Palred Technologies Ltd (Palred) is planning to expand the operations of its e-commerce arm LatestOne.com to Turkey and Mexico.
“We have registered a subsidiary in Turkey and we would like to start operations there after we come profitable in India. Mexico will happen after that,” Palred Technologies Chairman Palem Srikanth Reddy told BusinessLine .
“We are making gross profits unlike several players in the area. We have reduced losses to ₹7.5 crore this from about ₹22 crore last year,” he said.
In order to expand the reach, the firm will set up a retail network, through franchisee route, in the financial year 2017-18. “We are planning about 50 of them in the next two years. Of this, 20 kiosks would come up in 2017-18,” he said.
The three-year-old firm, which sells mobile accessories online, has raised ₹22 crore on Tuesday, taking the total funds raised so far to ₹30 crore.
The investors include Mathew Cyriac (former Co-Head of Blackstone India Private Equity Business), Chidambaram Palaniappan (founder of Florintree), K Madhavan (Joint Managing Director of Star TV India) and Bharat Sheth (Managing Director of Great Eastern Shipping). The preferential allotment of shares was made at a price of ₹145 a share.
The promoters invested ₹30 crore in the venture, with cash reserves of ₹22 crore prior to the latest round of fund raising.
ExpansionAbout ₹10 crore from the proceeds on building a fulfilment centre in Karnataka or Andhra Pradesh. “We have not decided on the location yet. But it will be near to the Bengaluru airport. About ₹1.5 crore would be spent on the facility and ₹4-5 crore on inventory. We might need about ₹ 5 crore as working capital,” he said.