The most recent to join the funding bandwagon in the ecommerce space is Craftsvilla; the online handicrafts marketplace has secured $18 million (Rs 100 crore approx.) funding from Sequoia and other existing investors like Nexus Venture Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners and GFC.
Handicrafts have always been a specialty of India, with specific regions and states known for their respective handicraft items and work. Since inception in 2011, Crafsvilla has focused on promoting artisans and their handi-work from across the country, and connecting them to the world to expand their horizons.
Craftsvilla follows two models on its portal:
Craftsvilla plans to become a one-stop platform for ethnic products globally. With close to 100,000 transactions per month, almost 2 million products are sold on the platform in various categories like handicrafts, clothing, art and jewellery from around 12,000 artisans across India.
“We are aspiring to be 10-times our current size by the end of this year, with 20 million products on our platform,” says Monica Gupta, co-founder of Craftsvilla.
Although the turnover of craftsvilla has not been let out, the platform is said to be profitable now. The company had to face many hurdles initially but it has managed to grow at a rapid pace now.
“Craftsvilla has been growing rapidly below the radar, and has now become the leading ecommerce marketplace for ethnic products in India. However, the founding team bootstrapped the company for several years after facing a prolonged period of slow adoption of ethnic products in e-commerce in the early years,” says Shailendra Singh, managing director of Sequoia Capital.
“Craftsvilla.com has brought the traditionally disorganized ethnic craft industry on to a structured platform and has enabled micro-entrepreneurship at a scale heresofar not seen in this sector,” says Sandeep Singhal, managing director, Nexus Capital. “With companies like Craftsvilla, customers gain access to well designed, high quality products at reasonable prices and craftspeople get fair prices by removing intermediaries.”
Handicraft market in India is largely an unorganized market. In the absence of branding and known manufacturers, it’s difficult to promote them. Indians have always been open to the idea of buying handicrafts to decorate their homes and surroundings, while foreigners find them fascinating and buy them as novelty items.
Ecommerce provides a level field for artisans and their handicrafts. So when portals like Craftsvilla with global delivery capability come into the picture, it becomes easier for them to leverage on the online retail concept and expand their customer base.
After dwindling with her family business, into travel and hospitality, for more than 3 years, Pooja Vishant found her true love in writing. Happy-go-lucky and cheerful, she loves pink; so pink is the way to go if you want to get into her good books. The Associate Editor keeps track of even a leaf that has moved in the ecommerce world!
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