Bizongo, a company based in Mumbai that helps businesses digitize their operations, has recently raised $50 million in the fifth round of funding. The funding round was organized by a well-known private equity company called Schroder Adveq, which is located in Zurich, Switzerland. After Bizongo received almost $110 million in funding towards the end of 2021, the next round of investment followed.
Some other important contributors to the recent funding include International Finance Corp, Chiratae Ventures, B Capital, and British International Investment. The B2B e-commerce platform has raised a large amount of money in its latest funding round, which means it is now valued at $980 million. This is a significant increase, 63% higher than its previous funding round last year when it received $25 million from Liquidity Group's Mars Growth Capital. This also brings it closer to entering the highly desirable "unicorn" club.
Bizongo wants to carefully grow its operations. In the future, Bizongo wants to make money before paying taxes by March 2024. The company's CEO, Sachin Agrawal, mentioned they are also considering buying another company, but there is no additional information yet.
Talking more about the startup, it has changed a lot since it started eight years ago. It used to focus on different parts of making vendors digital, with a main focus on packaging, textiles, and clothing. But, in response to the changing market conditions, it decided to focus on its main industries, like metal. Currently, over 50% of the materials bought by small and medium-sized vendors on Bizongo's platform are steel and aluminium. The combination of these materials and the processes for purchasing them make up half of the company's earnings.
We don't rely on the clothing industry as much as we used to. It was starting to become a big part. “But we wanted to explore different areas and increase our involvement in essential industries, so we entered into new areas and grew," Agrawal said about the situation.
The startup provides software tools to help businesses manage their vendors and automate their supply chains. They also offer financial services to help small and medium-sized vendors obtain loans without requiring collateral. This helps these vendors grow and become more independent. Bizongo has partnered with more than 40 banks and financial companies to make giving out loans easier and provide important financial assistance to vendors. Some important customers of the company are BigBasket, Nykaa, Swiggy, and Delhivery. In the past two years, the number of customers increased by 200-300. Currently, the company serves a great number of 450 to 500 big businesses, and also has an impressive 7,000 to 8,000 small and medium-sized vendors using its platform.
Bizongo had a net loss of around ₹100 crore in the fiscal years 2021, 2022, and 2023. However, it has been consistently moving towards making a profit. In the next financial year, the company made between $7-8 million more cash than it spent. They hope to have a moderate increase in net revenue of 25-30% in the following year.
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