Zovi gets a funding boost, launches O2O app Little

Zovi has raised 50 million dollars in funding (over Rs 300 crores) in a round led by Paytm and new undisclosed investor along with existing investors SAIF Partners and Tiger Global Management. The company has also launched ‘Little’, an app format marking its foray into online to offline (O2O) market.

A company statement states, Little aims to be a lifestyle deals marketplace. The app-only format will use the funds to build a merchant ecosystem in the country, hire senior level talent and build new technology to focus on the Indian O2O market expected to be worth 64 billion dollars (around 40,000 crores) by 2016. The venture would offer over 50,000 live deals across 11 cities by March 2016. The company is already 400 people strong with strengths in technology, product and operations and expects to build a 1,000 persons team by March next year.

The app-only marketplace will provide real-time hyper-local deals to customers across services like, restaurants, movies, hotels, salons, gyms, spas and other services while creating a platform for merchants to market their services. Little has seen has already enrolled over 5,000 merchants in 11 cities across India and aims to achieve a GMV run rate of 170 million dollars (over Rs 1,000 crores), by March 2016.

Zovi will continue to focus on strengthening its fashion offerings with a special attention to men's fashion.