From Apple Orchards & Army Service to Transforming India's Kirana Market by Jumbotail

A Meeting of Two Different Worlds

Ashish Jhina and S. Karthik Venkateswaran met as classmates at Stanford University (MBA class of 2011). Their backgrounds could not have been more contrasting. Ashish, a Himachal Pradesh native, is a third generation apple farmer and ex-consultant at Boston Consulting Group(BCG) with strong agriculture and supply chain focus. Karthik, on the other hand, served in the Indian Army in brutal combat and then moved into product roles at big marketplaces including flipkart and eBay (US).

While many were chasing the B2C grocery boom in India, the duo chose a counterintuitive path: to build a B2B, tech-enabled wholesale marketplace that would serve India's ~12-14 million kirana (small retail grocery) stores. In their own words, they asked: "Why are so many kiranas underserved by modern logistics, product access, and technology?" and decided to build the stack themselves.

Launching jumbotail: The Bold Bet

Established in November 2015, Jumbotail emerged as a full-stack marketplace supply chain and fintech platform for food & grocery wholesale. 

The founding premise was straightforward but ambitious: to link FMCG brands and producers to kirana stores through a digital platform, bundled with in-house logistics and credit services. Ashish explains that in every commerce transaction, there are three flows—information (product, pricing), goods (physical), and money—and unless all three are addressed, the solution fails.

The results began to show: by 2016-17, they began scaling across Bengaluru (their base), building warehouses, setting up delivery operations, and onboarding both brands and stores. Their differentiator: not just a marketplace, but in-house fulfilment and last-mile delivery tailored for kirana stores.

The Founders' Roles & Strengths

Ashish Jhina (Co-Founder & COO): As COO, Ashish oversees operations, supply chain, fintech for kiranas, and brand partnerships. His background in consulting, agriculture, and supply chain gives him a unique practical lens.
S. Karthik Venkateswaran (Co-Founder & CEO): Karthik leads vision, product, tech, and scaling. His marketplace product experience (from Flipkart/eBay) equips him to think about platform economics and tech design.

Together they merged engineering & field realities—Ashish bringing the ground knowledge of kirana + supply chain, Karthik bringing product & platform design.

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Growth, Funding & Scaling Milestones

Jumbotail's growth has been impressive and well-documented:
In June 2019, they raised ₹90 crore (~US$12-13m) in a Series B round to expand the supply chain, integrate PoS systems, and onboard brands.
In December 2021, they raised US$85 million in a Series C round led by Artal Asia/Invus, bringing total funds to ~US$125 million.
By June 2025, they announced a US$120 million Series D led by SC Ventures (Standard Chartered's innovation arm), and completed the acquisition of Solv India, bringing total funding to ~US$263 m.

Milestone metrics: In the 2021 press release, Jumbotail claimed to have connected ~2,000 FMCG brands and ~150,000 kirana stores across 38 cities using its full-stack model.

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What Sets Jumbotail Apart

The founders stress a few unique elements:

• Ground-up understanding: They go to the ground to "deeply understand our users [kirana owners]" and then build tech or operations around their needs.Full-stack
• operations + tech: Unlike many marketplaces that rely solely on third-party logistics, they built their own network and paired it with data science and category management.
• Focus on kiranas: Most start-ups chase consumers; Jumbotail targeted the unorganised retail backbone (kiranas), which 95%+ rol 95%+ of India's food & grocery market.
• New Retail ambition: They also launched the "J24" convenience store brand – transforming kiranas into modern omni-channel stores within 24-48 hours using their tech stack.

Challenges and the Path to Execution

• Transforming the kirana ecosystem is far from easy. The founders and the company faced and are facing:
• Logistics complexity: Food & grocery items are low-margin, high-volume, and frequently replenished. Building in-house logistics across India is capital and operationally intensive.
• Credit & fintech needs: Small kirana stores often face working capital constraints—Jumbotail built fintech solutions to enable them.
• Brand onboarding & platform economics: Convincing FMCG brands to use the platform, managing inventory/returns, and category management at scale.
• Profitability pressure: The B2B wholesale space faces margin pressure and high cap intensity. The founders have publicly stated their aim to achieve operational profitability by the end of 2024.
• Tech meets offline: Bridging a deeply offline world (kirana stores) with digital workflows, POS integration, mobile apps (multi-lingual), and offline delivery.

Their consistent message: build from the ground up, be tech-led but operations-anchored. Karthik said they focused on solving the demand side first (kirana stores) and then the supply/brand side.

Why Their Story Matters

The Jumbotail founder story is significant because:

• It shows how two founders with quite different backgrounds (agriculture & consulting + army/product tech) came together to solve a massive but overlooked market (kirana stores).
• It draws attention to the scale of opportunity in B2B wholesale for emerging markets—India's kirana stores alone represent a multi-hundred-billion dollar market.
• Their approach of combining tech, logistics, fintech, and offline operations offers a blueprint for how digital platforms can integrate with traditional retail.
• Their funding trajectory and growth reflect investor confidence in deep-tech plus supply-chain plays—something often dominated by consumer-facing start-ups.
• The society-impact side: helping small retailers modernise, offering consumers easier access to brands, and contributing to jobs and the local economy.

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The Road Ahead: Vision & Next Steps

Looking ahead, the founders of Jumbotail aim to:

• Scale further: With the 2025 funding and Solv acquisition, they plan to serve over 500,000 small retailers across 400+ cities/towns.
• Expand beyond food & grocery: Via the Solv deal, they're entering other categories (apparel, footwear, home-furnishing) and becoming a horizontal B2B platform.
• Deepen AI & data-science: Investing in AI-native capabilities to optimise sourcing, category management, and retailer activation.
• Achieve profitability: Use operational scale, technology leverage, and tighter unit economics to turn profitable while still serving small retailers.
• Retail transformation at the store level: Strengthen the J24 network and offer end-to-end transformation for kirana stores—digitise POS, inventory, loyalty, and online-offline integration.

Brand partnerships & go-to-market services: For FMCG brands to reach India's consumers via the kirana store network efficiently and measurably.

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