SuperK raises INR 6 Cr in Seed Round funding from Strive VC

• SuperK grocery retail chain for small towns has raised INR 6 Cr in Seed funding.

• It has become the largest grocery chain in the Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh and is quickly becoming a household name.
• It intends to use the funds to develop its facilities, improve its technology, and hire new talent.

SuperK, a small-town-focused tech-enabled grocery retailer, has raised INR 6 Cr in seed funding led by Strive VC and saw participation from Firstcheque, Ramakant Sharma & Syndicate, serial entrepreneur Srinivas Anumolu, Anand Chandrasekaran (ex-Snapdeal CPO/Facebook Director), Lalit Keshre (CEO at Groww), Rajan Bajaj (CEO at Slice), Sampad Swain (CEO at Instamojo), and many more veterans from the startup ecosystem. SuperK intends to use the funds to develop its facilities, improve its technology, and hire new talent.

SuperK is improving the consumer experience by creating a branded retail chain from the ground up that is planned with the unique needs of these small towns in mind, to revolutionize the retail sector of small towns. The team's global exposure and small-town connections are the perfect combinations for launching a profitable franchise grocery retail chain in Tier 2 and below cities.

SuperK is now the largest grocery chain in the Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh and is quickly becoming a household name. For example, a town like Veeraballi may lack an ATM or a gas station, but thanks to SuperK, residents can still benefit from a modern shopping experience from a store run by a local.

Neeraj Menta and Anil Thontepu, classmates at BITS Pilani, formed SuperK in December 2019 with the aim of empowering small format retail stores across India. Neeraj previously co-founded Hungerbox and worked on product development at Flipkart and Zeta. Anil previously led product management at Kaodim (a Malaysian services marketplace), and prior to that, he managed Hike and Phonepe's development.

In India, the grocery retail industry is worth $600 billion, and small towns (Tier 2 and below) account for more than 80% of the market, but only 2% of it is currently served by organized retail chains. Existing organized retail models are designed for major cities and are unable to scale to semi-urban and rural markets.

As a result, even today, small-town shoppers must depend predominantly on the towns' age-old wholesale mandis and Kirana stores, resulting in a subpar grocery shopping experience that is far removed from the modern supermarket experience enjoyed by the rest of us in cities.

Since they lack the bandwidth, size, technology, or marketing means to make such things happen, an individual store, usually run by a single person, cannot provide discounts/promotions, printed bills, or a broad product range to consumers. SuperK has developed an end-to-end integrated framework that allows franchise stores to provide uniform low pricing, reliable service, discounts, cashback, and a digital bill to their customers.

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SuperK uses technology and a standard operating plan to handle sourcing, publicity, promotions, and merchandising for all of its stores. So that store owners can concentrate on what they do best: building relationships and providing excellent customer service.

SuperK stores benefit from economies of scale that enable them to provide much better pricing than other local conventional retail stores.

SuperK’s system seamlessly connects warehouses, stores, and vendors via mobile apps. They are also in the process of launching a mobile app for customers to place orders, provide financial services for customers through stores and in-store tech for engagement and marketing. 

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