Meet the Udaipur-based serial entrepreneur who has started off three ventures at the age of 25
How does one gain recognition of a serial entrepreneur? For Vinav Bhanawat, it was by setting up three ventures at the age of 25. A BTech from Sir Padampat Singhania University, Udaipur, Vinav founded NMCorp Pvt Ltd, an IT company, in 2012; Territory Of Fashion, an online apparel store, in 2014; and NonMovingInventory.com, online marketplace, in April 2015. However, he took an exit from NMCorp Pvt Ltd in December 2013, but is still associated with Territory Of Fashion.
Dealing with the two ventures in the past made Vinav realise the problem of excessive and unused inventory. He then did research and spoke to several manufacturing unit owners to reach the root of the problem and finally came up with the idea of NonMovingInventory.com.
Inventory is a huge investment for most companies. Vinav believes that excess inventory will not only take up extra storage space, but will also cost money and depreciation. Udaipur-based startup, NonMovingInventory.com connects potential buyers from around the world to manufacturing units or vendors struggling with excess inventory and help them reduce waste by turning it into cash.
Since they do not buy the inventories, there is no physical inventory management involved. Each industry that subscribes to NonMovingInventory.com already follows a standard manual process to keep track of non/slow moving inventory in their warehouses.
Our data input standards are tailored to help industries upload products with a direct one click import option. If they fail to do so, we take charge of the whole process and help industry representatives with the uploads. Moreover, we provide a personalised Dashboard to manage the same. We have so far invested Rs 10 lakh on building the platform and keeping the tech team intact,” says Vinav.
Making inroads to Silicon Valley
Vinav represented India at Silicon Valley-based Blackbox Connect 14 Accelerator Program in February 2016. Blackbox intends to connect entrepreneurs with great ideas from across the world to VCs and other professionals for acceleration of business. The presentation rewarded the startup with an investment of $15,000.
The platform allows companies to buy and sell electrical appliances, machine equipment, motors, cables, diesel generator sets, tools and earth moving equipment. The clients list includes Hindustan Zinc Limited (a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources PLC), BIRLA Corporation, JK Tyre and JK Cement, Pyrotech Electronics and Peacock Industries.
The company currently has seven clients and five employees. It boasts to have listed more than 25,000 products along with detailed descriptions. The company charges a subscription fee to list the items on their platform, which starts from Rs 5000 to 20,000 for 500 to 5,000 products.
Where to go?
Vinav hopes to add 200 companies and 50,000 vendors/buyers from across India by the end of next quarter. He plans to eventually switch to commission-based model from subscription fee model. They also plan to expand their presence to pan India and start operations in the US and China by next fiscal year. He believes that the move will enable many industries to procure materials from China at lower prices.
Our goal is to reach more than 500 sellers alone in India before we expand to the US and China. We have also started development of a plugin that will be installed on our client’s procurement module and will filter their next requirements from our product listing, which will allow them to buy directly from our marketplace,” avers Vinav.
Currently, its product listing is increasing by 200 per cent month-on-month. If it continues in this pace, then the number of products will increase to 1,25,000 by 2016-17, with the average transaction of $50,000.
The founder expresses concerns over the requirements of more funds and a bigger team to achieve the above expectations. By the virtue of his presentation in Blackbox, he is trying to raise funds from both US and Indian investors at the same time. NonMovingInventory might also be showcased at Startup Istanbul 2016.
Excessive inventory: A boon for B2B E-commerce
Many entrepreneurs spend sleepless nights at the thought of pouring significant working capital in inventory management and thereby eroding the profits. Proper control over inventories decides the balance between production and distribution process. Unsold old inventory if not moved on time may lead to damage and obsolescence.
However some of the startups have emerged in the past few years to address this problem. Industrybuying.com, a B2B marketplace selling industrial products to SMEs; Delhi-based Surpluss.in, which deals with overstock and branded surplus products; and Bengaluru-based Buildkar.com
A B2B construction goods marketplace Buildkar raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Meher Group CEO Mustafa Wajid and Gaadi.com Founder Umang Kumar. Industrybuying raised Rs 12 crore from Trifecta Capital.
The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises reported that there are 36 million small units in India. Most of them are buyers and sellers of various industrial goods, which contributes a lot to the growth of B2B e-commerce. According to a consultant firm Ecumen.in, the business-to-business (B2B) segment in India is set to grow by 2.5 times to touch Rs 45 lakh crore by 2020.
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