New Delhi, March 6 (IANS): Rural e-commerce startup Rozana on Wednesday announced that it has received $22.5 million in the latest funding round.

The round was led by the investment firm Bertelsmann India Investments (BII) with participation from the VC firm Fireside Ventures and existing investors.

"With this funding, we will continue building out our logistics and supply chain infrastructure to reach new districts and empower rural communities with access to essential products," Ankur Dahiya, CEO and Co-founder of Rozana, said in a statement.

The company said that the new capital will be used to expand Rozana’s warehousing and logistics reach into new districts, enhance its technology platform, and boost hiring across technology, product and operations teams.

"Rozana's focus on providing a wide range of products across categories in rural markets and the unique background of their founders make them well-poised to build a very successful business," said Kanwal Singh, Founder and Managing Partner, Fireside Ventures.

Rozana has a presence and operates across 13 districts spanning Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, facilitated by an extensive network of about 18,000 peer partners.

"The opportunity in rural India is greatly underappreciated and this team is the ideal one to unlock it," said Rohit Sood, Partner at Bertelsmann India Investments.

Founded in 2021 by Dahiya, Adwait Vikram Singh, Mukesh Christopher and Prithvi Pal Singh, Rozana operates an e-commerce platform and logistics network focused exclusively on serving the needs of rural communities in India.