Jumbotail is a retail tech start-up working in the food and grocery supply chain with an e-commerce platform backed by strong supply chain and payments capabilities. The company is building a brand new supply chain infrastructure from scratch, for wholesale food and grocery, working directly FMCG brands in the country as well as upcoming brands looking to build a large scale presence. In an interaction with Retail4Growth, Ashish Jhina - COO & Co-founder, Jumbotail, shares the company’s journey and the market dynamics.

Can you first tell us about the company Jumbotail and what led to its founding? The Vision? Any specific market observations that led to it?

Jumbotail was launched in November 2015, and started our operations in April 2016 with a vision of organising the food and grocery ecosystem in India using technology, data science and design. In the food and grocery ecosystem, both supply and demand are highly fragmented (there are over 10 million kiranas in India which account for 95%+ of food and grocery demand) and there is very little transparency on demand and pricing which leads to huge inefficiencies. We realised that the higher the quality of demand information, and the sooner the demand information is available to the ecosystem, the better the efficiency of supply chain, planning and replenishment. we believed that the time was ripe for solving these problems through a two-sided e-commerce platform backed by strong supply chain and payments capabilities. Jumbotail is the outcome of this effort by a highly motivated team of nearly 140 people over the last 3 years.

Who is your clientele? How many retailers do you work with? Can you explain a bit about your revenue model?

Jumbotail marketplace connects its customers (food and grocery retailers ranging from small kiranas to supermarkets) with brands and producers of staples and FMCG products through an android app available in Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi and English. The company uses its own network of fulfillment and distribution centres as well as its last mile delivery fleet - all powered by in-house supply chain technology built specifically for the unique requirements of food and grocery wholesale; to deliver orders placed on the Jumbotail app to the customers’ storefront within an average turnaround time of 24 hours with industry-best fill rates of 95%+. Jumbotail currently serves over 20000 kirana stores in Bangalore, Mysore and Tumkur, and a small pilot in Hyderabad.

How does the platform work?

Jumbotail marketplace platform provides kirana stores a convenient, trustworthy way of procuring their supplies. Jumbotail is a one stop shop for all their staples and FMCG needs. Kirana stores use the Jumbotail app to discover all relevant products and place order 24x from the comfort of their stores/house.

Jumbotail owns and operates entire supply chain network of warehouses, fulfilment centers, distribution centers and last mile storefront delivery. Store owners get a 24/48 hour storefront delivery and at the time of delivery, kirana store owners can pay using 6 different payment methods. Jumbotail offers world class customer service and great product quality.

Read the full interview in September 2019 Edition of Point-of-Purchase.

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