UpScalio raises $15 million in funding led by Gulf Islamic Investments

UpScalio marks GII’s sixth investment from its second Indian growth fund launched in 2021.

The investment comes less than a year after the startup announced that it
raised $42.5 million in August, last year led by Presight Capital.

The news about Upscalio’s investment comes at a time when the roll-up commerce space in India is caught up in intense competition. Last year, rival Mensa Brands recently
entered India’s unicorn club, valued at more than $1 billion within six months of launch, after it raised $135 million in a new funding round led by Alpha Wave Ventures (Falcon Edge Capital). 10club also
raised $40 million in one of the largest seed rounds in June, last year.

Even Thrasio, the US-based company that pioneered the model of acquiring private brands on Amazon and scaling them up, has announced plans to enter India, and
looks to invest $500 million to scale its presence in the country.

Gurugram-based Upscalio which was founded in April 2021, acquires stakes in high growth ecommerce brands that sell on Amazon, Flipkart, other marketplaces, and then works closely with founders to scale these brands multi-folds.

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“GII team’s global experience in ‘buy and build’ across industries will be immensely helpful as we aggregate and scale ecommerce brands. We will utilize this fundraise to partner with more brands, to invest in hiring across key growth functions, and to build out other technology and growth capabilities,” said Gautam Kshatriya, cofounder and chief executive officer (CEO), UpScalio.

Over the last 9 months, UpScalio claims to have built a portfolio of 13 brands across utility categories such as home, kitchen, furniture, auto accessories and gardening.

It also claims that its current annualized gross merchandise value (GMV) run rate is already at over Rs 300 crore from its existing brands portfolio.

“UpScalio’s core focus on operating brands in all-weather utility categories is differentiated from similar modeled businesses in India and globally. We have been thoroughly impressed with the UpScalio team’s ability to integrate companies and create value across digital marketing, product development, pricing, supply chain and deep analytics,”said Mohammed Alhassan, cofounder and co-CEO of Gulf Islamic Investments.

UpScalio has also built a team of over 120 specialists across functions which have the necessary experience in scaling ecommerce Indian companies, the company said.