Wheelocity, an e-commerce platform serving semi-urban India, has raised $15 million in funding in a round led by existing investor Lightspeed with participation from Alteria Capital, Anicut Capital and also the startup’s founder.

The company, which started as a B2B e-commerce platform for fresh produce, now operates as a B2C platform and is building access into the deep parts of the country that were hitherto unconnected by e-commerce. It currently services over 1 million households across 3,500 towns and villages of Bharat.

Wheelocity pegs India’s semi-urban and rural market opportunity at around $1.1 trillion, but notes that existing commerce players have overlooked these markets due to last-mile delivery costs and other reasons. The company has started with essential goods (fresh produce and grocery) and aims to expand into discretionary categories. It also has a hybrid offline-online model designed for first-time users of organized commerce. In six months since the launch of B2C model, Wheelocity has established its presence in over 3,500 towns and villages, serving one million consumers.

We plan to leverage this fundraise to expand to 20,000 towns and villages, strengthen our Bharat-first tech stack and category build-out, Wheelocity founder and CEO Selvam VMS said. “India’s growth story is incomplete without the digital inclusion of our semi-urban and rural populations. It remains a very large, profitable and yet untapped opportunity,” he added.

“The next wave of India’s commerce growth will come from beyond the top 200 cities”, Rahul Taneja, Partner at Lightspeed, said in a statement.

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