Chairman Emeritus, Tata Sons Ltd., Ratan Tata's latest investment is a retail-tech start up, Snapbizz, at an undisclosed amount. Snapbizz Cloudtech Pvt. Ltd. is a digital revolution in India's kirana stores. It develops technology for grocery stores and works in collaboration with more than a thousand kirana stores in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
Snapbizz is Tata's eighth investment this year after DogSpot.in, Tracxn, CashKaro, FirstCry, Teabox, Moglix and Invictus Technology. Tata has invested in more than 25 start-ups in the last two years including Snapdeal (Jasper Infotech Pvt. Ltd), Ola (ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd), Paytm (One97 Communications Ltd) and Zivame (Actoserba Active Wholesale Pvt. Ltd).
Last month, the Bengaluru based company, Snapbizz, had announced a Series A funding of $7.2 million for expansion of its business into smaller cities. The funding was led by Jungle Ventures, Taurus Value creation, Blume Ventures and Konly Venture, as reported by Times Of India.
Prem Kumar, the CEO and founder of Snapbizz is more than happy to have Tata, the most renowned names of corporate India, as the investor. "This reflects in his investment in SnapBizz as we have begun a humble journey of reverse marginalisation of SMB's and driving digital inclusion in the large consumer goods industry" said Kumar, according to First Post.
"A visionary of Tata's stature showing confidence in SnapBizz is certainly a big boost for our business idea and will continue to accelerate the digital revolution in India's kirana stores. Brands are also seeing this an opportunity to partner with us in order to be a well wisher of the retailers and get the share of mind of the retailer to appropriate the positioning as the company that cares for the retailers," added Kumar.
Snapbizz aspires to modernize the small-scale retail sector of India. It aims to face-lift the grocery stores and gives them a competitive advantage by transforming them into "Virtual Super Markets". The Bengaluru based company provides the local grocery stores an Android-based, cloud connected business platform in the form of a barcode scanner, printer, tablet and a consumer -facing LED display. The technology facilitates the vendors to manage their inventory, billing and customer commitment, according to Live Mint.
The Snapbizz solutions are simple and easy to use. They enable retailers to draw extra income by creating virtual shelf space and connect to its customers both in-store and out of store. The company is looking forward to expanding its regime to other 1 tier and 2 tier cities, across India.
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