technology platform provider to small businesses in the last four years this venture which was spun off from a pilot project initiated at chip giant qualcomm has signed on 1500 retailers across three cities with ambitious plans to reach up to 20000 in the next two years the goal of our solution is to transform small retailers into a virtual supermarket he adds snapbizz wants to do this by organising small retailers inventory reducing excess stock using analytics and data mining and providing targeted advertising to brands according to kumar small retailers are getting to grips with some of the changing trends not just with the arrival and expansion of big box retailers but also the sharp growth of ecommerce too the next generation is more technologyaware than their parents who have built the business he contends with over 18000 retailers aboard and 21 million in funding from the likes of mangrove capital and axiata digital storeking is laying down the gauntlet to its rivals in this field it has also leveraged its experience dealing with disconnected small retailers to tieup with online commerce majors such as amazon and shopclues to aid their push into the hinterland our vision is to become indias largest retail company by 2018 says sridhar gundaiah ceo and founder of storeking we want to become the final frontier we hope to reach 500 million people in a couple of years the company will lean on its growing network specifically in the hinterland to drive growth and is building up a nationwide presence we have a strong foothold in tier2 and tier3 cities in karnataka kerala tamil nadu andhra pradesh telangana gujarat maharashtra goa and madhya pradesh he adds we are also working on establishing ourselves in rajasthan and orissa kirana concerns merely digitising small retailers may solve only one part of the puzzle according to other entrepreneurs these kirana stores are blighted by other issues too for example the supply chain feeding these units is broken with under a third of them having access to the distribution network with the rest leaning on an informal arrangement with wholesalers to stock their stores anurag agrawal founder of stockin is bridging the gap these retailers face and hopes to narrow the stockouts they routinely suffer from the company works with retailers to assess and monitor their stocks and has set up two distribution hubs to help them restock their wares primarily across grocery hardware and pharmacy more quickly than through the legacy distribution system we are creating a new framework for distribution for the small retailer he says they are under served by the current subpar system and we think we can sign up with up to 20000 stores in two years across mumbai and indore to tap this demand not everyone thinks these businesses are yet onto a winning idea in a muted investment climate investors are wary of this opportunity many ventures have come and gone trying to build businesses around small retailers startups