This Early Stage Startup is Looking to Raise Rs 23.7 cr through an IPO It is among the first few B2C companies to raise money through BSE's SME Platfrom

Looks like India's startups is in love with the capital market as the yet another company ditches private equity route to raise money through an IPO

Early stage e-commerce company SaleBhai has opened its IPO to the public on July 27 to raise INR 23.73 cr via BSE's SME platform. The issue will end on August 2.

The B2C marketplace was started by Vishwavijay Singh and Purba Kalita in September 2017 and it majorly caters to people living away from home to order a range of specialities directly from their hometowns.

It markets a wide variety of delicious consumable items like sweets, namkeen, chocolates, bakery, spices, dry fruits, beverages, and pickles. The startup also offers other products such as handicrafts, paintings, puja items, handloom goods, and herbal and wellness items.

What's On Sale?

With the IPO, SaleBhai is looking to issue 2,259,600 equity shares as it is offering 26.58 per cent of the company's equity in the market.

Proceeding from the IPO will be used to grow the company through increased customer acquisition, improved IT platform along with onboarding more authentic sellers as well as product categories. SaleBhai is also aiming to improve customer experience and make it smoother and effortless.

According to reports, the company has previously raised funding from 71 individuals, who had started as customers and became investors for the e-commerce platform. The company has also INR 10 cr raised from Brand Capital of Times Group in 2016.

Emerging

SaleBhai is among the first few early stage B2C companies to raise money through an IPO.

In 2011, both BSE and NSE received approval from the Securities Exchange of India to set up SME platform and in the following year, both the stock exchanges launched their respective Emerge platforms.

Between June 2014-June 2018, 370 companies raised about INR 4,050 crores from the SME platforms.

As per PTI report, BSE is expecting about 100 companies to list on the SME platform in 2018.

Additionally, earlier this month reports emerged that the BSE is looking to launch a startup platform under its SME segment to attract early-stage technology companies operating in areas like e-commerce, virtual reality, robotics, Artificial Intelligence, big data, drones and other new age tech segments. However, BSE released a circular on its launch date postponing the event.

Meanwhile, even the SEBI is mulling to attract startup listing as the watchdog is now busy reviewing the Institutional Trading Platform framework