According to TechCrunch, for both the venture companies, this is the first time they are backing a Bangladeshi startup. Moreover, Veon Ventures, Speedinvest, and Lonsdale Capital also participated in ShopUp’s financing round. It was reported that ShopUp has raised about USD 28 million to date. Furthermore, although more than 95% of all retail in Bangladesh goes through neighborhood stores in the country, with about 4.5 million mom-and-pop stores, the vast majority of them have no digital presence.
Therefore, ShopUp is attempting to change that by building a full-stack business-to-business commerce platform. The platform provides three core services to neighborhood stores: a wholesale marketplace to secure inventory, logistics (including last mile delivery to customers), and working capital.
The initiative comes because such small shops are facing a number of challenges. They are not getting inventory on time or enough inventory, and they are paying more than what they should, as 73% (PDF) of all their sales rely on credit instead of cash or digital payments, creating a massive liquidity crunch. Consequently, most of these businesses need working capital, TechCrunch reported.
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