Suvidhaa Infoserve Pvt. Ltd., pioneer of the Services Commerce (“S-Commerce®”) revolution in India, announced today the completion of a $12 million third round of funding by new investor, Mitsui & Co., Ltd., Japan based Corporate Conglomerate. Suvidhaa will use the new capital to further enhance its technology platform, broaden its portfolio of consumer service offerings and aggressively expand its market presence in neighborhood stores pan India. The company was established in 2007, promoted by Mr. Paresh Rajde, and was initially seed funded by Mr. Shapoor Pallonji Mistry and two rounds of institutional investment by Norwest Venture Partners, Reliance Assets Management and IFC (World Bank Group). The total fund raised by Suvidhaa so far is $25 million.
In a span of four years, Suvidhaa has established more than 45,000 neighborhood stores called 'Suvidhaa Points' across India. Suvidhaa makes it possible for consumers to walk into these local stores and purchase every day “services” they need such as money remittance, air, railway and bus tickets, mobile recharges, insurance payments, utility bill payments, hotel packages, payment collection services and a wide variety of other services. Suvidhaa has grown its presence in 28 states and throughout 2000 + cities / towns across urban and rural India. The Suvidhaa Points consists of Kirana Stores / Mobile Stores / Medical Stores / STD Booths / Cyber Cafes / Travel Agents / Insurance Agents and many other categories of neighborhood stores.
Suvidhaa's proprietary technology platform seamlessly integrates neighborhood stores to various Services Provider's systems, enabling consumers to purchase their service of choice at any time, across any sector, and at a single-window access point in a unique click-and-mortar set-up. Suvidhaa has developed strong relationships with top Indian corporate to deliver these services. For example, consumers can obtain services provided by leading companies including IRCTC for railway ticketing, all major airlines such as Jet Airways, Kingfisher, Air India, SpiceJet, GoAir and IndiGo for airline ticketing, telecom services purchases from such leaders as Vodafone, Airtel, BSNL, Reliance, Idea, Aircel,Tata Docomo and MTNL, leading banks Union Bank of India, Corporation Bank, ICICI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, YES Bank, & Karnataka Bank , leading financial services and insurance players such as, LIC, ICICI Prudential ,HDFC Life, Metlife, ING Vysya, Birla SunLife, bus ticketing from more than 400 bus operators covering 7000+ routes, multiplexes such as Fun Cinema, and others. Suvidhaa also supports bill payment for utility companies in areas such as electricity, gas, telephones and mobile. Other services include education, cash collection service etc.
“We are excited in making this strategic decision to move into the field of electronic payments in India through our investment in Suvidhaa. We believe that Suvidhaa has not only proven its social value of providing an alternative payment method for the general public, but also has significant potential to expand its business into related areas, such as e-wallet and mobile payment, through the introduction of advanced Internet technology.” said Yasushi Okazaki, General Manger of Internet Business Division of Mitsui & Co., Ltd.,
Mr. Paresh Rajde, Founder and CEO, Suvidhaa Infoserve Pvt. Ltd. said,“We are happy to have Mitsui on board, which reflects the strength of Suvidhaa’s business model and brand Suvidhaa. This investment underscores the opportunity for Suvidhaa to become the Numero Uno payment management company in the Country. The global experience and expertise of Mitsui across key industry categories will certainly help Suvidhaa in gaining scale, strategic alliances and adopting best practices.”
