Kalaari leads $9m round for India's Industrybuying

Industrybuying, which manages purchases of industrial equipment on a zero inventory model, said in a statement that it will use the funds to improve its platform, expand its vendor base and develop a nationwide sales team. Kalaari's Sumit Jain will join the board of Industrybuying's parent company MTech Engineering.

"We have watched Industrybuying.com take the lead in this space and are glad to become a part of its growth journey. We hope to leverage our learnings from B2C e-commerce and apply them to this wave of disruption in the B2B space," said Vani Kola, managing director at Kalaari.

Industrybuying was founded in 2013 by siblings Rohit and Swati Gupta with the aim of establishing a viable B2B business model in India, in line with foreign-based platforms such as Amazon Business or Alibaba Group's 1688.com. In February the company raised $2 million in Series A funding from SAIF.

Kalaari invests in early-stage, technology-oriented companies in India, especially companies that are pursuing innovative developments. Recent deals include a $2.5 million commitment to social media manager Crowdfire and a $3 million investment, along with Mayfield, in travel planning site TripHobo.

Beenext is a recently-launched venture capital fund run by Teruhide Sato, founder of Japanese e-commerce company Beenos.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Support services
• Expansion
• Venture
• India
• Kalaari Capital
• Growth capital
• Venture
• TMT