Kube VC, Dunzo founders fund 20-year-old’s B2B start-up 

Soptle, a technology platform aimed at helping manufacturers scale their businesses, has raised $300k in an angel round of funding, led by global early-stage venture firm Kube VC and Soonicorn LLP. 

A clutch of industry veterans such as Vaishnav Shetty (Executive Director, All-Cargo Group), Pirojshaw Sarkari (CEO, Gati), Ankur Agarwal (Co-founder, Dunzo), Saurabh Aggarwal (Co-founder, Fitso), and Himanshu Periwal (Co-founder, Unlu) among others also participated in the round. 

Soptle was started earlier this year by engineering school dropout Pravas Chandragiri as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform to democratise how manufacturers, distributors, and retailers conducted their business in the $3 trillion Indian manufacturer-to-retailer ecosystem. 

According to Chandragiri, the funds would be utilised for growing 100x from the current level in the next two years, expanding the team and further enhancing the product and technology.  

In August, the start-up had raised an undisclosed amount in an angel round led by Soonicorn LLP and a clutch of marquee logistics leaders. 

Soptle enables FMCG manufacturers to increase their income by up to 10 times by providing access to country-wide distributions at zero fixed cost. It also allows retailers to access products with 3-4 times higher margins than average, as well as easy one-tap finance to grow their business. 

“We have empowered 45,000+ retailers and manufacturers in just six months of launch and have seen a consistent 3x month-on-month growth for the last six months. Being backed by top industry veterans give us a sense that we are heading in the right direction,” said Chandragiri. 

Since the age of 12, Chandragiri has been managing a family-owned retail store in a Tier 3 town. In 2019, soon after finishing school, he was pressured into starting preparation for admission to the IITs. However, an entrepreneur by nature, Chandragiri dropped out and started a venture connecting regional manufacturers to retailers. 

At 17 years, Chandragiri became the youngest CEO of a networking platform – RFT (Rural Future Technology) -- that connected 1,200 mom-and-pop stores across nine districts of Eastern India.  

Two years later, he launched Soptle with an aim to democratise the $500 billion FMCG industry. The start-up’s annual recurring revenue has moved past $2 million mark. 

“Soptle is truly revolutionising the manufacturer and retailer ecosystem. Its tech-enabled sales and distributions channel-cum-market linkage helps manufacturers expand their business geographically at no fixed cost, improve their capacity utilisation and improve their net margins by three-four times,” said Faiz Mayalakkara, Designated Partner, Kube VC. 

Also read: Harsh Mariwala’s advice to start-up founders: Show the path to profitability

Also read: Buy Now, Pay Later is old. Say hello to Save Now, Buy Later schemes