Yebhi.com lags behind, struggles to remain in the biz

As speculated by experts, as competition to remain ahead in the e-commerce business is

getting aggressive, smaller players are either shutting shop or merging their business to remain in the race. Five-year-old Yebhi.com is already proving to be one such example.

Sources inform that the e-tailer is finding it difficult to pay its employees as well as suppliers and vendors for the last seven-eight months. On the other hand, rumour is that Yebhi is restructuring its business to bounce back with fresh perspective. The venture is said to be struggling to raise funds. The company started as an online footwear store in 2009, but changed its model in 2011 to sell fashion and apparels and then became a marketplace.

In April this year, Nitin Agarwal and Rajul Jain, co-founders of the company, run by Gurgaon-based Big Shoe Bazaar India put in their papers to launch their own separate ventures. The company was said to be in talks with the PE investors to raise its fourth round of funding worth 30 million dollars (over Rs 180 crores). After failing to secure the fourth round funding earlier, the platform had gone for a bridge round of 12 million dollars (over Rs 70 crores) from its existing investors earlier this year.

Last year, the company managed to get funds through Series C of Rs 100 crores led by Fidelity Growth Partners India and Qualcomm Ventures along with existing investors Nexus Venture Partners and Catamaran Ventures—the private investment arm of Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy. And before that it had raised around Rs 50 crores in two rounds – once in 2011 led by Catamaran Ventures, which infused Rs 40 crore and in 2010, it had raised its Series A worth Rs 10 crore from Nexus Venture Partners.