Exclusive: Industrybuying to raise $15M in Series A round from SAIF & others

Delhi-based MTech Engineering Pvt Ltd, which owns and operates industrial or B2B e-commerce platform industrybuying.com is set to raise $15 million (Rs 95 crore) in a Series A round of funding from existing investor SAIF Partners and other VCs, a top executive of the company told Techcircle.in.

The firm will use the money for geographical expansion and technology enhancement.

"Though we are currently supplying pan-India, we want to set up our offices in Mumbai, Pune and Chennai immediately. We will try and expand to Mumbai and Pune in the next two months and Chennai will happen after that," Swati Gupta, co-founder of the company, said.

The company had last raised $2 million from SAIF Partners in December and the announcement was made in February this year.

Industrybuying works on a zero inventory model sourcing products from its vendors and shipping to customers who orders through its site.

It claims to offer over 2 lakh products across categories such as safety and security, power tools, hand tools and electrical in its B2B e-commerce platform. Of these categories, electrical is the most prominent one with products such as MCB, switches, fuse, relay being the top sellers.

The company did not share transaction numbers but said that the average value of a purchase is Rs 3,000.

Besides its online platform, the startup also sells products ordered over the phone. The average ticket size of the transaction over phone is higher at Rs 13,000, it says.

Its omni-channel presence includes online (e-commerce) and offline (corporate) customers like Motherson Sumi, Havells, RPG, Honeywell, Siemens, Tata Power and Escorts.

The company was founded by Rahul and Swati Gupta (siblings) in 2013. Rahul has over 12 years of experience and was previously associated as a trader with Lehman Brothers. He completed his higher studies from Columbia University. Swati is an ex-Bain and Co employee and has 14 years of management consulting and private equity advisory experience in New York and India. She holds a graduate degree from Carnegie Mellon University.

From 500 brands in February, the platform has grown to over 800-1,000 brands now. Its supplier base has also grown from 1,000 to1800-2000 during the period under review. The company currently has around 3,000 customers including SMEs and industry buyers.

According to the duo, the addressable market is huge. The industrial sector forms 28 per cent of the GDP against retail that forms 14 per cent GDP.

According to Rahul, nobody in India was doing what Grainger.com and Amazonsupply.com have done in the US. The company noticed the gap and launched their e-commerce operations. They want to be for the industry what Flipkart or Snapdeal are for the consumers.

The company has partnered with third-party logistics firms such as Bluedart, Delhivery and IndiaPost for delivery of products.

It currently has 65 employees and plans to grow to 100 in the next two months.

Another venture in this space is Tolexo.com. Run by Tolexo Online Pvt Ltd, Tolexo is part of IndiaMART InterMESH Ltd, which runs an online B2B platform for small and medium businesses connecting global buyers with suppliers under the brand IndiaMART.

Tolexo was launched in August last year and is aggregating demand from construction, manufacturing, laboratory and hospitality companies, primarily for industrial goods. It has initiated talks to raise large funding.

Globally, Amazon launched its wholesale e-com property AmazonSupply three years ago. This came two years after Alibaba launched a new site for B2B e-com under 1688.com.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)