Mom-and-pop stores dominate the retail landscape in India and Indonesia. While the latter is home to 3.5 million warungs, India houses 13 million kirana stores.
Despite being commonplace, there is much scope for improvement when it comes to venture investments in warung and kirana tech. “So many times, the store owner has only a rough idea of what’s selling in the store, and what’s been lying on the shelves for months. So adopting tech like QR codes in B2B distribution of FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) helps in tracking,” said Visa Kannan, partner, Saison Capital.
Kannan was moderating a panel on ‘The future of warung/kirana tech in India and SE Asia’ on the second day of the Asia PE-VC Summit 2022 on Sept. 28.
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“This could change if VCs understand that mom-and-pop stores are not interested in profits but cashflows,” added Smita Aggarwal, global investments advisor, Flourish Ventures, who was also on the same panel.
They were joined by Arvind Sankaran, founder, Imaginarium Advisors. “The biggest question for GP investments in kirana stores is ‘Where is the monetisation opportunity?’,” Sankaran added.
Watch the full video of their chat here: