USA, Italy and France, as per market analysts.
At present, ShoeKonnect connects around 5,000 footwear businesses including manufacturers, suppliers, traders and retailers from India and neighbouring countries. They cater to an entire Value chain of the Industry from footwear manufacturers & brands to traders and component material manufactures and traders. The Platform has achieved 95% Stickiness from the buyers which is a major parameter to judge the health of business in B2B.
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