Shotang, a B2B marketplace based in Bengaluru, India, is out to change how retailers buy goods from distributors and manufacturers. Last month, it announced it had received $5 million in funding to further develop its software and staff in order to better help client companies transact business online.

“Shotang automates the process which has so far been reliant on the feet-on-the-street model,” Shailesh Ghorpade, managing partner and chief information officer of India-based investment firm Exfinity Venture Partners, says in an India Times article posted on Shotang’s Facebook and LinkedIn pages.

Exfinity is covering $3 million of the $5 million investment, Shruti Ghatge, an analyst at Exfinity, tells B2BecNews. The other $2 million in funding is from Unitus Impact, based in San Francisco.

Shotang, which is owned by Sobonka Technologies Pvt. Ltd., has operated online since 2013 and has worked with some 50,000 client retailers and more than 130 suppliers, it says on its website, Shotang.com.

The company says it plans to let retailers and suppliers connect through Shotang with a broad range of providers of trading services, including logistics and e-payments. “Shotang’s vision is to become a master distribution platform with various plug-ins for logistics partners, payment solutions, credit solutions, ERP and supply chain software, where manufacturers can use the platform to deal directly with the retailers, thereby making the supply chain efficient,” Ghatge says. ERP, or enterprise resource planning software, includes applications for managing such business operations as inventory, customer accounts and financial accounting.

Shotang earns revenue by charging suppliers on Shotang.com a monthly fee of 2000 rupees (US$30.04), plus 1% of the value of each transaction.

Shotang was co-founded by Anterpreet Singh, a former executive at consumer packaged goods manufacturer Proctor & Gamble and mobile technology company Nokia; and Anish Basu Roy, a former executive of Nokia and The Coca-Cola Co.

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