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According to Karan Mehrotra, chief executive officer and co-founder of LocalBanya, the Mumbai-based hyper local grocery e-tailer is looking at expanding to 250 cities over the next two years. It plans to touch 100 cities by 2016. Mehrotra said the company’s model, which involves procuring from large format stores such as HyperCity Retail, Metro Cash and Carry, Spencer’s Retail and Booker wholesale and delivering to the last-mile, allowed the company to expand.
The company is exploring more partnerships with large retailers.
While the company follows an ‘asset right’ model, it is planning to set up its own warehouses to cater to specific markets. LocalBanya has an existing warehouse in Mumbai and one is Pune to meet the supply chain demands for fruits and vegetables. It is also planning to set up a warehouse in Delhi specifically for exotic vegetables, said Mehrotra.
Earlier this month, LocalBanya partnered with Vinculum Solutions to automate the company's back-end systems to streamline its order and inventory management.
Localbanya currently lists close to 14,000 products and has added a service, Instabanya, which promises delivery within two hours (currently operational in Thane, Navi Mumbai and Hyderabad). The firm currently has over 100,000 users with an average order size of Rs 1,500 per order.
Founded in 2012, Localbanya raised $5 million from the Mumbai-based real estate developer Karmvir Avant Group last year. In 2013, it raised an undisclosed amount from Bennett Coleman & Company Limited's Springboard fund. Prior to this, the company also received angel funding from a few investors.
It is currently in advanced talks with investors to close another round of funding which is help support its aggressive expansion strategy. However, Mehrotra declined to specify the quantum of funds or the investors that the company is in talks with.
