Construction Material Unicorn Infra.Market Raises $50 Mn To Expand To New Markets

Construction-focused marketplace unicorn Infra.Market has raised $50 Mn in growth capital from Liquidity Group’s MARS Unicorn Fund. Liquidity Group, a global capital market fund, is backed by financial institutions such as US-listed Apollo and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. 

Infra.Market plans to use the fresh funds to cater to newer global markets and increase presence across product verticals, especially lead growth in its chemical vertical. As the startup is focused on entering new markets across the globe, the fundraise would be ideal to lead the growth across geographies, the B2B unicorn said in a statement.

The latest round comes after it raised close to $53 Mn in debt funding from more than 100 investors in December last year.

Founded in 2016 by Aaditya Sharda and Souvik Sengupta, Infra.Market is an online construction solutions company that uses technology to offer fair pricing and an enhanced procurement experience to its customers. It is eyeing the $140 Bn construction materials market, with a strong focus on the infrastructure sector. 

The startup caters to both institutional customers (B2B) and retail outlets (D2R) in the construction materials sector. In the last 12 months, Infra.Market claims to have grown supply to retail outlets steadily while following a dual model of flagship stores and dealership stores. Currently, it supplies across 16 Indian states as well as exports to markets including Dubai Jordan, Italy, and Singapore.

Speaking about the latest fundraise, Souvik Sengupta, founder of Infra.Market, said in the statement, “We continue to build on our vision of creating India’s largest multi-product construction materials brand and transform the construction materials supply chain, not only in India but also globally.”

“We are also embarking on new business verticals outside the construction ecosystem such as chemicals to enable us to provide end-to-end solutions to our customers across the multiple industries,” he added.

In 2021, Infra.Market launched Chemical.Market, a B2B fulfilment platform for the chemical industry. 

The chemical industry in India is estimated to be at around $75 Billion and Chemcial.Market attempts to reimagine chemical commerce in India and globally, said Infra.Market in its statement.

Infra.Market entered the unicorn club in February last year, after raising $100 Mn in its Series C funding round led by Tiger Global. Accel Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, Sistema Asia Fund, Evolvence India Fund, and Foundamental Gmbh also participated in that round.

In September 2021, Infra.Market Acquired RDC Concrete from True North with a reported estimated cost of $100 Mn (INR 737 Cr).

However, earlier this year, the Income Tax Department (I-T Department) conducted a search and seizure operation at 23 offices of the unicorn. Besides seizing INR 1 Cr of unaccounted cash and jewellery worth INR 22 Lakh, the I-T Department said it detected tax evasion of INR 1,500 Cr and unaccounted revenue of INR 220 Cr.