Rozana, a rural commerce startup, on Wednesday said it has raised $22.5 million in a new funding round led by Bertelsmann India Investments (BII).
The round also saw participation from Fireside Ventures, Licious co-founder Vivek Gupta, and existing investors.
Founded in 2021 by Ankur Dahiya, Adwait Vikram Singh, Mukesh Christopher and Prithvi Pal Singh, Rozana operates an e-commerce platform and logistics network focused on serving the needs of rural communities in India.
Rozana has a presence in, and operates across, 13 districts in India’s northern states of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, facilitated by an extensive network of approximately 18,000 peer partners, commonly referred to as last-mile partners.
These peer partners live in villages and over 90% of them are women. Their primary responsibility involves consolidating orders and making deliveries within their local communities, typically comprising 30-40 households.
The new capital will be used to expand Rozana’s warehousing and logistics reach into new districts, enhancing its technology platform, and boosting hiring across technology, product, and operations teams.
More than 70% of India’s population resides in villages or rural parts. Rural India had 442 million active internet users, surpassing urban India with 378 million users, according to the data and analytics firm Kantar, thanks to reverse migration, and greater internet access.
“Rural India represents a massive and underserved e-commerce opportunity consisting of nearly a billion people,” said Ankur Dahiya, CEO and Co-founder of Rozana. “With this funding, we will continue building out our logistics and supply chain infrastructure to reach new districts and empower rural communities with access to essential products.”
Rozana has built a hyperlocal e-commerce model utilising village-based “peer partners” to make last-mile deliveries. This allows Rozana to offer rural customers convenience through delivery to their doorstep while keeping costs low.
The company claims to have a network of over 18,000 peer partners, who can earn additional income through Rozana.
“We know that rural India offers a great opportunity to build the next generation of assisted commerce businesses. Rozana’s focus on providing a wide range of products across categories in rural markets and the unique background of their founders make them well-poised to build a very successful business.” said Kanwal Singh, Founder and Managing Partner, Fireside Ventures.