Social commerce startup Windo raises $1.5M in a pre-Series A round

Windo, a social commerce-focused technology platform for individual and small-sized sellers, has raised $1.5 million in a pre-Series A funding round led by Unicorn India Ventures, along with the participation from prominent angels like CapriGlobal, Aravind Sanka, CEO, Rapido, K Ganesh, Co-founder Portea and a few others.

Founded in 2020 by second-time entrepreneurs Rakesh Vaddadi and Silus Reddy, Windo says it helps solopreneurs, influencers, and small and midsize businesses set up their online stores in minutes. 

According to the company's statement, the raised capital will be used to focus on product development and expand its presence to other few countries. Windo aims to create a truly global SaaS app that aids businesses worldwide, it said.

To that effect, a team of developers at the company has been working on enhancing their on-app experience. One of the recently introduced features is the app’s multi-language understanding capability. The Windo Shop app can now understand more than 100 languages, enabling users to create their online store in a language of their choice, the startup said.

Speaking on the development, Silus Reddy, CEO & Co-Founder, Windo, says, “The funding that we have raised is a big step towards realizing our mission to help SMB owners and solopreneurs in taking their business online and growing. We believe our unique approach to the problem will help us win in this space even amidst a seemingly crowded space."

"The space is large enough that multiple profitable apps can sustain and we approach the problem differently than our peers as we are keeping it affordable & flexible. We have included new features in the app which is being well received from many of our users already”.

The startup says its app makes it easy for anyone to manage their online business by increasing orders, helping them set up a professional-looking e-commerce store and market their products with ease to their Instagram customers.

In 2021, the social commerce platform claims to have witnessed 150% growth in their active users, a great portion of whom are paying customers. The app, currently, stands at 200,000 downloads with users spanning across more than 140 countries. It boasts of 50,000 monthly active users. 

Currently, a host to more than 100,000 online shops, Windo is targeting an ARR of $1 million in the next 12 months.

Sparsh Kumar, Senior Investment Associate, Unicorn India Ventures, says, “The global social commerce market is booming. We’ve seen a huge wave of small and midsize D2C brands  take to social media platforms to establish their businesses. About 250 million small businesses and solopreneurs across the globe use WhatsApp, Instagram, or phone calls to take orders."

"With the expansion there is a rapidly growing need for platforms that can support social commerce entrepreneurs since even the internet-savvy business owners find it hard to create and manage an online website. At Unicorn India, we believe that Windo’s unique mobile-first approach supports this growth in the social commerce market and has the potential to substantially improve the social commerce experience.”

According to the India Social Commerce Market Report by Research and Markets the country’s social commerce market is expected to grow 71.5% in 2022. It is predicted that the GMV of the market will reach $8,258.8 Million in 2022. By 2028, this amount is expected to increase to $1,43,583.3 Million.

Globally, the social commerce market size was valued at $584.91 Billion in 2021, according to Grandview Research. It is predicted to increase with a 30.8% compound annual growth rate each year until 2030. These numbers underline Windo’s potential to enable entrepreneurs to take maximum advantage of social commerce platforms and drive more sales for their brands.

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