Bizongo, a B2B platform for made-to-order goods, on Monday said it has completed a USD 51-million fresh funding exercise, with investments from British government’s development finance body CDC and Thailand-based Addventures, a corporate arm of SCG. Commitments from the two new investors are the second tranche of the USD 51-million series-C funding efforts, an official statement said. It added that other investors who participated in the first tranche included Schroder Adveq, Bruno Raschle, and existing investors Accel, Chiratae and IFC. Apart from the equity investments, the city-based company has also raised debt from Strides, Trifecta Capital, Tradecred, and IDFC First Bank, the B2B e-commerce player said.
“The company has been generating positive cash flow from operations for the past two quarters, something rarely witnessed in the B2B e-commerce space. “Through this, it has created a solid foundation to further accelerate the growth and consolidate their market leadership in such a largely untapped market,” Addventures Managing Director Prakit Worawattananon was quoted as saying in the statement. Bizongo co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Aniket Deb said it has witnessed an over 3x growth since the completion of the latest round of fundraising, and is now “inches away from profitability”.
Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Sachin Agrawal added that it now plans to extend modular digital service offerings to more product lines such as apparels and textiles in the made-to-order segment, after the latest funding round. “In terms of business expansion, we are replicating the digital services model in emerging markets of Southeast Asia which have similar supply-demand dynamics. “SCG’s strong presence and know-how in the SEA market is helping us accelerate the execution,” he added. The company’s co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Ankit Tomar said the operation is scalable because it enables businesses with services across digital vendor management, supply chain automation, and supply chain financing in an asset-light operating model.
