99Retailstreet unorganised retail platform now in Sri Lanka

99Retailstreet, a cloud-based common commerce platform provides services to ‘Kades’, individual pharmacies and other small retailers. The 99Retailstreet solution helps the ‘Unorganised Retail’ to compete on an equal footing with ‘Modern Trade’ (Supermarkets) through sales growth, access to and improved financial capabilities and increased business efficiencies across the value chain.

By August 2017, over 300 stores in Sri Lanka will be on the 99Retailstreet platform and this number is expected to increase significantly in coming months. The size of the addressable local market is approximately US$23 billion, spanning more than 100,000 outlets. There are also plans to enter other markets in South East Asia, Australia, Africa and Latin America in future.

This unprecedented growth trajectory has been buoyed by a recent investment round that raised US$ one million. The round was led by Sri Lanka-and Singapore-based venture capital firm Bovcapital.

99Retailstreet was founded jointly by Alok Jayant, Joydeep Dutt and Sandeep Mahapatra. A former Retail Lead for SAP in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, Jayant spent more than a decade at SAP. He is widely recognised as an Expert in Retail, having closed multi-million dollar deals while at SAP. With almost two decades in FMCG, Retail and Commodities, Dutt previously led the Sales Strategy Management Consulting Practice at Ernst and Young. He has also worked at Hindustan Unilever and Accenture in markets in India and South East Asia. A Director of SAP Consulting Services in his previous role, where he was responsible for the South Indian and Sri Lankan markets, Mahapatra had built the SAP Sri Lanka business from the ground up, into a multi-million dollar entity. He has earned very strong relationships at board levels across most of the large companies in Sri Lanka. A 20-year veteran in IT and Retail, Mahapatra’s deep expertise is enhanced by his time at IBM, HCL and Accenture in prior stints.

“99Retailstreet has a large growing customer base of unorganised retailers and an Eco-system comprising of Market Leaders across FMCG, Pharma, Telco, Banking and Financial Services Industry. We have built the capability to address the requirements of the Sri Lankan market. The neutrality of the 99Retailstreet platform and the constant value added to our customers and the Ecosystem, along with our constant innovation and ability to adapt, has resulted in success in a short period,” noted 99Retailstreet’s founders.

The 99Retailstreet solution provides unorganised retailers with an integrated Point of Sales (POS) machine and payment systems in their stores connected to the 99Retailstreet Cloud. The POS machine has two Screens, the first screen hosts a user-friendly multilingual interface for the retailer to access retail transactions and reports, while the second screen allows real-time, location and context dependent advertisement, promotions and loyalty programmes for brand owners such as FMCG companies, Banks, Telcos and other advertisers with two-way communication possibilities. The latter gives 99Retailstreet’s brand owners and Eco-system Partners an unprecedented opportunity to communicate and develop Customer Experience at the level of an individual end-consumer.

The 99Retailstreet platform enables real time monitoring of store-specific sales, inventory and back-end solutions, enabling small businesses to access analytics on sales data, loyalty programmes and other marketing-centric information, as and when required.

Established to invest in, and work closely with, early-stage ventures in Sri Lanka, Bovcapital funds ventures in the range of US$100,000 to Us$2million. With a significant amount of local experience, the founders of BOV Capital have invested in over 20 ventures in Sri Lanka over the last five years, having been instrumental in developing the Sri Lankan entrepreneurial Eco-system and, as such, providing valuable advice based on an in-depth understanding of Sri Lanka’s unique working environment.

BOV Capital General Partner Prajeeth Balasubramaniam commented that “our experience in the local Eco-system has helped 99Retailstreet not only get the funding they need, it has also aided them in securing a number of valuable client partnerships, to fast-track their business growth in Sri Lanka. Our hands-on approach, in terms of providing advice and even access to local networks, has undoubtedly facilitated the best opportunities for ventures like 99Retailstreet.”