Going ahead with plans to expand its platform and add key product capabilities, IsGoingOnline (IGO) under the Kerala Startup Mission has raised ₹1.5 crore to scale up internationally and enable SMEs to go online.
IGO raised the fund in a Pre-Series A round led by India’s first early-stage micro VC fund Artha Venture Fund, along with participation from Unicorn India Ventures, SEA Fund and Brookfield Asset Management’s former Managing Partner, Devdatt Shah.
IGO offers an automated product photography and online listing solution to help MSMEs and other stores to onboard and sell their products online. IGO helps businesses that find it tough to keep the offline models afloat amidst the Covid-19 pandemic and changing consumption patterns.
IGO, previously known as PerfectFit, pivoted its existing 3D scanning business to that of digital cataloguing and online listing. The pandemic period has seen the percentage of small enterprises that pivoted to digital sales channels rise to 53 per cent against 29 per cent before the outbreak of Covid-19, according to a CRISIL study.
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The start-up offers holistic services to set up online operations powered by new technologies (such as artificial intelligence), and to small and medium businesses looking to set up their own marketplace or get listed on third-party websites such as Amazon and Flipkart. In an industry that is growing at 16 per cent annually, IGO connects 400-plus businesses to more than 1,20,000 buyers across the country by leveraging social commerce.
Looking for investors
IGO Chief Executive Officer Eobin George said the company was looking for investors who would be holistically involved in its journey and help it in scaling up business. “We are taking our operations to the US, Canada and West Asia. IGO is looking at a market share of 18 per cent by 2023-24,” he added.
IGO, in its nascent stage, clocked a 25 per cent month-on-month growth and its clientele includes Bigbasket, Namdhari, French Terrain and IceBasket. Additionally, it offers value-added services through its studio arm Perfit Studio Network, which helps businesses generate professional-grade photos and videos of their products. Recently, IGO launched its App for sellers that helps create ultra light web stores that can be shared through Whatsapp and social media platforms.
The company, which enables businesses to create online store fronts within 60 minutes, has two patents in the digitisation and display technologies segment.