News: Online office supplies platform Aahaa Stores raises $2 million in next round of funding

#MergersAndAcquisitions

Online office supplies platform Aahaa Stores raises $2 million in next round of funding

Founded in early 2013 by Asokan Sattanathan and B-School alumni, Rajaraman Sundaresan and Harish Kannan, Aahaa Stores has consolidated its leadership position in the business consumables supplies space during last five years
Online office supplies platform Aahaa Stores raises $2 million in next round of funding

Aahaa Stores, an integrated procurement services provider for indirect supplies to large Corporates in India, announced fresh equity infusion in June 2018. In this round, global investment Group Calega, based in the UAE has invested about USD 2 Mn in Aahaa Stores. Founded in early 2013 by Asokan Sattanathan and B-School alumni, Rajaraman Sundaresan and Harish Kannan, Aahaa Stores has consolidated its leadership position in the business consumables supplies space during last five years. 

Aahaa has cemented lasting relationships with some of the marquee players in banking, finance, insurance and IT sectors. As a leading online procurement service partner, this Start-up helps businesses save on indirect purchases spend by managing their supply chain, bringing collective bargaining benefits and streamlining the vendor network. Aahaa stores is one of the fastest growing B2B eCommerce startups in India serving top notch clients including IndusInd bank, Tata AIG, TCS, Wipro, Reliance Nippon, ITC Hotels, Oyo, Uber, Yes Bank, Equitas, Ashok Leyland, Bosch, Eicher, RBL, HDB Financial, Syntel, HGS, Kone, Tata Capital and WPP Group. The indirect purchase spends of ET 500 companies in India alone is estimated to be over $ 24 billion.

Before this round, the company raised capital funds twice, $1 million each from a group of investors led by YourNest. The company plans to utilize the fresh investments to upgrade their technology, expand business across new verticals and geographies, enrich infrastructure by inducting more independent service providers and mobilizing superior talent. 

Asokan Sattanathan, Founder and Chairman, Aahaa Stores, said “In all, this step should enable us to provide superior customer experience resulting in enhanced trust & confidence, gain priority from quality suppliers and attract talent. We are well on course to achieve the first milestone of Rs. 100 million per month sales. Using these funds, we plan to expand the full range of curated assortment of products across all major brands in Stationery, Printed materials, Housekeeping, Electronics & IT, Food & Beverage, Packaging and Company specific consumables.”   

Aahaa’s proprietary iPOS platform is designed to integrate all steps of evolved supply chain processes like demand aggregation, online approvals, e-Catalogue, recommendation engine, micro logistics through auto-assignments, real-time analytics and spend control tools. Aahaa delivers huge value to its customers by making purchasing an easy task and managing spend through real-time dashboards and action notifications even simpler. The company has also made it easy to handle complex GST credits for its clients.

Aahaa has helped many corporates of repute rejig their brand through mobilizing rich and attractive merchandise in their Brand Stores and taking end to end responsibility from sourcing to last mile delivery. Aahaa is immensely popular for streamlining purchase to pay processes in the otherwise competitive manufacturing sector when it comes to tail spends. 

Calega Resources Limited is the investment management arm of a diversified group with interests in Energy, Technology and Consulting Services. “We are excited to partner with Team Aahaa. We were looking at investing in India and narrowed down our choices to startups that use technology in a unique way to make life simpler for the business, industry and governments. Aahaa Stores aptly fits in our description with an innovative business model and a state of the art platform that makes purchasing for internal consumption a breezy affair. We should be able to assist Aahaa to grow beyond the boundaries of India,” opines Sanjay Pahwa, Director at Calega.

Calega is currently evaluating various opportunities in the USD 1-5 million range & has identified Technology, Consumer & Med-Tech as areas of potential investment. Candle Partners were the exclusive financial advisors to Calega for the transaction. 

 

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Topics: #MergersAndAcquisitions, #Outsourcing

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