Omnichannel Mobile Phone Retail Brand Gabbardeals Secures Funding from Venture Catalysts

Venture Catalysts, India’s first, largest and pioneering integrated incubator and accelerator platform, has recently invested in Gabbardeals, an omnichannel O2O platform for mobile phones and accessories. The latest funding will allow Gabbardeals to ramp up its operations, expand services and forge new partnerships.

Founded by industry expert & serial entrepreneur Niraj Raka, and co-founded by seasoned professional Poonam Gugale and Piyush Raka, Gabbardeals is committed to transforming the billion-dollar unorganized mobile retail space. The company works on a unique phygital (physical + digital) model that combines the advantages of both offline and online retail, creating a win-win situation for all players – brand, retailer and consumer. The USP of Gabbardeals is that it synergizes offline and online retail to offer fast, seamless delivery of products while bringing down the customer acquisition cost for retailers.

Sharing his insights, Niraj Raka, Founder and CEO, Gabbardeals, commented, “When customers purchase a phone from an e-commerce platform, it takes at least 24 hours for the phone to get delivered. Taking into account the supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 crisis, the delivery can even get delayed by a few days. Through Gabbardeals, however, customers will get their hands on the brand new phone within two hours. We have made this possible by bridging the gap between online and offline retailers. This way Gabbardeals helps e-commerce platforms to cut down their logistics costs and offline stores to acquire a larger customer base.” Bhavesh Solanki who has joined Gabbardeals will be targeting 10000+ Mobile phone sellers to sell on our platform.

Talking about the investment, he added, “We now have the cash runaway to scale our operations, develop technology and achieve sustainable growth.”

Speaking on the investment, Dr Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, Founder, Venture Catalysts, said, “Within a short span of time, Gabbardeals has emerged as a promising player in the mobile retail space. Their omnichannel approach has proven to be effective and profitable, which gives them a winning advantage. This is besides the fact that all the co-founders of Gabbardeals are dynamic leaders and have shown exceptional growth in their own capacities. We are confident that it will fulfil its vision of becoming the fastest-growing omnichannel platform for mobile phones in India and globally.”

Speaking on the occasion, lead investor Tharun Dhariwal of Dhariwal Group, said, "Brands and Customers are discovering channel for Online and Offline with regards to Price and Service respectively. Gabbardeals will be connecting chain through O2O model with the traditional retailers. We are confident on the growth of Gabbardeals with many hands joining together for the fortune of our nation. Standalone shops will be getting a new life in the current E-commerce industry. During this COVID-19 pandemic situation, Gabbardeals is the only hope to provide support many small/medium retailers to double their business."

Aalesh Avlani - Partner, Samyakth Capital said, ‘’ After speaking to a lot of mobile retailers in the market we realized that these retailers struggle with customer acquisition costs & a lack of technology. Gabbardeals has perfectly positioned itself to be a blend of traditional retail and ecommerce by empowering these mobile retailers address these challenges. The Asset-light business model of Gabbardeals will allow them to scale with minimal burn and help them focus on being profitable at a unit-economic level, a theme that has been made more prevalent post the COVID-19 pandemic’’

With a widespread presence spanning across India, Gabbardeals has already established a strong footprint in both metros and small towns. So far, it has tied up with 30+ mobile phone franchise stores. Gabbardeals has sold 26,000+ mobile phones and 17,000+ accessories, registering a gross merchandise volume (GMV) of over Rs 50 crore.