LoveLocal, a hyper-local retailer aggregator, has raised $18 million (Rs 143 crore) from Vulcan Capital, which was founded by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen. The fundraising round included participation from Alumni Ventures Group, Commerce Ventures, and angel investors such as Nami Zarringhalam, cofounder of Truecaller, and Sriram Krishnan, general partner of Andreessen Horowitz.

Blume Ventures, AC Ventures, HenkelX Ventures, and Chiratae Ventures were among the existing investors in the round. The company has raised approximately $30 million to date, including the most recent round.

LoveLocal, launched by Akanksha Hazari in 2020, serves local retailers with subscription-based software solutions and maintains a hyperlocal internet marketplace.

Subscriptions cost between Rs 1,000 and Rs 8,000. It concentrates on hyperlocal everyday necessities such as groceries, medicines, fresh fruits and vegetables, and dairy.

Since its beginning, the company claims to have expanded 40 times in transaction volume and now covers over 35 cities and 1,300 pin codes across India.

LoveLocal has signed up over 100,000 shops and fulfilled over 1 million orders in the previous 18 months. In the next three years, it hopes to onboard 1 million merchants.

The cash will be used to further product development, hire employees, and accelerate growth and expansion across India's tier 1-3 cities. Over the next 18 months, it will more than treble its current 90-person staff.

With food delivery app Swiggy entering the fight with its Instamart offering, the hyperlocal grocery and basics industry has experienced more competition this year. Other systems, such as Dunzo, Grofers, and BigBasket, which are supported by Google, are working to perfect the express delivery concept.

“The fundamental Achilles heel for all large players is that local retailers don't trust them,” Hazari said. “There's a massive trust issue because local retailers don't want to put their data with companies that have their own inventory, warehouses, dark stores, or their own potential storefronts," she said when asked about competition from large e-commerce and social commerce platforms. LoveLocal is in the process of partnering with some of the players with hyperlocal delivery ambitions “because they've seen that we can scale more efficiently and we have a larger product catalogue, so in the metros our role would be to actually help them.”

Tommy Teo, managing director at Vulcan Capital, said: “LoveLocal’s rapid growth in the past 18 months is a testament to the team’s singular focus on empowering local retailers and a demonstration of the resilience and relevance of the neighbourhood store in the daily lives of Indian homes across the country.”