BackOfBusiness entry takes unicorn tally to 18 so far in 2021
OfBusiness is planning to make strategic investments to increase its control over supply chains
PremiumThe Indian startup ecosystem saw three new entrants to the coveted league of unicorns in July, taking the total tally in 2021 to 18.
Two of them are trucking platform BlackBuck and vehicle marketplace Droom, which reached a valuation of $1.02 billion and $1.2 billion, respectively, after raising funds.
The latest entrant is business-to-business (B2B) platform OfBusiness, which during the weekend announced a $160 million equity fundraise led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, at a valuation of $1.5 billion.
The current funding round also saw participation from Matrix Partners India and Falcon Edge Capital.
A startup is termed a unicorn after its valuation is pegged at $1 billion or above.
Through the funding, OfBusiness is now expecting to make strategic investments, acquisitions and create joint ventures to increase its control over supply chains.
Started five years ago, OfBusiness is a technology-enabled platform that facilitates raw material procurement and credit in the B2B markets with a focus on the manufacturing and infrastructure sectors.
It enables B2B commerce on its platform to help customers get better products at competitive prices, while adhering to their timelines through online and offline support.
The platform currently enables raw material procurement across sectors including infrastructure such as roads, housing and irrigation, and manufacturing supply chains like engineering, food processing, heavy machinery and capital goods.
“The time for disruption in B2B commerce in traditional sectors of the economy was long overdue and has arrived. To take on the challenges of scale and uniqueness of B2B, one must be armed with teams, knowledge, technology and an ability to solve credit needs. OfBusiness has been striving to build all four across its B2B businesses," said Asish Mohapatra, CEO and co-founder, OfBusiness.
OfBusiness also provides two software-as-a-service (SaaS) products—marketing platform Bidassist that touches over 2.4 million users and a business operating system for small and medium enterprises called SME Assist.
OfBusiness aims to cross the $1.1 billion revenue run rate mark on its e-commerce business by September.
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