PepperTap operates an on-demand grocery delivery service in India by partnering with existing retail stores and dispatching orders to customers within hours. The company splits cities into zones and uses a single partner store to service each zone, aiming to enable small retailers to compete online. PepperTap is scaling rapidly: it expanded from one city in April to 17 cities and plans to reach 75 cities by the end of March next year. Order volume rose from about 30–40 orders per day in January to roughly 15,000–17,000 daily, with a recent weekend peak of 40,000 orders in one day. Management expects GMV to reach $250 million by March 2016 and plans to invest the new funding into technology and operations while halving delivery times from two hours to one within 6–9 months. The company focuses on the weekly grocery shop (may enter fresh meat) and does not plan to expand into electronics or unrelated verticals. PepperTap operates an on-demand grocery delivery service that does not hold inventory but creates online catalogs of stock from local retailers and trains delivery staff to provide quick service on scooters or bicycles. It currently offers more than 15,000 SKUs and promises deliveries within two hours. The company plans to use new capital to expand to 10 more cities by the end of the year, after launching in Gurgaon and recently expanding to Delhi and Noida. Planned new cities include Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, and Mumbai. PepperTap raised a $10 million Series A led by SAIF Partners with participation from Sequoia Capital, following a $1.2 million seed from Sequoia the prior month. Founder Navneet Singh cites his logistics background—he previously launched Nuvoex—and the company remains focused on groceries to keep operations streamlined despite strong competition and tight margins. PepperTap operates an asset-light grocery delivery service that does not hold inventory but consolidates orders from partnered local stores and promises delivery within two hours. The company focuses exclusively on groceries and targets organized stores (not mom-and-pop shops) that provide inventory data for real-time backend monitoring. PepperTap charges partner stores a commission per transaction rather than passing delivery costs to customers. It subsidizes devices and trains delivery staff to use its backend apps, with most deliveries made on scooters or bicycles. The company has raised $1.2 million in seed funding from Sequoia Capital. PepperTap is expanding beyond its initial operations in Gurgaon to Delhi and Noida in the near term and plans to enter Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, and Mumbai by year-end.

Total raised

$47M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Series B

Latest activity

Sep 2015