Matrix-backed GoKwik raises INR 112cr in a Series A round led by Sequoia Capital India

New Delhi, November 17th, 2021: GoKwik - an e-commerce enablement company that's on a mission to democratize the shopping experience and increase GMV realization for e-commerce businesses, has raised INR 112 crores ($15M) in a Series A round led by Sequoia Capital India. The round also saw participation from existing investors Matrix Partners India and RTP Global. GoKwik had previously raised INR 40 crores ($5.5M) in a Pre Series A round led by Matrix Partners India in September 2021. Their clients include marquee names in the Indian eCommerce space, such as Mamaearth, Good Glamm Group (Myglamm), LimeRoad, EyeMyEye, Boat, ManMatters, OZiva, The Souled Store, Noise, VMart. GoKwik has also recently partnered with Fynd to power the online presence of some of the most iconic global brands in India.

Founded in the post-pandemic era, GoKwik is the brainchild of Chirag Taneja (CEO) and Vivek Bajpai (CTO) and includes Ankush Talwar (Chief Data Scientist) as part of the founding team. During his stint as a CRO at one of India's leading D2C brands, Bombay Shaving Company, Chirag had first-hand experience with a number of problems like lower CoD conversion rates, RTO orders, rising acquisition costs, among others, that he felt were commonly faced by the entire industry. This triggered the idea of GoKwik, essentially, to democratize the shopping experience by providing a tech and data science layer to increase the GMV of eCommerce businesses across India, which also forms the base of GoKwik's '˜Merchant-First' philosophy.

With its initial products, GoKwik has been solving two very crucial problems, Return to Origin (RTO) and Conversion Rates, for eCommerce players including traditionally offline businesses, new age D2C brands and large marketplaces. GoKwik uses its proprietary AI/ML models to help reduce Return to Origin (RTO orders) & increase Cash on Delivery (CoD) conversion rates and its checkout and UPI solutions help improve checkout conversion rates ensuring higher GMV realization, increased profitability, reduced Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), and increased delivery rates. Clients like The Man Company, ManMatters, Vmart and V2Retail are already seeing a reduction in RTO after deploying GoKwik's proprietary AI/ML solutions.

Commenting on the fundraising, Chirag Taneja, Co-founder & CEO, GoKwik said, "E-commerce enablement players will play a pivotal role in fuelling the burgeoning Indian e-retail market which is projected to touch $120 billion in next 4-5 years. Conversion rates across the funnel and RTO are major pain points for any e-commerce business, and an e-commerce enablement player like GoKwik bringing network advantage is best poised to solve these problems. This fundraise from Sequoia Capital India is a strong validation of our promise, hyper-growth of the business, and scalable Product-market fit (PMF) of the product offerings. We are amongst the fastest growing B2B2C businesses and are poised to redraft the traditional playbook by offering personalized solutions to improve overall conversion rates, help register higher GMV with increased ROI and provide protection against risks such as RTO to e-commerce and D2C brands.'

On partnering with GoKwik, Aman Gupta co-founder and CMO of India's leading audio and wearable brand, boAt, said, "GoKwik has been solving really pertinent problems like conversion rates and RTO for the online commerce sector. For the D2C opportunity to grow to 100 billion USD by 2025, enablers like GoKwik are going to play a very pivotal role. Very excited to benefit from GoKwik's solutions and looking forward to more innovative products from GoKwik.'

While GoKwik has been solving for conversion rates at checkout and post order so far, this new investment will be primarily used for doubling the size of the product and tech teams, hiring best in class talent and subject matter experts, to enable the development of innovative products to increase conversion rates across the funnel as well as make the existing offerings more robust. With its remote-first approach, it is one of the few companies in India being built remotely, which has enabled it to hire talent without any geographic restrictions and scale its team so fast. It also plans to partner with more players in the eCommerce and d2c ecosystem and support the overall internet economy of India.

Ashish Agrawal, Managing Director at Sequoia Capital India, said, "We are witnessing stunning growth in e-commerce in India, specifically in social commerce platforms and D2C brands, many of whom Sequoia Capital India has partnered with. The sector will do >$50B of GMV this year. The GoKwik team has identified a brilliant wedge into this market to solve merchants' pain points of cart conversions at checkout and high returns on COD. We believe that GoKwik will be an important enabler to the ecosystem, solving multiple needs of merchants over time.'

Rajat Agarwal, Managing Director at Matrix India, commented "GoKwik is on a mission to enable e-commerce companies to offer best in class shopping experience to customers while improving their conversion rates and margins. In a short period of time, they have achieved a clear product-market fit with a large number of top direct-to-consumer brands and other e-commerce platforms working with them now. We're excited to double down on our investment in GoKwik and welcome Sequoia Capital India to the partnership.'

About GoKwik :
GoKwik was founded in 2020 with one simple mission, to democratize the shopping experience to increase GMV realization for e-commerce businesses. The company is backed by Sequoia Capital India, Matrix Partners India, RTP Global, and marquee angels.
GoKwik is an e-commerce enablement company focusing predominantly on solving crucial e-commerce issues like boosting conversion rates across the e-commerce funnel and reducing RTO for our partners. It leverages AI/ML technologies to solve hard-hitting problems like RTO to increase CoD conversion rates. GoKwik's 1-click Kwik checkout improves checkout conversion rates ensuring higher GMV realization and reduced marketing CAC. It is helmed by Chirag Taneja (CEO), Vivek Bajpai (CTO), and Ankush Talwar (Chief Data Scientist). GoKwik's team has deep knowledge in the space of e-commerce with people having previous experience in Flipkart, Razorpay, Swiggy, Myntra, Nykaa and more. For more information, visit www.gokwik.co

About Matrix Partners India:
Matrix Partners India is an investment firm with approximately $1 billion under management. Founded in 2006, the firm invests in companies targeting the Indian consumer and enterprise market at the seed, early and early growth stages. Matrix India has invested in several market leading financial services companies, such as, Razorpay (payments and SME Neobank), OfBusiness (B2B Commerce, Fintech), Five Star Business Finance (SME lending), Mswipe (mobile POS), OneCard (mobile-first credit card), as well as category leading consumer-focused companies such as, Country Delight (D2C dairy & fresh foods brand), W For Woman (ready to wear fashion label), OZiva (India's leading clean, plant-based nutrition brand), Mosaic Wellness (lifestyle & wellness consumer brand), and The Whole Truth (clean label food brand).

Other marquee investments include Ola (mobility), Dailyhunt (mobile local language platform), Ola Electric (electric vehicles), Stanza Living (tech enabled student housing platform), DealShare (social commerce platform), and Zupee (leading skill-based gaming app) among others. Matrix India has advisory offices in Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai. Matrix Partners has a global network of funds investing in the US, China and India, with approximately $5 billion under management. Further information is available at www.matrixpartners.in. To know more about our investment philosophy, check out the #MatrixMoments podcast series.