Moglix on building India’s catalogue

Good morning,

“India operated pretty much without catalogues pre-Moglix. I would take the liberty of saying that Moglix is the catalogue for India, says Moglix Founder and CEO Rahul Garg.

In May, Moglix entered the much coveted Indian unicorn club at a valuation of $1 billion after raising a Series E funding round of $120 million, led by Falcon Edge Capital and Harvard Management Company (HMC). 

Launched in 2015, the Singapore-based B2B ecommerce platform for manufacturing goods. With close to 5,00,00 stock-keeping units (SKUs) on the platform and over 28 warehouses, the startup claims to be the largest ecommerce platform of industrial goods in India. 

In a recent conversation with YourStory, Rahul shared his journey to becoming a unicorn, building a B2B ecommerce business in the fragmented manufacturing sector, and nurturing the internal company culture at Moglix as a single founder. Read more.

Editor’s Pick: 9Unicorns — a ‘founder-first investment firm’

Dr Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, who founded incubator Venture Catalysts in 2016 to support and mentor idea-stage startups, decided to launch investment firm 9Unicorns in 2019. 

With Rs 500 crore in total disbursement, the firm has so far invested Rs 100 crore in over 60 startups. A good chunk of the investments is made in startups beyond metro cities as Apoorva feels “startups from Tier II, III, and IV cities have sustainable business models and innovative ideas”. Read more.

Startup Spotlight

Jaipur startup Mittihub pushing innovation in terracotta craft

Abhinav Agarwal from Jaipur, Rajasthan, was doing his undergraduate studies in entrepreneurship from the city’s Global Centre for Entrepreneurship and Commerce when he realised that entrepreneurship does not lie between the pages of a book alone.  

Even before completing their graduation, Abhinav along with his friend Megha Joshi, launched Mittihub, a startup to revive the dying art form of terracotta pottery. Read more.

News & Updates

• Reliance Retail has made a Rs 3,497 crore offer to Just Dial to hold a controlling stake in the local information and business listings platform. RIL will hold 40.95 percent in Just Dial, and also make an open offer to acquire up to 26 percent in line with SEBI's takeover regulations. 

• At the end of the three-day period for subscription of foodtech unicorn Zomato, its shares and the issue was oversubscribed by 44 times. The Zomato IPO was open for subscription between July 14 and 16, and the shares were priced in the range of Rs 72-76.

• Paytm will raise Rs 8,300 crore from a primary fundraise, and the remaining Rs 8,300 crore from a secondary sale of shares by its existing investors, the company said in its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) filed with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

• FedEx Express, a subsidiary of NYSE-listed FedEx Corp and Gurugram-based Delhivery, has entered into equity and commercial agreements, through which FedEx will make a $100 million equity investment in Delhivery.

• WhatsApp banned two million Indian accounts while it received 345 grievance reports between May 15 and June 15, the company said in its maiden monthly compliance report as mandated by the IT rules.

Before you go, stay inspired with… 

“Anybody comes with an axiom, do not listen to those people because we should operate on theorems, we should not work on axioms in life.” 

—  Rahul Garg, Founder and CEO, Moglix 

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