New Delhi, July 24 -- SuperK, a franchised retail chain operating in small towns in India, has raised Rs 100 crore ($11.6 million) in its Series B funding round led by Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal's 3STATE Ventures and Caratlane founder Mithun Sancheti.
Indian cricketer Shubman Gill, along with existing early-stage investors Blume Ventures and Xeed Ventures, also participated in the round, SuperK said in a statement.
The company plans to use the funds to expand its organisational capacity; hire talent across marketing, store operations, category, and growth functions, and accelerate its expansion into newer towns and adjacent categories.
Prior to this, the company had raised $6 million (around Rs 50 crore) in its Series A round, led by Blume Ventures along with participation from Silver Needle Ventures, Veltis Capital, Atrium Angels, and some angel investors and syndicates.
SuperK operates a franchised retail chain for small towns in India. It claims that it currently operates 130 stores in over 80 Tier III, IV, and V towns of Andhra Pradesh. Its retail outlets are typically between 500-1,000 sq ft. sized walk-in stores stocking around 2,500 stock keeping units.
SuperK says it aims to create a value-first supermarket chain, akin to Costco, but for small-town India, powered by local franchisees, proprietary technology, and a loyal customer base. It has developed its indigenous point-of-sale machines with an in-house retail operating system, a consumer-facing app, and a partner app to streamline daily operations at the store level.
"Over the last year, we quietly rebuilt our engine, from building our own POS and launching a consumer app, to introducing our flagship membership program, which now drives 75% of sales," said Anil Thontepu, co-founder of SuperK.
"With this new capital, we're ready to take that engine to 300 more towns across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka, bring exceptional talent on board, and build India's most efficient, value-first retail chain for small-town families," Thontepu added.
It claims that it is the only offline retailer in the country with full visibility into customer behavior, enabled by granular data collection at every purchase. It uses this data to deliver personalised offers to each customer and incentivise franchisees for driving specific selling outcomes. It has recently expanded beyond groceries into e-commerce, offering everyday essentials such as mixers, cookers, fans, and coolers.
SuperK was founded in 2020 by Thontepu and Neeraj Menta, both BITS Pilani batchmates and second-time entrepreneurs. Previously, Thontepu led product and growth at Kaodim, Hike, and PhonePe. Menta co-founded Hungerbox and built products at Flipkart and Zeta (Directi).
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.