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AnKa SumMor, a startup aiming to disrupt the sales and distribution channels for FMCG sector has raised INR 3 crore in a pre-Series A round of funding led by Inflection Point Ventures (IPV). IPV was started in 2018 and plans to invest INR 155 crore in 2021 across 60 startups. This is IPV’s 12th deal for 2021.

The raised funding will be utilised in scaling businesses across Hyderabad and Chennai with improved infrastructure, coverage, and branding. The team also looks to expand operations to Bengaluru, with focus on technology development and deployment.

Ashok George, Founder & CEO, AnKa SumMor added that this investment will predominantly go into building the tech stack, critical to manage complexity at scale efficiently and effectively, enhance predictive capabilities and provide market insights to brand partners.

“We will also invest on increasing sales and distribution (S&D) infrastructure and resources to increase number of outlets serviced to deliver growth for existing brand partners, and capacity to add more brands on our platform,” said Ashok.

As Vinay Bansal, founder and CEO, IPV emphasises, the success of FMCG businesses depends on how well and deep their distribution model is. India is a complex geography and it has taken global FMCG companies decades to cover the entire country by heavily investing in setting the distribution infrastructure.

“The new age brands don’t have to invest millions in setting up their distribution channel when a company like Anka SuMor can do this for them. A shared distribution network would be mean lower operational costs and better pricing for the consumers,” he added.

AnKa SumMor, founded by Ashok and Rajiv Joshi in 2017, provides challenger brands the combined power of a large brand. It offers a plug and play platform for challenger and emerging FMCG brands, acting as a one stop solution for their sales and distribution requirements. 

The startup serves all retails of FMCG Distribution under one roof via its flagship SumMor Model. Launched in 2018, this model has added value for brand partners with increased revenue, reduced sales and distribution cost and real time transparent MIS. 

It acts as the SPOC to serve all retail channels (national chains, e-commerce, local chains, stand alone super markets, kirana) in a city / state with transparent and real-time structured data leading to market insights for the brands, leading up to 50% sales and distribution cost reduction for brands as claimed by the company.

The platform also helps emerging brands with the intelligence employed by the larger brands with focus on revenue growth, service consistency, in-outlet executions with transparency.

The startup has covered over 2600 relevant stores, working with 10 brands so far – McVities, Yoga Bar, Wai Wai, Paper Boat, Yellow Diamond, Bombay Shaving Company, Spice Story, Budweiser, Om Bhakti, Again Drinks.

The FMCG industry is the fourth largest sector in India and is expected to reach $260 billion by end of 2025, along with emerging brands growing at a pace of two to three times the rate of established brands.