B2B ecommerce marketplace, OfBusiness, has raised $5 Mn in a Series A funding round led by Matrix Partners India.
Other participants in the round included, Patni Group’s Apoorva Patni, Bhavish Aggarwal (Ola co-founder), Pranay Chulet (Quikr co-founder), Prashant Malik, Rohit MA, and Sumesh Menon, among others.
Gurgaon-based OfBusiness was founded in 2015 by Asish Mohapatra, Bhuvan Gupta, Chandranshu, Nitin Jain, Ruchi Kalra and Srinath Ramakkrushnan. It is a business-to-business (B2B) marketplace focusing on product commerce. It aims to provide products at better prices in time, through a comprehensive online and offline support like logistics and a credit platform.
The newly raised capital will be used to expand the team and build a technology platform for SMEs.
Vikram Vaidyanathan, Managing Director, Matrix India said, “SME’s in India are already using the internet (through Whatsapp) for information sharing and communication. We believe in the ‘OfBusiness’ vision that these SMEs are ready to transact, beginning in an assisted manner, for all their monthly purchases.”
The startup is currently operational in 10 states across the country and is active across two verticals – construction and manufacturing. It plans to enter healthcare soon.
Compared to other players in the segment, OfBusiness claims to be dealing largely with big-ticket orders and providing logistics to sellers on its platform. It has a 40-member field force that helps business owners transact online.
Earlier this month, another B2B marketplace for business and industrial supplies, Moglix, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata. Other players in this segment include Shotang, Industrybuying.com, Bizongo, Tolexo, BazarA2Z, Alliedhunt, Walmart’s BestPriceWholesale.co.in and Amazon’s B2B portal Amazonbusiness.in.
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