Its emerging competitor in the Indian quick commerce enablement market, Inamo, is currently said to be raising ₹50 crore to support its infrastructure and technology. This is a step into a market where unprecedented growth has occurred in the rapid delivery sector due to the shift by this sector from a niche service to a main channel of consumption among urban households.

Inamo plans to fill the operational gaps between the brands and the dominant quick commerce platforms in the current market by establishing itself as an independent layer of infrastructure. This capital inflow is likely to help the company operate high-velocity supply chains and offer a seamless plug-and-play business model to companies that want to join the ten-minute delivery revolution.

Core strength and technology model

Inamo has the strength of its leadership team that is composed of vast experience from other successful logistics and product-based companies in India. The startup was founded in 2024 by Sumit Anand, who worked as the Vice President at Dunzo, and Rupesh Thakare, the product head at ApnaKlub, both of whom co-founded the company after gaining an insight into the intricacies of the last-mile delivery and localized fulfillment.

Their expertise combined has enabled Inamo to develop a complete full-stack solution to leverage the known pain points of dark store management. The founders have used their experiences in scaling processes at leading tech companies to make Inamo a key collaborator to brands that do not have the internal capabilities to fulfill the high volume of instant commerce.

Inamo is an end-to-end enablement platform that delivers both the physical infrastructure and software intelligence to flourish in the quick commerce ecosystem. It has a business model based on the provision of dark store management solutions, dedicated last-mile fleets, and a powerful technology stack to FMCG companies, D2C brands, and established retail platforms.

Essentially, the startup operates as an outsourced operational partner, enabling brands to enter platforms such as Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy Instamart without the capital-intensive investments that an organization would incur in establishing its distribution centers. This Infrastructure-as-a-Service model is especially appealing to new brands that must expand rapidly across numerous urban geographies.

Capital utilization and operational reach

This ₹50 crore target funding is a big jump compared to the prior seed round, worth $3 million (approximately ₹26.5 crore), of the company, being led by Shastra VC and with the involvement of Antler India, Gemba Capital, and Scope Promoters. The new capital will be allocated to three main areas of development that include geographic expansion, technological development, and team building. Inamo will expand its dark stores footprint in addition to the existing presence in 6 metro cities.

The company plans to increase its coverage and faster delivery time to its partners by increasing its number of dark stores to more than 50. Part of the fund will be allocated to the enhancement of its inventory management algorithms and automatic replenishing mechanisms, which are essential to the achievement of the high stock-keeping unit (SKU) accuracy demanded by the on-demand commerce.

Inamo fundraise is well timed concerning the overall trends in the Indian e-commerce market. The quick commerce market in India is predicted to expand to $40 billion by the year 2030, as per the industry analysis, which shows that the market will grow by 2024 to a $6.1 billion. This is a growth rate of 37% compounded annually (CAGR), almost twice that of the conventional e-commerce market.

Due to the change of consumer behavior to the comfort of immediate gratification, the number of customer requests for the enablement services with specific applications is soaring. Although the market is currently ruled by giants that shipped products worth more than ₹64,000 crore during the previous fiscal year, there exists a huge secondary market of specialized players, such as Inamo who supplies the plumbing behind the services.

Inamo has a significant presence in big metropolitan locations and uses a special fleet of last-mile logistics to make sure that the “last mile-delivery is as efficient as the logistics in the warehouse. Using services outsourced and proprietary technology tools, Inamo has developed a sustainable revenue model that increases with the number of orders handled.

This allows the startup to be an independent layer, where it collaborates with various platforms and is not tied to one platform, unlike its competitors. This impartiality enables Inamo to be an all-purpose utility to the whole industry, assisting brands to have a steady presence on all of the competing quick commerce apps as well as streamlining their inventory in one, well-regulated site.

Conclusion

The ₹50 crore of new capital that Inamo is seeking is a landmark in the journey of the startup to establish itself as an infrastructural component in the quick commerce sector in India. The company is in effect derisking itself due to the excessive marketing wars of consumer-facing apps by just concentrating on the enablement aspect of the business, and still enjoying the success that comes with it. Inamo has a leadership that appreciates the subtleties of Indian logistics and a market that is growing at an astounding rate and is, therefore, well placed to realign the way brands engage with the digital economy.

With the expansion of its dark store network and an upgraded technology, the startup has the potential to become a key factor behind turning the ten-minute delivery into a regular expectation by the consumer nationwide, further cementing the shift to a traditional retail format and on-demand commerce.