Yuj Ventures (Xander Group) and Beyond Capital Ventures led the $5.5 million pre-Series A financing and equity investment for Lal10, a wholesale cross-border marketplace for Indian craftsmen to sell their wares.

Out of the total amount of cash, $4 million came from equity funding and the rest came from debt.

Additionally taking part in the round were Spiral Ventures, Singularity Ventures, Asymmetry Ventures, Blacksoil, Panthera Peak, and Pegasus FinInvest.

Nitish Mittersain of Nazara Technologies, Bikky Khosla from TradeIndia, Ashok Gudibandla from Notion and Kishore Ganji of Astir Ventures, were among the angel investors who also invested in the funding round.

The company said it will use the capital to expand across the United States, Japan and the Middle East and to expand its tech-based supply chain solutions to buyers and technology innovations for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

“Looking at the potential of the MSME industry, Lal10 aims to reach a $100 million run rate in the next 12 months focusing on the home textile category,” it said.

Founded in 2017 by Maneet Gohil, Sanchit Govil, and Albin Jose, Lal10 is a tech-enabled full-stack platform for craft-based MSMEs with over 2,200 craft MSMEs using the application to digitize their inventories for global wholesale and become skilled with contemporary design trends as well as source raw materials directly from factories.

“Lal10 is building technologies for the next craft revolution. As a brand, we intend to digitize the entire craft industry in India and prepare them for global wholesale,” said Maneet Gohil, its chief executive.

India's $3.5 billion export GDP in creative produce comes from a handful of production hubs like Panipat, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Jaipur, and Tirupur. India, however, has a production appetite of over $160 billion with tier III and IV production hubs such as Bhagalpur, Pochampally, Maheshwar, and Amroha, which have yet to come on the global map, he added.

The company raised its seed round in March 2020 from US-based impact investment platform Sorenson Impact and a few angel investors.

“By building a cross-border platform for empowering Indian craft based MSMEs across the smaller towns and cities of India, Lal10 is creating a systemic change with their efficient tech-enabled supply chain,” said Sid Yog, founder Yuj Ventures, an early-stage investment platform.

According to Lal10, the business-to-business or B2B rural-sourcing market is large, highly disorganised, and geographically disaggregated. But with the advent of inexpensive, ubiquitous internet and smartphones across even the rural corners of India, this sector is ripe for disruption. There is an untapped opportunity to leverage technology and software applications to leapfrog the challenges and build a robust global supply chain connecting SMEs with retailers in India and overseas.