Industrybuying raises Rs 12 crore in debt financing from Trifecta Capital

Delhi-based B2B ecommerce player Industrybuying has raised Rs 12 crore from venture-debt provider Trifecta Capital. The platform will use the investment for working capital and also drive growth in the enterprise arm of Industrybuying.

“The Enterprise arm is an arrangement between Industrybuying and enterprises where special rates are negotiated for procurement of products. Enterprises get access to these special rates through the Enterprise portal which is a tailored version of Industrybuying.com specifically created for that particular Enterprise,” explains Swati Gupta, Co-founder of Industrybuying.

Launched in 2013 by siblings Rahul Gupta and Swati Gupta, Industrybuying.com is an online marketplace selling industrial products to SMEs as well as large businesses. The company claims to have over 30,000 registered SMEs shopping from the portal. In addition, the company is a regular supplier to various large businesses who benefit from their ability to provide a wide variety of industrial products in various categories under one roof.

The company says that it has an online catalogue of over 300,000 products available to buy online, used in manufacturing, construction, maintenance, services and commercial operations. It counts among its customers FMCG, hospitality, manufacturing, construction, large and small auto ancillaries, pharma, services and hospitality and maintenance companies.

In August 2015, Industrybuying raised Rs 60 crore in series B round led by Kalaari Capital and existing investor SAIF Partners Singapore-based Beenext and private investors from family businesses - TVS and Murugappa Group - have also invested in Industrybuying.

On investment in Industrybuying, Nilesh Kothari, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Trifecta Capital, says, "We are excited to support Industrybuying as it gears up to exploit the huge opportunity in B2B ecommerce in India. We are attracted by size of the opportunity, the quality of the founders and the Venture Capital funds that have backed the company. Besides providing venture debt, we hope to be able to leverage our network of investors, including domestic institutions and industrial family offices to help the company scale faster.”

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According to Ecumen, Ahmedabad-based e-commerce consultant firm, the business-to-business (B2B) segment of the burgeoning e-commerce industry in India is set to touch Rs 45 lakh crore by 2020. This projection says a lot about the thriving business. According to the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises there are 36 million small units in India. Most of them are buyers and sellers of various industrial goods and will benefit greatly from online platforms like Industrybuying that aggregate supply and demand.

This segment also does not face the FDI issues that online retail faces. FDI is allowed in wholesale e-commerce in India. However, Industrybuying does face some significant competition in the form of  Amazon, Tolexo, Power2SME and Bizongo, among others. The company is also dealing with a wide variety of, often complex, products ranging from oils to lab equipment. It will need to focus on solving the problem of transporting these products at scale. If Industrybuying can get its sourcing and supply-chain economics right, there is a large market waiting for it.

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