[Funding roundup] B2C social commerce startup Gobillion, fintech platform Minko raised early-stage investments

Gobillion raises seed funding of $2.9 million

GoBillion, a B2C social commerce platform, has raised $2.9 million in a seed round led by YCombinator, Justin Mateen (Founder – Tinder, through the JAM Fund) and Pioneer Fund.

Founded in 2020 by IIM-NIT alumni Roshan Farhan and Kulapradip Bharali, Gobillion is an ecommerce startup that enables customers to buy together in social groups and unlock great deals.

The round also saw participation from investors like Soma Capital, Goodwater Capital, Olive Tree Capital, Chris Golda Investments, Oliver Jung, Venture Souq, Shanti Mohan (Founder – LetsVenture), and Vikas Choudhury (President, Reliance Jio).

With the latest round of funding, Gobillion aims to build a social and gamified ecommerce experience.

“The funds will help us invest in expanding our market, augment our tech and product capabilities, while doubling down on the hiring of new talent across functions. We are grateful to our investors and customers who continue to champion our long term mission,” said Roshan Farhan, Founder and CEO, Gobillion.

Some other investors include Acacia Venture Capital Partners, Soma Ventures, Asymmetry Ventures, Dileep Thazhmon (Founder – Jeeves), Vikalp Sahni (Co-Founder, Goibibo), Harsh Pokharna (Founder – OkCredit), among others.

Minko raises $1.5 million in seed round

Minko, a retail fintech platform that provides credit facilities to small Kirana and retail shop owners, has raised $1.5 million in a seed round.

The round was led by LC Nueva AIF, an India domiciled Category II AIF Fund, where LC Nueva Investment Partners LLP is the Investment Manager with participation from LetsVenture Founder and CEO Shanti Mohan, and Kunal Shah, Founder of CRED.

Minko provides small Kirana and retail shop owners in India with an embedded credit facility with their supplier invoices. Over the last six months, Minko has onboarded 10,000+ retailers and distributors of reputed brands, including Unilever, Parle Agro, Coca-Cola, Haldirams, and Britannia.

The funding round also saw participation from Pratekk Agarwaal (ex-CBO), BharatPe, Nitin Gupta (Uni Cards founder), Parminder Singh (ex-MD Twitter and Google – APAC), Jaimin Bhatt (CFO at Kotak Mahindra Bank), Shyam Mohan (Mastercard VP), Deepthi Rao (Product Manager, Facebook Pay), Archana Priyadarshini (General Partner at PointOne Capital), Kudos Finance and Investments Pvt Ltd (NBFC), Amit Ranjan (ex-SlideShare), and Vivekananda Hallekere (Co-founder, Bounce) and AngelList.