Ecommerce platform Flash raises $5.8 million in seed round from global investors

Online shopping platform Flash has raised $5.8 million in a seed round led by global funds like Global Founders Capital (GFC), White Venture Capital (a fund by Jitendra Gupta & Amrish Rau), Zinal Growth, Soma Capital, Emphasis Ventures, Peer Capital.

The funding round also saw participation from a host of India’s top angel investors including Binny Bansal - ex-co-founder, Flipkart, Kunal Shah - founder, CRED, Arpan Sheth - senior Partner, Bain & co, Sujeet Kumar - co-founder, Udaan, Nikhil Srivastava - PAG Venture, Lalit Keshre - CEO, Groww and Rishi Vasudev - co-founder, GOAT Brand Labs among others. 

Flash will utilise the funds for product development, hiring, and global expansion, the startup said in a statement.

Founded by former Flipkart senior vice president, Ranjith Boyanapalli, Flash aims to elevate the shopping experience of online power shoppers across the world. 

The ecommerce startup looks to address the potential challenges for these power shoppers around post-order experience, lack of rewards, and cluttered communication - which are expected to magnify with a further increase in their span of online shopping across brands and frequency. Flash will be introducing a first-of-its-kind shopping identity - enabling an end-to-end ecosystem that empowers consumers to be in control of their shopping, and communication and unlock personalised experiences.

Launching in India initially, Flash aims to cater to the top 25 million power shoppers, who contribute to nearly 70% of the online shopping revenue and are estimated to further grow to 65 million by 2030, according to a statement.

"We are excited to back a founder like Ranjith who has extensive experience building great consumer products. Power shoppers are an important consumer segment and their challenges are bound to magnify with increasing eCommerce penetration in India and globally. We are impressed with the Flash team and product, and are confident that they will make a significant impact over the coming years," said Roel Janssen, partner, Global Founders Capital.

“With Flash, we aim to craft a digital shopping identity for power shoppers which will enable delightful shopping experiences. Our AI/ML-led platform will be backed by best-in-class encryption to protect privacy and give control back to the consumer. We are aiming to onboard two million users in our first year. With an elite guild of VC funds and angel investors on board, who have put their trust in us and supported us with their experience, we hope that Flash can undoubtedly change the way we shop,” added Boyanapalli.

Post Covid-19, India stands as the third-largest online shopper base in the world with 180-190 million shoppers in 2021.With the Indian ecommerce market estimated to increase three folds to 600-650 million by 2030, Flash aims to tap on the underlying potential to elevate the quality of life of online shoppers across the world.