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Wholesale cross-border platform Lal10 on Tuesday raised $5.5 million in a pre-Series A round led by Yuj Ventures (Xander Group) and Beyond Capital Ventures.

The round also saw participation from Spiral Ventures, Singularity Ventures, Asymmetry Ventures, Blacksoil, Panthera Peak, and Pegasus FinInvest. Prominent angels such as Nitish Mittersain of Nazara Technologies, Bikky Khosla from TradeIndia, Ashok Gudibandla from Notion, Kishore Ganji of Astir Ventures, Suprajit FO, Bob Noyen, Reasoned Ventures, UK-based Insaan Group, and partners at Mckinsey participated in the round.

The startup will use the fresh capital to expand aggressively in markets across the US, Japan, and the Middle East. It will expand its tech-based supply chain solutions to buyers and technology innovations for MSMEs, empowering them with design to digitisation to global wholesale discovery.

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

Founded in 2017 by Maneet Gohil, Sanchit Govil, and Albin Jose, Noida-based Lal10 is an online cross-border wholesale platform for grassroot MSMEs in India. Since inception, it has been creating a maker’s revolution by digitising small and medium rural manufacturers to take their sustainable products to global markets.

Maneet Gohil, CEO & Co-founder of Lal10, said, “Lal10 is building technologies for the next craft revolution. As a brand, we intend to digitise the entire craft industry in India and prepare them for global wholesale. India’s $3.5 billion export GDP in creative produce comes from a handful of production hubs like Panipat, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Jaipur, and Tirupur.”

However, he added that India has a production appetite of over $160 billion with Tier III and Tier IV production hubs like Bhagalpur, Pochampally, Maheshwar, and Amroha, which are yet to come on the global map.

“We are making Bhagalpur the next Panipat by enabling contemporary designs, technology innovations for a transparent supply chain, and digitising inventories of sustainable products for discovery to global buyers wholesale. We want to thank all investors for placing their trust in us, our mission, and for joining hands to enable Lal10 to help 1.2 million Indian craft-based MSMEs go global.”

Sid Yog, Founder of Xander Group, said Lal10 is creating a systemic change with its efficient tech-enabled supply chain by building a cross-border platform for empowering Indian craft-based MSMEs across smaller towns and cities of India.

“Yuj is pleased to support their vision of creating value for unsung artisans while unleashing a billion-dollar opportunity in global markets,” he said.

Sujit Kunte, Head of India, Spiral Ventures, added that Lal10 has built a formidable supply base of creative MSMEs in Tier II, III , and IV cities, resulting in unique designs and high-quality products.

“They have also honed delivery in smaller lots with shorter times. We are looking forward to supporting them in their Japan market entry.”

In March 2020, Lal10 raised a seed round from Sorenson Impact, Utah, and a few angel investors.