Wheelocity, a rural commerce startup, has reportedly raised over Rs 82 crore in an ongoing funding spherical from new traders, current backers, and a gaggle of angel traders.

The full funding of Rs 82.36 crore got here in throughout three separate tranches, in keeping with the Inc42 report, citing the corporate’s filings with the Ministry of Company Affairs.

The primary tranche introduced in Rs 16.32 crore from Lightspeed India Companions III LLC, LS Alternatives Entry Fund LP, Grand Anicut Fund 3, and Magnum LLC. In March, the corporate raised Rs 11.05 crore from a gaggle of particular person traders, together with VML Karthikeyan, Lakshmi Narayanan Senthilnathan, V.M. Lakshminarayanan, and L. Gurusami, together with Unimix LLC, throughout two separate transactions.

The most important tranche got here in June, when EE-FI, an alternate funding fund managed by Elevar Fairness, invested Rs 54.99 crore via its trustee Vistra ITCL India Restricted.

Wheelocity was based in 2021 by Selvam, Senthil Kumar A, and Amresh Singh. Singh, who served because the startup’s chief product officer, left the startup in 2023 and later joined Amazon as an operations supervisor in January 2024, in keeping with his LinkedIn profile.

The startup initially began as a B2B provide chain accomplice, working with fast commerce and ecommerce platforms together with Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, and Zepto.

In October 2023, Wheelocity shifted to a consumer-facing mannequin after figuring out what it described as a bigger entry drawback in rural India, the place residents usually wrestle to get constant entry to contemporary produce and groceries via current retail channels.

Wheelocity now runs a hybrid on-line and offline commerce mannequin. Customers can place orders via the corporate’s cellular app or purchase merchandise immediately from branded electrical carts that function in villages.

The startup’s provide chain is constructed round what it calls a zero-inventory, pitstop-based flow-through mannequin. Produce is sourced immediately from farmers, routed via native hubs, and bought inside 24 hours of harvest, which the corporate says helps scale back meals wastage considerably in comparison with conventional multi-layered provide chains.

To handle this operation, Wheelocity makes use of AI for demand forecasting, route optimisation, and real-time monitoring of its fleet. Its last-mile supply community runs on electrical autos.

It claims that it serves greater than 5 lakh households throughout over 3,300 villages. It employs greater than 1,500 rural employees and operates an electrical car fleet that covers over 1 lakh kilometres day-after-day throughout its supply community.