Grocery store e-commerce platform Jumbotail has also completed the acquisition from SC Ventures of Solv India, a financial services platform.
SC Ventures, the investment arm of Standard Chartered, has led a $120m (€102.4m) series D funding round for Jumbotail, an e-commerce platform for India’s myriad small food stores, as well as completing the sale to Jumbotail of financial services platform Solv India.
Jumbotail’s provides an online B2B marketplace, warehousing and logistics for over 500,000 small family-run grocery retailers, known as kiranas, across India, connecting them to food and consumer products brands, producers and farmers. It also offers payment solutions via its mobile application as well as working capital with its lending partners. Jumbotail plans to use the fresh funding to strengthen its operations and AI integration.
Kiranas are estimated to account for most of India’s fast-moving grocery sales, but have been struggling to compete with e-commerce platforms, as consumers switch to online shopping. By using platforms such as Jumbotail’s, kiranas and other MSMEs are able to digitise operations, access credit, and compete more effectively.
Existing investors participated alongside SC Ventures in the latest funding round, including Singapore-based venture capital firm Artal Asia. Jumbotail said the new funding round brought total investment in the firm since it was founded in 2105 to more than $263m.
Jumbotail said it had also completed its acquisition from SC Ventures of Solv India, a B2B commerce and financial services platform with more than 220,000 users. SC Ventures started incubating Solv in 2019. Standard Chartered said the sale would lead it to report a gain of some $200m in its second quarter 2025 results.
The combined organisation is to be led by the co-founders of Jumbotail, S Karthik Venkateswaran and Ashish Jhina. Gautam Jain, Solv chairman and an operating member of SC Ventures, will join the board of Jumbotail.
Jhina said the acquisition of Solv India would be transformative for the company.
“Together with Solv, we now help thousands of brands and MSME sellers reach over 500,000 small retailers across more than 400 cities and towns in India. Kirana entrepreneurs will be central to shaping a resilient, inclusive, and efficient retail ecosystem in India,” he said.
Economic mainstay
Jumbotail is seeking eventually to support a million retailers serving 400 million middle-income Indian consumers through modern small-format convenience retail. India’s B2B e-commerce sector is expected to account for 5% of India’s estimated $6trn economy by 2030, according to the firm.
The funding injection for Jumbotail is a fillip for India’s kirana-focused e-commerce sector, which has been struggling to maintain the high levels of investment seen four or five years ago.
In June, Udaan, one of Jumbotail’s rival platforms, said it had raised $114m in fresh equity capital via a series G financing round led by M&G Investments and Lightspeed.
That funding followed on from an earlier $340m fundraising by Udaan against a backdrop of difficult investment conditions. Udaan – the valuation of which halved between 2002 and 2024 – said the success of the latest round reflected strong investor conviction in Udaan’s long-term prospects and its progress towards a planned public market listing.
