Venture Catalysts, India’s first and largest integrated incubator and accelerator, has led a funding round of USD 2 Million in Hesa, a rural tech startup offering a trustworthy unified social, digital, and physical commerce platform. Manish Modi of Mastermind Capital led the funding round at Venture Catalysts (VCats) along with Accelerator Fund, 9Unicorns.
Co-founded by Vamsi Udayagiri and Hema Nandiraju in 2019, Hesa unifies value chains in rural India by enabling local brands and businesses to come together as a community. Complemented by the on-ground network on Village Level Entrepreneurs, Hesa’s robust tech-led platform empowers businesses to reach, showcase, demonstrate, convince, and transact with their customer base of more than 850 million across all remote and rural regions in the country. Further, Hesa’s multidimensional value proposition targets a space that lies at the intersection of India’s fintech sector and agritech sector, projected to be worth USD 84 billion and USD 24 billion, respectively, by 2025.
Considering its multidimensional revenue model bolstered by a diversified portfolio, Hesa is already generating high GMV and profitable margins. Every transaction on Hesa’s platform generates revenue, further supplemented by marketing and service-based income from rural promotions and activations, rural contract staffing, promotions on the Hesa app, etc.
Vamsi Udayagiri, Founder & CEO, Hesa, commented, “The entire fund-raising experience has been a phenomenal journey in itself. I have met many amazing people, learnt from every interaction, and grown so much along the way. It is a great validation that Hesa’s model resonates with so many. I look forward to every Indian village being powered by our innovative model as we work towards realising our vision to be rural India’s largest integrated marketplace that enables ease of commerce and enables livelihoods at scale. Easy To Pitch, a one stop platform for founders to be investment ready, provided a great support to make Hesa pitch ready for this fundraise.”
Manish Modi, Managing Partner Mastermind Capital and Lead Investor, VCats, added, “Hesa is reinventing the wheel for rural commerce in India. Their last-mile marketplace coupled with a hybrid Physical-Digital model makes Hesa a company to watch for over the next few years. As they attempt to populate the vast majority of India’s villages with their network of ‘Hesaathis,’ Vamsi and Hema have an impressive long-term vision. They have combined it with a human touch that promises to make Hesa a responsible company, high growth, and impactful.”
Commencing its operations from April 2020, Hesa has embarked on a high growth trajectory, accruing gross revenue of USD 4 million to date while witnessing a 15% average monthly growth and a 65% retention rate. He has already connected over 65 brands to 600,000 rural customers through 8000 Village Level Entrepreneurs, the ‘Hesaathis,’ in around 5000 Indian villages.
In Feb 2021, Hesa featured in the Top 5 Startups amongst 1000+ startups in India and five other countries at the Innopreneurs Startup Contest. In Mar 2021, Hesa emerged as one of the top two startups among more than 200 most promising Indian startups at the pan-India fundraising event, Elevate 2021, hosted by IIT Madras. Hesa was founded in July 2019 by Vamsi Udayagiri and Hema Nandiraju with a vision to be rural India’s largest integrated marketplace through its trustworthy assisted phygital platform.
