Bizongo raises $110 mn at $600 mn valuation

SmartPaddle Technology Pvt. Ltd, which owns and operates business-to-business platform for packaging materials Bizongo, has raised ₹825 crore ($110 million) in its series D round of funding, led by New York-based Tiger Global Management, according to regulatory filings.

The funds are being raised at a post-money valuation of ₹4,500 crore ($600 million), according to an analysis of the filings by VCCircle.

The company issued 10 equity shares and 121,510 series D2 compulsorily convertible preference shares (D2CCPS) at ₹67,890 apiece to 10 subscribers, the filings showed.

The board of directors of the company approved the issuance of the securities on 25 November.

Tiger Global’s Internet Fund VII subscribed to 49,713 D2CCPS for ₹337.5 crore, while existing investors B Capital, CDC Group, and World Bank’s IFC invested ₹131.25 crore, ₹131.25 crore, and ₹118.23 crore, respectively, the filings showed.

The equity shares were subscribed by CDC Group.

Other investors in the round include Schroder Chiratae Venture, Adveq, Bruno E. Raschle, Add Ventures Capital, Castle Investment, and Satyadharma Investments.

VCCircle was the first to disclose last month that the company was in talks to raise funds from marquee investors.

In April, the company closed its series C round of funding involving a mix of both equity and debt worth $51 million led by the CDC Group, which had first joined the company’s cap table in January.

The company has raised round $187 million to date.

Bizongo was founded in 2015 by Sachin Agarwal, Aniket Deb, and Ankit Tomar. The company offers boxes, containers, pouches, and bags for industries such as food and hospitality, consumer goods, and retail.

It has warehouses in Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Delhi. Its clients include BigBasket, Nykaa, Swiggy, Delhivery, Teabox, and Tata Cliq.

Bizongo is among a growing number of B2B startups that have attracted investor interest as they seek to offer streamlined, efficient, and organized procurement and supply chain services to businesses.

The company faced headwinds because of the covid-19 pandemic and laid off employees in July 2020, but claimed it paid severance packages.

According to the company’s provisional income statement for the year ended March 2021, its operating revenues have grown by more than a third to ₹333.93 crore from ₹247.52 crore in FY20.

Losses have shrunk from ₹134.56 crore in FY20 to ₹74 crore in FY21. The company’s employee benefit expense has reduced by a third from ₹82 crore in FY20 to ₹54.6 crore in FY21.