BIKAYI- ENABLING SMB TO BLITZ THE E-COMMERCE MARKET

Shopify is a term almost synonymous to an e-commerce platform, whenever you think of one. Its market dominance across the globe is far-reaching, but in India, with widely spread small and medium-sized enterprises operating at smaller scales, Shopify as a platform was impractical. This pain point was witnessed by Sonakshi Nathani, co-founder of Bikayi, when her family-run grocery store was operating through WhatsApp, and facing the inevitable problem of keeping track of the orders and their fulfillment. This was where the idea of Bikayi was sown. Reaching out to her classmate from IIIT-H, Ashutosh Singla, and after thorough research of the market, Bikayi was born.

In the majority of the States in India, commerce primarily operates via Whatsapp, and Bikayi aims to ease the cumbersome, manual affairs of this management regardless of whether it’s a grocery store, wholesaler, manufacturer, retailer, restaurant, or a bakery. Launched in April 2019, Bikayi offers a free subscription of up to 500 products, and a premium subscription which ranges from Rs. 2999 to Rs. 7999 annually with additional features such as discount promo generation & analytics access. 

With COVID-19 wreaking havoc on businesses, Bikayi has managed to thrive with the accelerated growth of 125% month on month. In 2020, the Hyderabad-based startup raised $2 million in a seed funding round from International investors such as Mantis Ventures, Y Combinator, Pioneer Fund, and other angels. Y Combinator, an American-based seed startup accelerator seeks a large number of potential startups twice a year across the world, and provides seed funding to them, while also guiding the founders refine their pitches to future investors and acquirers. Notable Indian startups who made it to the list this year are Khatabook, ClearTax, Meesho, and Razorpay. YC has provided seed funding & help launch companies like Stripe, Airbnb, Reddit, Twitch, Dropbox, and Coinbase.

Y Combinator is accepting applications from startups for the Summer 2021 funding cycle. It will take place from June–August 2021

Adapting to the pandemic, YC has gone remote: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ 

Owing to the pandemic, multiple mom-and-pop stores have adopted this platform, and the start-up has plans to venture into emerging international markets, taking the app globally. With the new normal, Bikayi hopes to blitz the SMB market and make them digital in a seamless manner.

Explore Bikayi and download the app from Google Play Store today!