Reverse Auction based eCommerce Platform, Arzooo.com Raises Seed Funding from Omphalos Ventures India

Bangalore-based Arzooo.com, a reverse auction based commerce platform, has raised Rs 1.5 crores in a seed round of funding from Omphalos Ventures India. With the current funds, the company plans to further develop their technology, and expand its operations to the top-ten Indian cities by March 2019.

Founded by two former Flipkart employees, Khushnud Khan and Rishi Raj, Arzooo.com virtually exploded into India’s e-commerce ecosphere in July 2017, with their reverse auction model that gives high value buyers the lowest price on their chosen product, beating prices elsewhere online, in real time. Since their launch, the company has served more than 2,000 customers with an average ticket size of Rs 22,000 on high value branded goods, and a monthly run rate of Rs 7 million.

With Arzooo’s technology, customers are no longer bound to buy a product at the price listed on a popular e-commerce site, nor do they need to browse through various sites to find or compare for the best price. All customers need to do is, decide on a product and just go to Arzooo.com enter the model id and demand the best price. Subsequently, top suppliers bid and compete for the order beating prices elsewhere online. The algorithm at Arzooo takes the lowest of the reverse bid prices and offers it to the customer, thus saving valuable time and money. 

Commenting on the announcement, Sagar Ramteke, Partner – Omphalos Ventures India LLP stated, “The Arzooo team has a deep understanding of India’s consumer market for high value goods and has a grand vision of expanding this segment in the country. They are making good inroads with their unique business model. To have an e-commerce disruption coming from India is very exciting and empowering. We, at Omphalos Ventures, are proud of our association with such a game changing concept and team.”

Speaking on the occasion, Khushnud Khan, Founder & CEO, Arzooo.com said, “With this funding round, we plan to leverage deep tech and build algorithms that help us predict discounts in real time and reduce retailers’ efforts to put in best prices through current systems.We are also expanding our operations to Hyderabad, and other South Indian cities will follow soon. The plan includes expansion of services to the top 10 Indian cities by the end of the current financial year. Our goal is to take this service to top 50 Indian cities across categories in the next three years.”

Founded in June 2017, early-stage venture capital firm, Omphalos Ventures India plans to invest in around 30 startups by 2020. Recently, it has backed FreightBazaar, a cloud based integrated B2B freight collaboration platform that improves reliability and efficiency of freight transportation.