Arzooo Success Story
Company Profile is an initiative by ListMyStartUp to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by the organization it is based on.
Founded by Ex-Flipkart colleagues and IIT Kgp alumni, Arzooo.com is a Retail Tech company, committed to integrate over 3,00,000 fragmented retail stores and enable them to compete and grow with its retail tech platform, Arzooo Go Store.
Arzooo Go store is India’s fastest growing Integrated Retail Network for consumer electronics with over 1300 stores powered by its technology and growing fast. Arzooo enables a partner store to offer its customers the largest selection universe, without them having to invest in inventory. This creates the most competitive price and innovative payment solutions to drive up in-store sales conversion.
Arzooo - Company Highlights
- Startup Name-Arzooo
- Headquarter-Bengaluru, India
- Sector-Retail Technology
- Founders-Khushnud Khan and Rishi Raj Rathore
- Founded-2017
- Legal Name-Sterne India Pvt Ltd
- Website-arzooo.com
About Arzooo and How it Works
Founded by ex-Flipkart colleagues and IIT Kharagpur alumni Kushnud Khan and Rishi Raj Rathore, Arzooo.com is a Retail Tech company enabling brick & mortar retail with technology to compete online with its flagship and unique “Go Store” platform.
Arzooo’s short term goal is to integrate 300,000 retail stores with technology by 2020. And they are focusing on an extensive expansion of markets in Northern and Eastern India by the end of this year following which they will also plan a deeper market penetration in West India. The company is also looking at launching an extended warranty plan for the buyers.
Arzooo Go store is India’s fastest growing Integrated retail network with over 1300 stores already powered by technology and growing fast.
Arzooo enables a partner store with its technology platform equipping them to offer the largest selection to customers without having to invest in Inventory, creating the most competitive price, and offering attractive payment solutions to improve sales conversion in-store. This apart from expanding category portfolio for stores with cross-category opportunities.
Arzooo - Target Market Size
Indian Consumer Electronics Retail market is pegged at a whopping $40 billion and Arzooo.com aims to grab a bite of 20% by 2022. The goal is to empower over 300,000 physical retail stores with technology and brand identity, enabling them to compete with e-commerce giants and help them grow with it’s “Go Store”.
How was Arzooo Started?
Online B2B retail in India, until recent times, has been associated only with listing directories (Ex. TradeIndia, IndiaMart). The wholesalers/manufacturers and retailers did not have a single technology platform, where they could discover and transact directly and conveniently. The founders realized consumers still go to a physical store to get the touch and feel of the product before making a purchase even with a large online presence.
To merge the best of online and offline retail, Arzooo was born. The startup aids retailers maintain inventory and reduce unnecessary expenditure in terms of stock and helps them compete with the likes of Amazon and Flipkart.
Arzooo - Products/Services
Arzooo Go Store is India’s fastest growing Integrated Retail Network for consumer electronics with over 1300 stores powered by Arzooo. It enables a partner store to offer its customers the most extensive selection, best price, and fastest delivery, without them having to stock everything, backing this with attractive payments and financing solutions to drive up sales in-store.
Physical stores remain a popular destination for Consumer electronics shoppers globally, and in India, they thrive on their unmatched reach into every neighborhood and acquire the trust from consumers. Arzooo is equipping physical retail stores to compete and grow in the age of Amazon & Flipkart. Enabling them with 10X bigger selection, competitive pricing, and financing solutions to convert every walk into sales.
Aroo Creditzo
Arzooo recently announced the launch Arzooo Credit, a digital credit lending product. It is for offline retailers that offers working capital to Arzooo’s partner stores. With Arzooo Credit, the company claims that retailers will be able to avail of INR 1-10 lakh credit on the Arzooo platform.
Currently, the service is open to over 5,000 retailers across 10 cities.
Arzooo - Founders and Team
Arzooo is co-founded by two ex-Flipkart colleagues and IIT-Kharagpur alumni, Khushnud Khan and Rishi Raj Rathore in 2018.
