Moglix raises $12M from IFC, Rocketship, Accel, Jungle Ventures and others

Moglix, a leading B2B e-commerce startup that aims to digitally transform supply chain of manufacturing sector in India, announced on Thursday that it had closed a Series-B funding round of $12 million. The round saw participation from International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group and Rocketship.vc, along with Moglix’s existing investors Accel Partners, Jungle Ventures, Shailesh Rao, ex-VP Twitter & Google and Venture Highway, advised by Neeraj Arora of WhatsApp.

Moglix is also backed by Tata Sons’ Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata since its inception. It was his maiden investment in the B2B e-commerce domain. Moglix aims to deploy the funds to support and further strengthen its technology solution in supply chain and manufacturing domain, boost infrastructure growth and facilitate geographical expansion plans.

Tata Sons’ Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata (left) and Rahul Garg, CEO, Moglix.

Story so far

Moglix was founded in August 2015 by Rahul Garg, who was previously Head of Advertising Exchange at Google Asia. As a B2B e-commerce marketplace, Moglix specialises in the procurement of industrial products such as MRO, fasteners, electrical, hardware, pneumatics, and safety items. Its aim is to be the largest technology platform where demand and supply can be matched through price discovery and product availability.

The startup had previously raised seed and Series-A funding of approximately $6 million from venture capital firms like Accel Partners, Jungle Ventures, SeedPlus and Venture Highway. With this current round, the total amount of fund raised by Moglix stands at around $18 million. In 2016, Moglix had also become part of the SAP startup studio programme and had begun working closely with SAP on driving digital acceleration within manufacturing companies.

Moglix noted that its current team strength exceeds 200 employees and claimed that its solutions cater to more than a lakh small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and over 200 large manufacturing houses in India. Moglix currently has more than two lakh stock keeping units (SKUs) listed on its platform and serves some of the largest auto, electrical and public sector undertakings (PSUs) in the country, including Lumax, IndiaForge, Havells etc.

GreenGST

With the recent reforms of GST implementation and move towards a cashless economy, Moglix believes it is well-poised to cater to more customers in the days to come. In manufacturing, there is tax liability at every step. With an experience of over two years of operating in the sector, Moglix recently launched a new offering GreenGST, a solution for the manufacturing sector that aims to make the entire customer ecosystem GST-compliant and future-ready.

The company noted that GreenGST is Moglix's core business, and so the entire leadership team is hands-on on its operations. According to their website, GreenGST is being priced at Rs 5,000 per month and will be able to support 5,000 invoices along with its ERP integration. Subrata Mitra, Accel Partners, said in a statement, 

We are excited to be working with Moglix as the company enters the next phase of its growth with the launch of GreenGST. B2B commerce is a fast-emerging space and Moglix has been at the centre of it with the right moves. It is heartening to see their commitment since inception.

Anurag Srivastava, Founding & Managing Partner, Jungle Ventures, noted that as a board member, he has observed that Moglix strives to create excellence at every step and has achieved sustainable and healthy growth alongside. He said in a statement, “The team at Moglix is doing an amazing job building top-tier SaaS products for the manufacturing and supply chain industry." 

Sector overview and future plans

The company specialises in digital procurement of industrial MRO items and aims to utilise the funds to expand geographically across multiple industrial hubs in India. Rahul, Founder & CEO, Moglix said, “According to a recent industry report, the global B2B e-commerce market is estimated to reach $7 trillion by 2020, as it’s twice as big as B2C market. We are making strides to harness the potential of the market in India and other Asian countries.”

While B2C e-commerce players are more in the public eye, some of the prominent B2B e-commerce players in India include AmazonBusiness.in, Power2SME, IndustryBuying, Bizongo, Tolexo, OfBusiness and JustBuyLive. Amazon had launched AmazonBusiness in April 2015, and its Indian arm currently sells products ranging from office supplies and IT peripherals to medical supplies and beauty products. OfBusiness raised Rs 75 crore led by Zodius in December 2016, while Power2SME raised a Series-D funding from Nandan Nilekani and its existing investors in early 2016.

The manufacturing sector in India is the least digitised industry compared to other sectors in the country. Moglix believes that today, barely 2-3 percent of manufacturing units are using digital platforms in their supply chain management. With this investment, Moglix is looking to propel digital revolution of India’s manufacturing sector with its integrated digital supply chain solution, and aims to launch in three more cities in India, apart from its current presence in Delhi NCR, Pune and Chennai. In a response to YourStory's query, Moglix noted that the startup is working to set up its facilities in the belt of Gujarat, Karnataka and Eastern India.

Website- www.moglix.com