Matrix Partners India and Sequoia Capital India co-lead Series A of $10M in Bijnis

21st July 2020. New Delhi: Bijnis (formerly known as ShoeKonnect) announced today that it has raised $10M in a Series A round of investment co-led by Matrix Partners India and Sequoia Capital India, along with existing investors InfoEdge and Waterbridge Ventures.

Founded in 2015 by Siddharth Vij, Chaitanya Rathi, Siddharth Rastogi, and Shubham Agarwal, the company focuses on facilitating a digital transaction layer between manufacturers and retailers in the largely unorganized categories of footwear, fashion, and accessories.

Bijnis currently enables 400+ manufacturers to serve 60,000+ retailers across 700 (out of 729) districts in India.

With the Series A capital, Bijnis will continue to help manufacturers grow their business by expanding their distribution network of retailers across India. Additionally, this infusion of capital will be used for building out more products and scalable technology focused on manufacturers in the footwear and fashion categories.

Siddharth Vij, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Bijnis comments on securing the new investment, "Traditional B2B supply chains are still largely unorganized and fragmented. There lies an immense opportunity in building a digital ecosystem around the same. Building the model for one category over the last three years has helped us understand the problems that lie at the core of unorganized supply chains. We believe we are on the right track and positioned to expand and revolutionize the traditional B2B ecosystem around the fashion and lifestyle categories. We are excited to welcome Sequoia Capital India and Matrix Partners India on our journey of building Bijnis and grateful to all our investors for the faith they have shown in our mission and the ability to execute towards it.'

Shraeyansh Thakur, Vice President at Sequoia Capital India LLP said, "Traditional supply chains across fashion and footwear category are highly unorganized and fragmented in India. The industry is at the brink of massive transformation thanks to rapid digitization across various layers in these supply chains. Bijnis is leveraging these trends to build the next-gen product for small manufacturers who are the backbone of these supply chains in India. We are excited to partner with the Bijnis team in their mission to digitize small manufacturers and empower them by bringing information symmetry, efficiency and expanding their reach.'

Vikram Vaidyanathan, MD, Matrix India said, "Traditional manufacturers & retailers of India are digitizing their business at a rapid rate creating a new supply chain. Bijnis is playing a unique role in redefining this supply chain for apparel starting with the footwear category. We believe in their manufacturer-first approach driving tech adoption and efficiency for all players in the value chain. We're excited to be on this journey with the founders and our co-investors.'

About Bijnis:
Bijnis is a technology-based company working towards digitizing traditional B2B businesses in unorganized industries like footwear, apparel, accessories, etc, since 2016. The '˜bijnis App' (previously called Shoekonnect App) which was launched in 2017, currently has a network of more than 400 manufacturers serving 60,000+ retailers. The company has been solving the problem of discovery, payments, and logistics by bridging the gap between manufacturers and retailers in these unorganized industries. bijnis has also been empowering manufacturers by expanding their businesses, giving them direct access to the retailers, and enabling them to build a distribution chain of their own. You can check the bijnis app, bijnis seller board & other media articles here. You can get in touch with the team at info@bijnis.com.

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 companies such as Ola (mobility), Quikr (online classifieds), Practo (digital health platform), Dailyhunt (mobile local language platform), Treebo (digital hotel chain), Limeroad (social e-commerce platform), Mswipe (mobile POS), Five Star Business Finance (SME lending), OfBusiness (credit led B2B marketplace), Ola Electric (electric vehicles), Razorpay (payments), Stanza Living (tech enabled student housing platform), Vogo (scooter sharing), and Cloudnine Hospitals (leading chain of maternity hospitals), 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 & ideologies, check out the #MatrixMoments podcast series.