Zithara.AI is digitising India’s offline retail, one store at a time

As the world races ahead with commerce and data-driven growth, India’s retail sector remains firmly rooted in physical stores. Small neighborhood stores, or Kiranas, remain central to Indian retail, especially in Tier II and III towns and rural areas.

Despite this vast and growing market, over 13 million retail outlets—from jewellers and wellness spas to electronic chains—still rely on spreadsheets, WhatsApp messages, and outdated billing systems to manage customer interactions. Zithara.AI is stepping in to change that. 

Founded in October 2022 by Sridevi Reddy and Varun Kashyap, Hyderabad-based Zithara.AI is an AI-native customer engagement platform designed for offline-first retailers—businesses that operate through brick-and-mortar stores but lack the digital infrastructure to build customer relationships beyond the point of sale.

The idea for Zithara was born from real-world frustrations. After spending years in the US tech industry and earning a master’s degree from the University of Colorado, Sridevi returned to India and started a retail business. She witnessed how traditional retailers were struggling to stay connected with their customers.

Meanwhile, Varun, a product strategist who worked with early-stage startups, noticed that retail clients had access to customer data, but lacked the tools to use it effectively. 

The two met in Hyderabad’s dynamic startup ecosystem. What started as a casual coffee chat evolved into a shared vision—to build a platform that brings the intelligence and automation of D2C tools to India’s offline-first retail world.

Together, they launched Zithara.AI to bring the intelligence and automation of D2C tools to the offline retail world.

The problem it solves

Unlike traditional CRMs that prioritise lead generation or online traffic, Zithara focuses on the in-person customer journey. The platform enables retailers to gather and activate insights from in-store visits, billing software, messaging platforms like WhatsApp and POS systems to create a centralised customer profile.

“Zithara offers a unified customer view and smart automation that’s intuitive to use. The goal is to help offline retailers move from transactional selling to relationship-driven growth—improving retention, increasing repeat purchases, and ultimately lowering customer acquisition costs,” Kashyap tells YourStory.

“We help businesses automate everyday interactions—nudging for Google reviews, collecting feedback, running loyalty programmes, and re-engaging inactive buyers—to build long-term relationships,” explains Kashyap.

One of Zithara’s standout features is its conversational AI agent, which automatically responds to WhatsApp messages and Google reviews, ensuring consistent communication without adding to a store owner’s workload. 

“Our platform also offers no-code automation, AI-powered segmentation, and pre-built templates—making personalised engagement simple, even for small retailers with limited tech expertise,” he adds.

A flexible, scalable model

Zithara operates on a B2B SaaS model, offering subscription-based pricing based on the features used—CRM, WhatsApp automation, or loyalty programmes. The pricing is designed to scale with the business, making it accessible to smaller shops while offering advanced capabilities for large-format retailers.

In less than two years, the platform has onboarded over 500 paying retail customers across India, spanning sectors like jewelry, wellness, fashion, and gourmet retail. Some of its notable clients include Bajaj Electronics, PMJ Jewels, Dodla Diary, Mangatrai Jewellers, Qmart, Meghavi Wellness, and others.

Zithara operates in a competitive space that includes global names like HubSpot and Zoho, as well as mobile-first platforms like MoEngage and CleverTap. However, its offline-first, India-specific approach sets it apart.

While others focus on online metrics and acquisition funnels, Zithara addresses the core operational realities of physical stores. It supports multilingual engagement, integrates with Indian POS systems, and behavioural triggers instead of static rules.

More importantly, it proactively suggests the next best customer action based on purchase patterns, store visits, and previous interactions.

With a team of 40 members, the company claims to have scaled rapidly over the past year, building deep capability across engineering, product, client success, marketing, and operations. 

A vision beyond India

The global artificial intelligence in retail market size was estimated at $11.61 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $40.74 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 23.0% from 2025 to 2030.

Zithara.AI has raised $500,000 in seed funding from notable HNIs and family offices, including founders and leaders from Darwinbox, Dodla Dairies, and Bajaj Electronics. The startup is incubated at SRIX (SR Innovation Exchange), Warangal. 

The company is now gearing up for international expansion. Pilot projects are already underway in the US, and expansion plans targeting Southeast Asia and the Middle East—regions where offline retail still thrives but remains digitally underserved.

In India, Zithara.AI is doubling down on high-growth verticals like jewellery, automotive, wellness, fashion, and electronics, while expanding across Tier I and Tier II cities. 

“Zithara.AI is on a mission to become the default customer engagement platform for offline-first retailers, both in India and globally,” says Kashyap. 

Speaking about challenges, Kashyap says, “Like many startups, we faced challenges in proving product-market fit and educating a traditional market. Convincing pen-and-paper retailers to adopt digital CRM tools was tough—many doubted the ROI. We addressed this through pilot programs and by building trust gradually. The process took longer than expected but pushed us to refine our product, improve onboarding, and focus on delivering clear, tangible value.”

The road ahead

A key focus for Zithara is scaling its field sales and onboarding teams to ensure faster go-lives and hands-on support for clients on the ground.

On the innovation front, the company is developing Zithara Copilot—a conversational analytics assistant that enables store owners to interact with their data using plain language. 

“With Copilot, questions like ‘Who’s likely to return this week?’ will be met with instant, AI-powered insights—bringing predictive intelligence to the shop floor, without the need for dashboards or data teams,” explains Kashyap.

The broader product roadmap includes further investment in AI-driven automation and optimisation tools, with conversational agents that can analyse campaign performance and autonomously refine engagement strategies. 

Zithara.AI is also enhancing its platform to support multi-location retail chains, offer more customised loyalty programmes, and integrate seamlessly with ERPs and commerce platforms—delivering a unified, omnichannel experience for modern physical retailers.