StoreKing, a technology-enabled rural distribution platform, will help 75,000 rural retailers get access to working capital in 2018-19.
“By March 2018, we helped about 1,500 retailers get working capital to the tune of ₹30 crore. By the end of 2018-19, we aim to make available ₹1,000 crore to StoreKing merchants,” Raghavendra Prasanna, Director, Growth and New Initiatives, StoreKing, told BusinessLine .
To fulfill this goal, StoreKing has partnered with lending firms like CapitalFloat, Cash Suvidha, HappyLoans to disburse loans to small enterprises and retailers in villages and small towns across states in India, who are otherwise forced to get working capital from unorganised lenders like money lenders and landlords at high interest rates.
What the company does
With the vast rural Indian market opening up to e-commerce, StoreKing is assisting villagers make online purchases. With the aim of digitising the rural customer, the Bengaluru-based start-up provides an interface between the sellers and buyers. It sets up a kiosk with a rural retailer, and provides a tablet with range of products available. The customer selects a product and pays the price to the rural retailer who, in turn, places the order with StoreKing. The customer gets delivery of the products from the company’s warehouses in the next few days.
This transportation-distribution model of StoreKing has created a network of nearly 50,000 rural retailers, helping them emerge as part of an online supermarket. This model faces no hiccups as the customers pick up the product they ordered from the local retailer. No courier network is needed, which saves on the cost of delivery.
At present, StoreKing has a presence in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh and is planning to expand to Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Odisha soon. It has 50 lakh registered customers across 2,800 towns and villages where 8,00,000 customers use the StoreKing kiosks daily. The company is currently identifying local retailers in villages and small towns with populations ranging from 50,000 to 1,00,000 in a dozen states across India.
Global expansion
In February 2018, StoreKing opened a marketing office in South Jakarta, Indonesia, from where it is looking to enter the South-East Asian country’s rural markets using a similar approach. “Plans are underway but we are currently focusing on Indonesia,” Prasanna said.
Sridhar Gundaiah, Founder-CEO, said the similarity of cultures and markets in countries like India, Indonesia and Myanmar encouraged StoreKing to reach out to rural customers in South East Asia in a phased manner.