Founders Arzooo.com
Khushnud Khan and Rishi Raj Rathore - Founders, Arzooo
Khushnud Khan, Co-Founder & CEO - In his career spanning over 10 years, Khushnud has been part of some of India's path-breaking start-up business journeys like the launch of Tata Sky as foundation team and set up retail & distribution network. Flipkart, where he set-up and launched Large Appliances Categories, Akash Tablet, launched a $35 Tablet PC and with IFB Appliances as Business Head where he led sales marketing for the region.
Khushnud brings rich experience in consumer electronics and e-commerce space, in his last role as Associate Director at Flipkart, he headed up the large appliances category and scaled. He then went on to start Flipkart’s hyperlocal delivery segment for grocery and food deliveries.
Rishi Raj Rathore, Co-Founder & COO - An IIT Kharagpur alumnus, Rishi has worked with Flipkart as a product manager, leading hyperlocal grocery and logistics platforms on the product front. He has built hyper-local logistics products and scaled it. Rishi also features in Forbes 30 Under 30 entrepreneurs list of 2020.
According to LinkedIn, the company has a team size of around 50-60 employees.
Arzooo - Business Model and Revenue Model
The startup works on the following business model. Arzooo offers free adoption of its technology platform to its partner retailers. It generates revenue from the sale proceeds when the partner stores buy inventory using its platform.
Arzooo - Startup Challenges
The biggest challenge that the company faced was convincing retail store partners on how this technology could help them. But as e-commerce companies continue to push for a larger chunk of the retail pie, they are slowly beginning to understand the need to adopt something like Arzooo.
In every new city that Arzooo ventures into, it takes at least two-three meetings to get a retailer on board, largely because this is unheard of in this industry, and requires time and effort to educate the retailers on how such a platform could be fruitful for them in the long term.
"When you are one of it’s kind players, a first mover in a space, the biggest challenge is to always get your business partner excited about the product and making them believe that it's something that's going to change the way they do business. Even today when we enter a new market, we enter with that challenge in our minds and we approach prospects accordingly", says Arzooo founder Khushnud Khan.
Arzooo - Funding and Investors
Arzooo.com has raised $7.3M + in funding over 4 rounds. Its most recent funding was on November 16, 2020. It was led by Zoom Founder, Eric Yuan and Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist, Bill Tai for an undisclosed amount.
The company plans to scale its forte in technology, operations and quality of service. It will also channelize funds to ramp its B2B platform – Go Store.
Arzooo has proven its ability to create massive efficiency for operators across thousands of stores by leveraging data to create network effect efficiency in supply chain, distribution, and logistics for their network of retailers. The result is better selection and pricing for customers throughout the system. This investment should fuel a 10X growth for Arzooo as it accelerates strongly.- Says Bill Tai.
Arzooo - Recognition and Achievements
Arzooo with it’s founder is recognized by Forbes for it’s 30 under 30 Asia 2020.
Arzooo - Future Plans
The company aims to achieve a growth of more than 10-fold in gross merchandise volume (GMV) in the next 12 months from 2020
The company plans to scale its forte in technology, operations and quality of service. It will also channelize funds to ramp its B2B platform – ‘Go Store’.
Arzooo - FAQs
Who founded Arzooo?
Arzooo is co-founded by two ex-Flipkart colleagues and IIT-Kharagpur alumni, Khushnud Khan and Rishi Raj Rathore in 2018.
How much funding has Arzooo raised?
Arzooo.com has raised $7.3M + in funding over 4 rounds. Its most recent funding was on November 16, 2020. It was led by Zoom Founder, Eric Yuan and Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist, Bill Tai for an undisclosed amount.
What is Arzooo Go Store?
Arzooo Go Store is India’s fastest growing Integrated Retail Network for consumer electronics with 1300 + stores powered by Arzooo. It enables partner store to offer its customers the most extensive selection, best price, and fastest delivery, without them having to stock everything, backing this with attractive payments and financing solutions to drive up sales in-store.
What is Arzooo Credit?
Arzooo recently announced the launch Arzooo Credit, a digital credit lending product. It is for offline retailers that offers working capital to Arzooo’s partner stores. With Arzooo Credit, the company claims that retailers will be able to avail of INR 1-10 lakh credit on the Arzooo platform.