[Funding] Gully Network receives pre-Series A fund $1.2 Mn led by Venture Catalysts

Gully Network Retail Pvt Ltd is a retail-tech startup focussed on providing a full stack of services to mid-sized stores. The startup has raised $1.2 million (Rs 8.9 crore) in a pre-Series A funding round. The round in Bengaluru-based Gully Network has been led by startup incubator and accelerator Venture Catalysts, marking the platform’s latest bet this year. Other participants include Inflection Point (IP) Ventures – which has also been active this year – and DFAN (Digital Futurists Angels Network).

The company will use this capital to scale its presence to at least 100 stores, its co-founder said. It is also planning to open new income streams for itself and its retail partners. In November last year, Gully Network raised Rs 5 crore (around $700,000) from early-stage VC firm Orios Venture Partners, which has backed several startups in the online consumer technology and software-as-a-service sectors.

About Gully Network

Ajay Nain and Prateek Chaturvedi set up Gully Network last year. An alumnus of IIT-Madras, Nain earlier co-founded RentoMojo, an online rental marketplace for furniture, home appliances, and bikes. Chaturvedi, an IIM-Ahmedabad graduate, has worked with firms including Cipla and McKinsey. The company says its platform provides services used by modern retail trade chains.

“We see that despite using multiple platforms for online sales, POS (point of sales), supply, and loan, retailers still struggle with manual and inefficient day-to-day operations,” Nain said. Gully Network says its platform results in automated end-to-end operations and increased income for its customer base.

In Aug 2020, the startup also participated in Orios’ seed-stage acceleration programme Misfits, along with eight other startups such as Karbon Card, CityCash, MoneyOnClick, Intelligence Node, GolBol, Krishify, Leher, and YumLane.

About Venture Catalysts

Venture Catalysts, set up in 2015 by Sharma, Anuj Golecha, Anil Jain and Gaurav Jain; invests between $250,000 and $1.5 million in early-stage startups and provides networking and mentoring to its portfolio companies.