Bizongo closes funding round at $51 mn

Business-to-business platform for packaging materials, Bizongo, on Monday said that it has closed its series C round at $51 million, raised as a mix of equity and debt, as the company looks to fuel its growth further.

The latest tranche of the series C round was led by UK-government’s development finance institution, CDC Group, and AddVentures. Bizongo had raised close to $26 million last January from Schroder Adveq and Bruno Raschle, as a part of its ongoing series C round.

As a part of the current fundraise, the company has also picked up $15 million in debt, from Strides, Trifecta Capital, TradeCred, and IDFC First Bank.

Bizongo plans to use the funds to extend its digital services to new domains such as apparel and textiles and looks to expand its offerings into the Southeast Asian market.

The six-year-old startup solves supply chain gaps and helps its B2B customers get access to packaging materials such as boxes, containers, pouches and bags, directly from manufacturers.

It offers two product lines—its proprietary vendor management platform, Procure Live, and supply chain digitization and automation product, Partner Hub. Through these solutions, the startup claims to offer its business customers complete visibility on procurement cycles and inventory, allowing them to have a better control on their supply chain.

In addition to this, Bizongo also helps small and medium enterprise partners in domains of manufacturing packaging, textiles and apparel with access to working capital, through its partnership with over 10 financial institutions.

“As a co-founder, I am extremely proud that the team has demonstrated tremendous grit and resilience through the past year. Bizongo has shown more than three-fold growth since the completion of the latest round of fundraising and is now inches away from profitability,” said Aniket Deb, co-founder and chief executive officer at Bizongo.

According to the company, it has more than 100 clients and 1,000 manufacturing partners on its platform.

“Post the latest round of funding, Bizongo has made tremendous progress towards profitability and positive cash flows. The company has been generating positive cash flow from operations for the past two quarters.Through this, it has created a solid foundation to further accelerate growth and consolidate market leadership in such a largely untapped market,” added Prakit Worawattananon, managing director of AddVentures.

Back in 2018, Bizongo had raised close to $22 million as a part of its series B financing, from Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital and International Finance Corporation (IFC). Its existing investors Accel Partners and IDG Ventures had also participated as a part of the round.

Although a niche space, the ongoing covid-19 pandemic has brought focus on startups trying to digitize supply chain operations and improve productivity for consumer brands.

Last year, Mumbai-based supply chain startup, LEAP India also raised $25 million from Morgan Stanley India Infrastructure, an infrastructure fund from investment banker Morgan Stanley.

LEAP provides timber pallets and plastic utility boxes to FMCG and beverages sectors, on lease, helping them reduce costs and integrating the supply chain across suppliers, manufacturers and retailers further.