Online platform Shareconomy helps MSMEs find right capacity and accelerate business growth
Pune-based B2B marketplace Shareconomy connects manufacturing facility owners with capacity seekers and aims to become one of the key facilitators for ‘Make in India’.
India has the third largest startup ecosystem in the world. Every year, the nation adds a large number of young engineers/technocrats aspiring to disrupt the market with innovative products. However, lack of funds means budding entrepreneurs often need economical and sustainable solutions for manufacturing. Effective spare capacity utilisation can help eliminate the need for major capital investment. But with technology becoming the crux of every business, we have seen production timelines and manpower shrink, leading to underutilisation of spaces. Banking on this need to bridge the large gap of capacity underutilisation, Surat-based businessman Jayesh Desai launched Shareconomy in November 2015.
Shareconomy is built on the concept of sharing. It collects information on underutilised industrial capacities, providing market intelligence for the benefit of capacity owners and seekers.
Expert guidance and extended reach
On Shareconomy, registered industrialists can extend the reach of their capacities by posting availability of spaces and scale up to their real potential. Small businesses can post their requirements and look for capacities after registering on the platform, which is free of cost.
Based on the selected industry, Shareconomy provides a list of capacities to MSMEs, letting them choose their required capacity. Once they narrow down choices, MSMEs can send inquiries to owners and connect with them through the platform.
Apart from connecting capacity owners and seekers, Shareconomy provides expert guidance on different aspects of businesses such as evaluation of competence, marketing and finding the right talent for a specific business need.
The platform also offers a range of allied services for businesses including technical and financial due diligence, product design and development, label design and company formation among others.
Why Shareconomy?
Shareconomy is the brainchild of Jayesh, who also heads a Rs 4,500-crore business. The Rajhans (Desai-Jain) Group started with a small edible oil business in 1996 and is today an empire operating in different sectors, such as realty, entertainment, textile, confectionery & hospitality.
Desai’s business acumen and inclination towards innovations encouraged him to enter the e-commerce space and launch online B2B platform Shareconomy with a seven-member core team.
Jayesh, Founder & Chairman of Shareconomy says, “Having extensive industry experience and multiple connections with industry veterans, Rajhans (Desai-Jain) Group, along with an industry think-tank with a business consulting background, woke up to the issue of underutilisation of industrial capacities prevailing in many industrial set-ups.”
Competition and revenue model
In September 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the Make-in-India initiative that aims to transform India into a global design and manufacturing hub, calling all Indian and global players to reap the potential of India’s manufacturing sector.
Shareconomy, with its unique B2B model for boosting India’s manufacturing sector, aims to become one of the key facilitators for “Make in India”.
In terms of competition, Shareconomy is a first-of-its-kind B2B capacity utilisation online platform in the Indian market. There are various B2B platforms dedicated for searching different products such as IndiaMART, JimTrade, ExportersIndia, Tradeindia and others, but none of them address the problem of capacity underutilisation.
Shareconomy works on a basic revenue model, charging a registration income from the listing of capacity. However, it has been designed to generate revenue from advertisements, data monetisation and other allied services.
Plans for the future
In terms of capital, Jayesh has made an initial investment of Rs 25 crore from his own group and is targeting revenues of Rs 5 crore in the next six months.
The platform is currently dealing with capacities operational in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, Surat, Kolkata and Hyderabad.
Going ahead, Shareconomy plans to expand its presence in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh and is also eyeing international markets like the US, UK and Singapore. Shareconomy also plans to launch a mobile version of the platform to further convenience capacity owners and seekers.
“With opening of industrial possibilities due to GST, Shareconomy can quickly scale up in the Indian market. We also aim to attract the attention of global companies looking to outsource manufacturing to India,” Jayesh adds.