Matrix Partners backed Ofbusiness raises INR 75 Cr Series B

Gurgaon, India '“ December 13, 2016: Ofbusiness, a Gurgaon-based technology-enabled SME marketplace, has raised INR 75 Crores in its Series B funding round led by Zodius Technology Opportunities Fund (ZTOF), one of India's leading growth stage tech and digital funds, with participation from existing investors Matrix Partners India and angels.

Ofbusiness was launched in January 2016 with the aim of solving the problems of price discovery, reliability and financial access in one of India's largest and inefficient segments, the SME space, by harnessing the power of technology. It combines commerce, credit and logistics services for SMEs in the geographical clusters that it operates in. The commerce is around primarily raw materials in construction and manufacturing and suppliers on the platform are also mostly SMEs that find new markets and channels.

Asish Mohapatra, Co-founder, Ofbusiness said, "We at Ofbusiness are passionate about the SME space given our collective experiences and the opportunity it offers in both depth and scope for innovation. "Profitable' commerce is how we acquire customers, credit will lock them in and gradually, we will add more services in the network. We intend to build the largest SME network in India. Zodius is a highly respected name in the growth capital world, known for supporting businesses that disrupt deep offline sectors through sheer execution and technology. It's a privilege to have them as partners in our quest to be the most trusted and deepest SME network in India.'

Vikram Vaidyanathan, Managing Director, Matrix India, added, "Indian MSME/SMEs are adopting technology at a rapid pace and ready to transact online, opening up perhaps one of the largest markets in India. The OfBusiness approach combining technology, credit and deep geographical operating expertise is leading to fantastic growth with sustainable economics. We are privileged to partner with Asish, Bhuvan, Ruchi and a fantastic management team here; and welcome Zodius to the partnership'

Gautam Patel, Managing Director, Zodius, said, "We are strong believers in the digital commerce market opportunity where we have backed B2C e-commerce companies like PepperFry, BigBasket and Zivame. We are excited to invest in the B2B commerce sector as well where Ofbusiness has a unique "Cluster-wise' approach to servicing SME Buyers & Sellers. Their combined high touch relationship management and product capability (material, credit and logistics) will make them the profitable leader in the sector'.

Ofbusiness is currently present in 10 industrial and construction clusters across India. Since its start, the Company is off to a rapid scale with best in class industry metrics in profitability, working capital, transaction sizes and repeat rates. The latest infusion of funds takes the total capital raised by the company till date to over INR 100 Crore. Ofbusiness now plans to significantly expand its footprint to cover 30+ clusters, more product lines like consumables. The Company's growth is also expected to be driven by its financial services subsidiary which will enable greater access to financing for the SME ecosystem. The subsidiary will be led by a strong team from the financial services sector under ex-Mckinsey partner and co-founder, Ofbusiness, Ruchi Kalra.

Highlighting the importance of technology, Bhuvan Gupta, Co-founder,Ofbusiness, said, "Our initial focus has been to build technology that makes us, buyers and suppliers efficient in commerce and related services. With this raise, we intend to further deepen the presence of technology among SMEs.'


About Ofbusiness:

Ofbusiness is a technology powered SME market place that connects SMEs across demand and supply hubs for mostly commerce in raw materials and captive commerce services. On the platform, SME buyers across construction and manufacturing can discover best prices and new SME suppliers and the platform offers fulfilment and financing to complete the commerce offering. Raw materials include industrial steel, building materials and fabrication, construction consumables. The company's footprint of ~10 clusters includes deep presence in select regions of NCR, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. In the coming months, it intends to deepen in those geographies by adding products and nearby clusters, while adding other new ones. Ofbusiness has built a robust technology platform that enables commerce from discovery to fulfilment, financiang and settlement for the entire ecosystem of internal users, buyers, suppliers, transporters and financiers. Ofbusiness is founded by Asish Mohapatra (ex-Mckinsey, Matrix and ITC), Ruchi Kalra (ex-Mckinsey partner) and Bhuvan Gupta (CTO, ex- Snapdeal and BSB). Other founding members include Nitin Jain (ex-RBS), Vasant Sridhar (ex-ITC), Biswajit Mishra (ex-DUET), Chandranshu (ex-Devfactory) and several senior members of ITC '“ indicating a great academic and functional spike across the management team.

Further information is available at www.ofbusiness.com

About Zodius Technology Opportunities Fund:

Zodius is an investment firm with over INR 1,000 crores invested across Tech, Digital and Services. Zodius invests in and actively develops high growth and market-defining India-centric businesses. The strong advisory team is based in Mumbai and adds significant domain expertise, operational experience and global networks to their portfolio companies in order to develop them as highly valued market leaders in both Indian and global markets. Zodius has invested in PepperFry (furniture), BigBasket (groceries), Zivame (lingerie), Culture Machine (media and tech), FreshMenu (food), Antuit (analytics), Allygrow (engg services), AppsDaily (mobile warranty), ZyFin (ETFs), MedGenome (bioinformatics genetics), etc.

Further information is available at www.zodius.com

About Matrix Partners India:

Matrix Partners India is an investment firm with INR 4,500 crore under management. The firm invests in companies targeting the Indian consumer market at the seed, early and early growth stages. The firm has invested in several market leading companies in the consumer technology space including Ola (local transportation), Quikr (online classifieds), Practo (digital health platform), Dailyhunt (mobile local language platform), Mswipe (mobile POS) , Stayzilla (short-term accommodations marketplace), Treebo (India's Leading Budget Hotel Brand), LimeRoad (mobile social commerce marketplace), Housejoy (local services marketplace) and Belong (recruitment + big-data platform) among others. Matrix Partners has a global network of funds investing in the US, China and India with US $4B under management.

Further information is available at www.matrixpartners.in

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