At Gajab, we are building India’s first AI-powered bargaining marketplace for value-seeking shoppers and ambitious sellers.
If you grew up haggling in bazaars and believe online shopping has become boring and one-sided, you are our people. We are not building yet another discount app. We are rebuilding the bazaar for Tier 2/3 India, where every deal is earned, every rupee saved matters, and both buyers and sellers feel in control.
<aside> <img src="/icons/map-pin-alternate_yellow.svg" alt="/icons/map-pin-alternate_yellow.svg" width="40px" />
If you like real problems, messy markets, and seeing your work show up in actual orders, this is the place.
</aside>
Shahnawaz in the center and all of us!
Shahnawaz, our founder, is a school dropout turned seller. He started selling used industrial automation parts on eBay USA in 2015. What began as an experiment from Gujarat is now Aeliya Marine Tech, Asia’s largest stockist of industrial automation and marine spares, with 175,000+ SKUs, 100+ people, and top-seller status across eBay Southeast Asia.
Gajab started from a very different experience. Years ago, being a true trader, Shahnawaz helped a friend liquidate old out-of-production Motorola phones on eBay India. More than 100 phones sold in 2–3 days. That experience showed him the raw power of online marketplaces when price, speed, and trust line up. Then eBay India shut after the Flipkart deal. The “auction + bargain” experience disappeared. New marketplaces felt like closed clubs, with fixed prices, heavy commissions, little to no interaction, and a lack of respect for small sellers.
As a seller, he has closed more than 10,000 bargains in B2B life and knows how much dopamine, pride, and fun a good bargain creates. Online, that feeling was gone.
Gajab is Shahnawaz’s attempt to fix that. The idea is simple: build a fair, transparent marketplace “by India, for India” where bargaining is the core feature, not a hack. Buyers can use their skills to get a better deal and feel smart. Sellers get direct access to customers, clear data, and a platform that does not treat them like an afterthought. No hidden fees, no ad mafia, no one-way control.
Today, Gajab is a 25-person, bootstrapped team in Mumbai, focused on taking this bazaar experience online for Tier 2/3 India. The app is in pre-launch. The playbook does not exist. Most of what we do is zero-to-one: testing the product, building supply from local wholesaler markets, and proving that “desi bargaining” can work safely and at scale online. If you want to help write that playbook and shape how millions of Indians shop, this is the stage to join.
Gajab Didi bargaining with Gajab Bhaiya for the best price
Gajab is a g-commerce (gamified commerce) platform where bargaining is the core experience. Buyers do not just “Add to cart” and pray for a coupon. They see a price, make an offer, negotiate, and close a deal that feels fair.
The process is structured, safe, and backed by clear rules on payments, shipping, returns, and refunds.
For sellers, Gajab is a seller-friendly marketplace: transparent fees, direct buyer communication, control over pricing and logistics, and access to a large base of value-conscious customers from Tier 2/3 cities. We want the bigger wholesalers and the small D2C brands to compete on product and service, not on who can spend more on ads.
Day to day, this means building: