Accel Partners, IFC Lead $23 Mn Funding Round In B2B Marketplace Moglix

Noida-based B2B industrial goods marketplace MogiLabs, the parent company of Moglix, has raised $23 Mn (INR 164.57 Cr) in a round of funding led by venture capital firm Accel Partners and existing backer International Finance Corporation (IFC).

Rahul Garg, founder of Moglix, said that a significant portion of the funds will be used to ramp up its supply chain network, further build its team and its technology product suite. The company plans to expand to newer markets and geographies along with strengthening its integrated digital supply chain technology solutions with data science and machine-learning capabilities.

In 2015, Moglix began operations to procure and supply to industries, in categories, such as safety tools, hardware, office supplies and more. The company targets manufacturing companies with a turnover between $15.5 Mn (INR 100 Cr) to $1.5 Bn (INR 10,000 Cr), and also helps Small and Micro Enterprises’ (SME) to automate and scale up their supply chain.

Till date, the company has raised $41 Mn in funding from investors like Jungle Ventures, Accel India, and former WhatsApp senior executive Neeraj Arora among others. The company is reportedly valued at $100 Mn with the latest funding round and has claimed to have recorded a three-time increase in its revenue for FY18, compared to FY16. It also claims to have a 400% growth rate year-on-year.

Pravan Malhotra, Venture Capital team, IFC, said: “Indian government has a strong focus on using technology to transform traditional sectors such as logistics, supply chain and manufacturing. By backing clients such as Moglix, who operate in the B2B commerce market, IFC is supporting technology-led solutions that bring process and cost efficiencies and move businesses to new growth trajectories and deliver strong investor returns.”

Talking to Inc42 last year, Rahul Garg said that the company caters to more than 100K SMEs, and over 200 large manufacturing houses in India. The company reportedly has more than 200K stock keeping units (SKUs) listed on its platform and serves some of the largest auto, electrical and public sector undertakings (PSUs) including Lumax, IndiaForge, Havells etc.

With an influx of fresh funds, Garg expects Moglix to have 18-25 distribution centres over the next 12-15 months and is also looking to market the same across 100-plus geographies by the end of the current fiscal.

Posing a challenge to players like Tradohub, Power2SME etc, Moglix is fighting the battle for the B2B ecommerce market, which is estimated to reach $700 Mn by 2020.