10club, an e-commerce marketplace aggregator, raised $40 million in one of the country's largest seed funding rounds.
Fireside Ventures and an unnamed international investor co-led the financing. HeyDay, a US-based e-commerce aggregator, PDS International, Class 5 Global, Secocha Ventures, and boAt founders Aman Gupta and Sameer Mehta also participated in the round.
As part of the deal, Fireside Ventures partner Vinay Singh will join the board of 10club.
The funds raised will be used to expand the company's brand portfolio, build its technology stack, and for working capital.
Founded in 2020 by former Lamudi CEO Bhavna Suresh, 22feet co-founder Deepak Nair, and Class 5 Global co-founder Joel Ayala, 10club acquires and accelerates the growth of e-commerce merchants who have built sustainable businesses on e-commerce marketplaces such as Amazon and Flipkart.
Suresh previously served as the CEO of the Philippines-based real estate marketplace Lamudi. She had planned to launch with former Uber executive Utsav Agarwal, who later left to launch his own Thrasio-style venture Evenflow.
According to CEO Suresh, 10Club has already acquired a seller of baby blankets and is looking for deals in sectors such as kitchen appliances, organisers, food and beverages, sports equipment, and spectacles.
“Fashion is the one space we’re avoiding for the moment, because seasonal trends are not our thing and other spaces have a massive opportunity,” she said.
The pitch of 10Club is to acquire a startup and help it scale ten times (hence the name 10Club) in three years or less. It intends to accelerate this growth by integrating supply chains, providing performance marketing expertise, and driving insights through data analysis.
The success of these companies is dependent on the space they target, the quality of sellers, the valuations at which they buy, the availability of debt, and the relationships they can build with the entrepreneurs whose businesses they acquire.
“India is a people game. It is not just about top line margins but founder chemistry. You have to work with the entrepreneur and there has to be understanding and trust,” Suresh said.
10club currently has a team of 20 people, including executives from Amazon, Flipkart, Udaan, Reliance, and Coca-Cola. According to the company, it has worked with hundreds of sellers across various product categories and is now focusing on working with select entrepreneurs to help them grow their businesses.
It has also signed letters of intent worth $15 million and plans to launch these businesses in the coming weeks, according to the company.
