After not getting any deal on SharkTank, Jhaji Pickle gets funded through Velocity
Direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand Jhaji Store, an online pickle store that sells authentic homemade achars, has raised an undisclosed amount from Velocity, India’s largest revenue-based financier. This is the first round of external financing Jhaji Store has raised.
Founded in March 2021 by the sister-in-law duo – Kalpana and Uma, Jhaji Store is a women led D2C startup that sells traditional homemade pickles from Darbhanga district in Bihar through their eCommerce store. Jhajhi offers over 15 different varieties of organically made pickles free from artificial colours, preservatives, and other synthetic chemicals all made locally.
“Pickles from Bihar are extremely unique and have a distinctive taste. I’ve been making these pickles for my family my entire life and always wanted to spread this unique delicacy to the rest of the country.” said Kalpana, Co-founder Jhaji Store. “Therefore, in early 2021, Uma and I started the Jhaji store to revive the art of pickling and spread the authentic taste of Bihari achar.” she added.
Jhaji Store’s unique Mithila pickles were an instant hit among their consumers, and they sold to over 2,500 customers within the first four months of starting the company. Inspired by their initial success, Kalpana and Uma also participated in Shark Tank India to raise capital for expanding their business.
Despite offering up to 10% equity, Jhaji was unable to secure funds via Shark Tank. This is when Velocity – India’s largest revenue-based financier approached Jhaji to offer growth capital.
Talking about the financing, Uma said,” We are extremely excited to raise capital from Velocity. The team reached out post our Shark Tank pitch airing, we got an indicative offer on the same day and finali the terms within 5 days. Apart from the superfast execution, we also didn’t have to dilute any equity to raise capital.”
“There has been a massive surge in demand for our pickles from all over India since the show aired. We plan on using the capital raised to fulfil the demand surge, expand our product line and free up capital to ramp our production capacity.” she added.
The financing raised is the first step the startup has taken towards achieving its goal of generating jobs for 500+ women and expanding its customer base to 100,000 customers. Building a business with purpose, Jhaji is committed to investing 10% of their profits towards girl-child education in Bihar.
As per a recent study by YourStory, less than 6% of Venture Capital funding goes to startups with women co-founders. Through its objective, data-backed approach, Velocity aims to eliminate this bias from investing. Velocity already funds more than 5x women-led startups than Venture Capital.
Speaking about the round of financing, Abhiroop Medhekar, Co-founder & CEO of Velocity, said, “We were impressed with the clarity of purpose and determination which Kalpana Ji and Uma Ji have showcased in their entrepreneurial journey so far. We started Velocity with a firm belief that it shouldn’t be so hard for good business to get funded. Velocity strives to democratise access to capital for all founders, regardless of their educational pedigree or geographical location. We make financing decisions purely based on the veracity of the business model as evidenced by a business’s online data.”
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Velocity is India’s largest revenue-based financier. We offer up to Rs. 4 crores to online Indian businesses. We currently cater to direct-to-consumer (D2C), ecommerce brands, cloud kitchens, SaaS brands, and also edtechs. The best part about revenue-based financing is that your repayment is flexible and is a percentage of your monthly revenues, i.e. you pay only when you make sales.
To grow your business with us, apply now and get funded within 4 days. To know more about revenue-based finance, check out this comprehensive guide on RBF.
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