Karnataka-based start-up VilCart has raised Rs 144 crore ($18 million) in a Series A round led by Asia Impact. The funding round also saw participation from National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) backed equity fund Nabventures and Texterity.

The rural commerce start-up will be using the funds to scale operations across the country, according to regulatory documents filed with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

The company’s board passed a special resolution to issue 68,761 Series A and 405 Series A1 compulsory convertible preference shares (CCPS) at an issue price of Rs 15,411.6 per share. 

It also passed a resolution to convert the unsecured loan of Test Yantra into 7,786 equity shares, which is about Rs 12 crore. 
Asia Impact has invested Rs 91.96 crore in the round, followed by Nabventures, which pumped in Rs 14 crore. Texterity infused Rs 62 lakh in the start-up. 

Asia Impact now holds a 31.28 per cent stake, while Nabventures, Test Yantra Solutions and Texterity own 12.36 per cent, 3.18 per cent and 0.17 per cent stake respectively. 

Founded by Prasanna Kumar, Mahesh Bhat, Rajasekhar, and Amith S Mali in 2017, VilCart offers a one-stop solution for rural brick-and-mortar stores, ranging from procuring inventory to managing supply chain operations. 

The start-up currently operates across Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.

In November 2021, it up raised Rs 15 crore in a seed round.