Infibeam Becomes First Indian Ecommerce Company To Go IPO Way; Plans To Raise Over $70 Mn

Gujarat-based startup Infibeam Incorporation Ltd. has filed Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with SEBI and is planning to raise funds around $70 Mn (INR 450 Cr.) through IPO route.

Founded in 2007 by Vishal Mehta, Sachin Dalal and Neeru Sharma, Infibeam is an online shopping portal that offers cloud-based ecommerce platform service in B2C and B2B verticals and is recognized globally for its innovative approach towards delivering business values and responsive to changing customer needs. It runs several ecommerce services such as Indent, BuildaBazaar, Incept and Picsquare.

The startup plans to utilize the IPO proceeds for setting up cloud data centre and shifting and setting up of registered and corporate office of the company, as well as setting up of 75 logistics centres, purchase of software and for General Corporate Purposes.

Under the public offer, at most 75% of shares would be allotted on a proportionate basis to qualified institutional investors (QIIs), while about 60% of this portion can be given to anchor investors on a discretionary basis. 5% of the QIB portion (excluding the anchor investor portion) would be available for allocation on a proportionate basis to mutual funds only.

Other than anchor investors, all potential investors can join in this issue through an application supported by blocked amount (ASBA) process providing details of their respective bank account which will be blocked by the concerned banks.

Another Indian company, i.e. Chennai-based customer support software maker Freshdesk backed by Google Capital and Tiger Global, is also set to launch an IPO. Founded in 2010 by Girish Mathrubootham and Shan Krishnasamy, Freshdesk’s cloud-based customer support software with powerful features, an easy to use interface, and free pricing model, enables companies to support customers through email, phone calls, websites, forums and social media channels.

Currently, the company has over 40,000 customers across the world, including 3M, Honda, Hugo Boss and University of Pennsylvania. Freshdesk has raised over $94 Mn in funding uptil now.

Commenting on this development, Girish Mathrubootham, CEO of Freshdesk said “If all things go according to plan, then we see ourselves becoming a publicly listed company in 2-3 years. We had at least two acquisition offers. But we are in this for the long haul.”

On the other side companies like Flipkart and Snapdeal have been talking about IPO since last year. Justdial was another Indian company which went IPO in 2013.

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