Infra.Market, a technology firm providing a one-stop marketplace for construction materials, announced in a statement on Thursday that it has raised around $100 million in a Series C funding round led by Tiger Global, making it India’s newest unicorn ($1bn valuation). Existing investors such as Accel Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, Evolvence India Fund, Sistema Asia Fund, and Foundamental Gmbh also took part in the funding round.
The latest funding round will enable the four-year-old start-up to enhance its technological offerings, seed newer markets, and advance its initiatives such as private label brands, direct-to-retail channels, and exports, the company said. This funding round comes just two months after the Mumbai-headquartered firm had raised $20 million in a Series B financing round for its B2B (buyer-to-buyer) marketplace in India.
Avendus Capital was Infra.Market’s executive financial advisor on Thursday’s transaction.
Founded in 2016 by Souvik Sengupta and Aaditya Sharda, the company is a one-stop marketplace that leverages technology to provide a better procurement experience for all players in the construction ecosystem. Infra.Market also focuses on high-volume construction products under its own brands and aims to solve existing issues such as a lack of price transparency, unreliable quality, a fragmented vendor base, and inefficient logistics.
“We are digitally transforming the highly inefficient construction materials supply chain in India by aggregating the capacity of small manufacturers and adding our cutting-edge technology and services stack,” Sengupta said. “We are seeing rapid acceleration in demand as infrastructure and real-estate companies are looking to shift their procurement to get consistent quality and minimize delays.”
In its statement, Infra.Market informed that it caters to both institutional customers (B2B) and retail outlets (D2R) in the construction materials sector. It supplies across 10 states in India and exports to markets such as Dubai, Singapore, and Bangladesh.
It said that it is targeting the $140 billion construction materials market with a strong focus on the infrastructure sector. “Infra.Market is expected to significantly benefit from the 34% increase in allocation for infrastructure projects in the 2021 Union Budget of India,” the company said in its release.
“The company has a revenue run rate of $400 million as on date and is aiming to have a revenue run rate of $1 billion by December 2021,” Sengupta said.
