It is with need that an innovation comes to life. Jasmit Thind, an engineer from Mumbai who had worked in FMCG industry realized the unorganized nature of non-FMCG retailers. Through his job as a brand manager, he explored industries like fashion, electronics and lifestyle which was unstructured mainly because they worked on credit and their reach was limited to physical stores.
Jasmit then discussed about the situation with his friends- Mahima Kaul and Vinit Jain in early 2016. They identified the key roadblocks and pledged to mend them. Their main idea was to enable local sellers to have a wide market.
Jasmit says, “We wanted to standardize the sector, and create a proper supply chain for retailers for sourcing products and creating an online channel for them to grow their business.”
After extensive research and creating technology, the trio was ready to launch CoutLoot website in mid-2016, as a pilot. Their main operations began in 2017 where they enabled the sellers to present their products online.
The startup created an offline-to-online platform which helped to sell online by automatically listing their offline inventory and facilitating logistics, payment and reconciliation support.
The startup did not force the retailers to completely get digital but rather created an integrated platform of offline buyer-seller behaviors. It also had the option of meet-and-buy which made its services more convenient.
What sets CoutLoot apart is that it has an in-house language translator which allows the seller to interact with the buyer in their preferred language out of 12 options available on their platform. The startup has also partnered with 15 delivery enterprises like Delhivery, India Post and DHL among others.
The company has raised $200,000 in its seed round and $1 million in its pre Series A funding round. CoutLoot now employees over 70 employees and three lakh sellers on its platform. They aim to bring 25 million offline sellers on their digital platform for the first time in their lives.