India’s first Live Video shopping platform, Kiko Live closesPre-Series A round of $1m.

The round saw participation from SOSV, Venture Catalysts, and GSF Accelerator.Others joining the round include Dinesh Agarwal, CEO of IndiaMART, and Amarjit Batra, MD of Spotify India.

by Suman Gupta

Mumbai/Delhi, 2^nd November 2021: GSF Accelerator, a company that aims to identify the best Indian tech startups and help them scale and create social impact, participated in the pre-Series A funding round for social eCommerce startup Kiko Live. The round saw participation from SOSV, a global VC firm that led the round and Venture Catalysts, India’s leading Angel Network. The round also saw participation from Dinesh Agarwal, CEO of IndiaMART, and Amarjit Batra, MD of Spotify India and ex CEO, OLX.

Co-Founded by Shivam Varshney, an alumnus of IIT Bombay, and Alok Chawla, an MBA from NMIMS, Kiko Live is a video shopping and selling platform that enables local sellers to open an online store in under 2 minutes. Its unique value proposition uses modern technology to provide customers with a two-way interactive shopping experience, allowing them to enter a shop virtually and engage with as well as get assistance from sellers. Small retail businesses in India generate over $700 billion in annual revenue, but they have few options for selling to their consumers online. Kiko Live’s one-of-a-kind solution not only enables these millions of local merchants to create virtual live stores and sell to customers but also provides payment and delivery solutions.

Speaking about the funding, Shivam Varshney, Co-founder & CEO – KIKO Live, commented, “We are delighted to be a part of the GSF Accelerator portfolio. The funding will be utilized to scale up technology and marketing and onboard Live sellers on the platform”.

Rajesh Sawhney of GSF Accelerator says, “Kiko Live solves the online selling problem of millions of small retailers which is nearly a $1 trillion business in India. We believe their solution is simple and easy to adopt by sellers and being early movers in this space gives them a great advantage”.

Dinesh Agarwal, Founder, CEO of IndiaMART added, “There is no better influencer to sell products, than the shopkeeper himself. The Kiko Live app brings your entire local market into your palm, and we believe Kiko Live is the best retail solution available for shops, and we are happy to back them in their growth journey”.

About KIKO Live:KIKO LIVE is live streaming e-commerce startup platform. It is India’s first AI-powered video and social e-commerce platform for an “Assisted Video Shopping” experience. KIKO brings live shopping experience to the buyers from their favourite stores and brands by introducing a two-way live video communication stage between merchants and buyers. Users of the app can now enjoy a seamless shopping experience and discuss the product with the seller before purchasing it.

About SOSV:SOSV is a multi-stage venture capital investor. We run multiple world-class vertical accelerator programs and provide seed, venture, and growth-stage follow-on investment into superstar companies. Our unique full-stack model has delivered a net IRR over the last 20 years that puts us in the top 10% of all venture funds worldwide.

SOSV provides intellectual and financial capital to accelerate founders’ big ideas for positive change. SOSV has funded over 1000 startups to date. We currently fund over 150 startups per year through our programs: HAX (hardware and connected devices), IndieBio (life sciences), Chinaccelerator and MOX (cross-border internet and mobile in Asia), dlab (blockchain, data and decentralization), and Food-X (food innovation).