Deligram Acquires Shopway, Pivots Focus to B2B
Deligram started its journey in 2017 with the goal of taking eCommerce to the mass consumers of Bangladesh via the 1.2m informal mom & pop shops, locally referred to as “mudir dokans.”
Over the past 3 years, our company has raised $2.5m USD in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from investors across Silicon Valley, New York & Singapore.
Today, we are excited to share that Deligram has acquired Shopway — a startup focused on digitizing the B2B trade between retailers & distributors across Bangladesh’s multi-billion dollar FMCG industry. Shopway Founder & Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Firoz Uddin Ahmed will be joining Deligram as Chief Operating Officer (COO). Firoz has previously worked with consumer goods distribution at Unilever and has a Business Administration and Supply Chain degree.
Shopway was founded in 2018 with a hyperlocal model that allowed consumers to order from their nearest mudir dokans & get deliveries within an hour. The startup raised an angel round of funding and graduated from the GP Accelerator program.
Both of our companies had initially been focusing on the B2C segment of reaching end-consumers from the retailers. Shopway eventually came to the same realization as us at Deligram — the mudir dokan retail infrastructure desperately needs a digital transformation in its supply chain — from FMCG companies to distributors to retailers. Without which, it is impossible to digitize the last mile between retailers & consumers.
Over the past 3 years, we’ve delivered more than 100,000 orders while maintaining an extremely high Net Promoter Score (NPS) & overwhelmingly positive Facebook review. We’ve won the “eCommerce Platform of the Year 2019” by Bangladesh Brand Forum, been featured on Techcrunch as the “Amazon of Bangladesh” & scaled up to $2m USD in Annualized Run Rate (ARR) all within 12 months of launching. But the capital intensive nature of B2C eCommerce & the socio-economic impacts of COVID on the consumer market has led us to decide to narrow down our focus on a leaner & cashflow positive model. As a result, we have scaled down our B2C marketplace model to prioritize building out our B2B vertical.
The post-COVID impact has seen strong adoption of smartphones & mobile internet in the informal retail economy of Bangladesh. As the economy recovers, all businesses are looking to come out of this stronger & much more efficient. Adapting to our digital distribution solution allows brands, distributors & retailers to tap into the digital transformation taking place.
Based on new features that are being rolled out to users, customers on the Deligram App are be able to find a Deligram Retailer nearby & place their weekly grocery orders via our app or simply over WhatsApp chat.
Collectively, our technology & operation teams to continue to roll out our application to thousands of distributors across Bangladesh, thereby serving hundreds of thousands of retailers. In addition to our current product roadmap, the coming weeks will see some exciting product launches to continue facilitating the growth of small businesses across Bangladesh.
“The digital startup industry in Bangladesh is growing at an unprecedented rate. In order to tap into the full potential of this growth we must join forces when we are traveling in the same direction,” said Mahjabin Ferdous Sharna, angel investor in Shopway.
Sonia Bashir Kabir, Founder of SBK Tech Ventures & investor in Deligram mentioned, “I am proud of Deligram as they have successfully navigated through the shock waves of Covid — 19. Deligram remained nimble and pivoted to face the challenges brought forth by this pandemic. The team held on to a strong company culture and a united sense of purpose which has been invaluable in helping Deligram to embrace a B2B model.”
“Congratulations Deligram for acquiring Shopway, one of the best teams I’ve worked with in the last year through GP Accelerator. I think combining the best of forces will bring speed to the post-covid new wave of digital transformation that is indeed hitting the corner shops. This acquisition is indeed a great precedence for other startups in the ecosystem as well. I believe the B2B distribution focus is the right way to go,” said Minhaz Anwar, who has worked closely with the Shopway team.
We’re grateful to all of our customers, investors & team members for their belief in the work that we do. We look forward to continue building tools with technology that transform the retail economy of Bangladesh.
