Bizongo, an online business-to-business marketplace for packaging materials run by Smartpaddle Technology Pvt. Ltd, has raised $22 million in a series B funding round led by global technology fund, B Capital and IFC, the private-sector investment arm of World Bank.
Existing investors Accel Partners and IDG Ventures also participated in the funding round.
The company provides end-to-end automated, scalable solutions for businesses across segments such as e-commerce, retail, restaurant and hospitality, fast moving consumer goods, industrial logistics, food and beverage in primary, secondary and tertiary packaging.
Mumbai-based Bizongo, founded in 2015 by Aniket Deb, Sachin Agrawal and Ankit Tomar, had previously raised $3 million in series A in 2016.
The company aims to focus on advancing its technological platform and design functions and strengthen teams across cities with the latest round of capital infusion.
“With investment from B Capital we look forward to leverage on their expertise in the South East Asian markets, which will help us in our journey to scale up. IFC’s interest in the B2B e-commerce space and their deep network in the financial ecosystem will only help the company refine its model further,” said Deb, co-founder and chief executive at Bizongo.
Bizongo claims to have 2,500 registered small and medium enterprises. The start-up manages and procures packaging for brands such as Myntra, Bunge, TataCliq, Firstcry and many more.
“Finding the right solution in India’s $40 billion packaging market with over 30,000 vendors is time consuming. Bizongo makes the process easy by leveraging an in-house design studio, a curated marketplace of over 200 manufacturers and innovative supply chain technology,” said Kabir Narang, partner and co-lead for Asia investments at B capital.
B Capital group is a global venture capital firm that invests in healthcare, fintech, industrial logistics and consumer enablement companies, founded in partnership with The Boston Consulting Group, the global management consulting firm.
Last year in December, B Capital group invested in Mswipe Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which makes point of sale (PoS) machines for merchants.
“Digital enablement of SMEs is a very important strategic goal for IFC. To further this goal, we have invested in several B2B digital platforms in India and other emerging markets. Bizongo helps SME suppliers improve their capacity utilization and drive up revenues, providing much needed financial sustainability to this segment,” said Ruchira Shukla, south Asia regional lead for Venture capital at IFC.
Last year in June, IFC led a series B funding round of funding in Moglix, a B2B industrial goods marketplace. IFC has also invested in $10 million as equity in e-commerce platform Power2SME that helps small and medium companies buy raw materials at bulk prices.
Source: Mint