Startup funding: Flash.co, a startup by former Senior VP of Flipkart Ranjith Boyanapalli launched earlier this year, on Tuesday, announced $6.7 million funding raised in a pre-Series A round led by Blume Ventures and co-led by existing investor PeerCapital. The startup essentially offers a dedicated email ID for users to log in and shop on various e-commerce portals and brands’ own web portals such as Flipkart, Amazon, Swiggy, Boat, Ixigo, Licious, Levi’s, Bombay Shaving Company and more. Users can track all their orders within the Flash app’s inbox and earn cashback and coins on brands under the company’s rewards programme Flash Perks.
According to the company, it has placed over 8 million emails with users having already placed more than 1 million orders across over 1,000 brands through their Flash.co email IDs. It has partnerships with over 70 brands currently. The company also plans to expand outside India by 2024.
Ranjith Boyanapalli, CEO and Founder, Flash.co, said, “From processing our very first email to crossing the 8 million mark in five months is a testament to the trust and support of our users. A huge thank you to our ever-growing community of power shoppers! We are thrilled to welcome Blume Ventures to Flash. Flash is a category-defining global consumer tech product and would benefit from the expertise of Blume.”
Flash is also backed by other venture capital firms such as Global Founders Capital, White Venture Capital, Emphasis Ventures, Soma Capital, and Zinal Growth along with angel investors such as Binny Bansal (Co-founder, Flipkart), Kunal Shah (Founder, CRED), Sujeet Kumar (Co-Founder, Udaan), and others.
”The idea of simplifying an individual’s digital commerce lifecycle by unifying it into a single comprehensive mailbox, thereby deriving substantial benefits for the customer, is a compelling value proposition whose time has come. We partnered with Ranjith, inspired by his bold ambition to develop a world-class product in India that will resonate globally,” said Karthik Reddy, co-founder and managing partner of Blume Ventures.
According to the company, India is home to 25 million ‘power shoppers’ (those who shop frequently), who contribute nearly 70 per cent of the online shopping revenue, and are estimated to surpass 65 million in numbers by 2030.