OfBusiness’ Financial Arm Oxyzo Becomes India’s 98th Unicorn After Raising Country’s Biggest Series A

OfBusiness’ financial arm Oxyzo has raised $200 Mn in a funding round from Alpha Wave, Tiger Global, Norwest Venture Partners, Matrix Partners and Creation Investments.

B2B commerce marketplace OfBusiness had launched its financial arm, Oxyzo in 2016, a lending platform that provides cash flow and matched working capital financing for buying new materials for SMEs in the manufacturing and contracting sectors.

The startup plans to use the funds to expand Oxyzo’s digital financial services, scaling the supply chain marketplace, launching innovative fixed income products for the SME space and scaling other fee incomes business lines including debt capital markets and securities.

With this Series A round, Oxyzo’s first institutional funding, the startup has entered the coveted unicorn club – the 12th startup in 2022 and 98th unicorn of India. The round may also be one of the largest Series A rounds, making Oxyzo the first unicorn at such an early stage.

Notably, India’s youngest unicorn Mensa Brands achieved the valuation of $1 Bn after raising $135 Mn in its Series B round within six months of launch.

Founded by OfBusiness founders Asish Mohapatra and Ruchi Kalra, the startup claims to have $350 Mn assets under management, growing 100% on a year-on-year basis. Oxyzo is currently serving 2,500+ SMEs across India, disbursing loans worth INR 4,000 Cr per annum.

Some of its features include the facility to pay interest for the period of the usage of credit lines, low documentation, interest rates as low as 18% per annum and raw material priority from OfBusiness.

The Many Faces Of OfBusiness

OfBusiness is primarily a B2B marketplace that also offers working capital financing for procurement of raw materials to SMEs in the manufacturing and infrastructure space via Oxyzo. Its value-add services also include SaaS products such as its marketing vertical, Bidassist, software for ERP, manufacturing, finance and procurement called SMEassist.

In July 2021, OfBusiness turned unicorn after raising $160 Mn from SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Most recently in December 2021, OfBusiness raised $325 Mn in its Series G funding round led by Alpha Wave Ventures II, Tiger Global Management and Softbank Vision Fund 2 at a valuation of nearly $5 Bn. The Series G round also saw a partial liquidation for 80 ESOP holders.

The operating revenue of OfBusiness grew to INR 1,379.01 Cr in FY21 as compared to around INR 698.78 Cr in FY20. Its net profit during the year was INR 19.76 Cr in FY21, against INR 13.83 Cr.

[Disclaimer: While Oxyzo is the 98th startup entering the unicorn club, of the 98, five have been acquired, 10 have been listed and three are now valued less than the $1 Bn unicorn valuation. The data quoted above has been collected from primary and secondary sources]