Infra.Market Enters The Unicorn Club, After Raising $100 Mn From Tiger Global

Infra.Market has entered the unicorn club, after raising $100 Mn in a Series C funding round led by Tiger Global. Accel Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, Evolvence India Fund, Sistema Asia Fund and Foundamental Gmbh also participated in the round. Avendus Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Infra.Market on this transaction

Founded in 2016 by Aaditya Sharda and Souvik Sengupta, Infra.Market is a B2B online procurement marketplace for real estate and construction material that leverages technology to offer fair pricing and a smoother procurement experience for its customers.

The platform aggregates demand and matches it with the supply chain, with wholesale pricing on materials, along with affordable credit or financing, which is not always available for small businesses in this sector.

With a proper business model in mind, the company has been profitable since its inception in 2016. In the financial year 2020, the company had noted a 5.5x jump in its revenue to INR 350 Cr. Its expenses grew at the same rate to reach INR 339 Cr, leading to a profit of INR 8.59 Cr. The B2B marketplace had reported a revenue of INR 63 Cr with expenses worth INR 60.75 Cr, leading to a profit of INR 1.74 Cr.

The company had also launched another subsidiary Hella Infra Market Retail in October 2019, which too turned profitable in FY2020. The latest subsidiary focuses on the direct-to-retail segment by directly selling its construction material to retails. With this, the company’s consolidated revenue reached INR 352 Cr with an expenditure of INR 330 Cr.

Infra.Market’s cofounder Souvik Sengupta previously told Inc42 that the company’s revenue growth has also been fueled by geographical expansion from Bengaluru, Pune and Mumbai to Tier-II cities. He noted that the company owes its continuous profitability to the private label vertical, which has fetched them nearly 15% margins on sales.

“We as a B2B company concentrate a lot on our own brands. We have our own brands which generate very high margins for us, compared to other B2B companies, which are mainly distribution companies… We have grown our private label from 40% to may be around 70%, so our margins have improved considerably,” Sengupta added.

The company now aims to expand its private-label business to widen the profit margins in FY21 and achieve a monthly revenue rate of INR 150 Cr by the end of the fiscal.

Infra.Market has raised $161.5 Mn to date, with $6.8 Mn coming in last month as venture debt funding from InnoVen Capital.

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