Tiger leads $100m Series C for India's Infra.Market

Existing investors Evolvence India Fund, Accel Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, Russia's Sistema Asia Fund, and US venture firm Fundamental also participated.

Evolvence led a $20 million Series B in December that was followed up last month with a separate $6.8 million investment from InnoVen Capital India. Tiger, Accel, and Nexus co-led a $20 million Series A in 2019. Total funding to date comes to around $155 million, according to AVCJ Research.

Founded in 2016, Infra.Market aims to facilitate procurement in the $140 million local construction materials space by aggregating the capacity of small manufacturers and connecting customers with suppliers on a B2B basis.

The company also has a direct-to-retail business for its own-branded materials. The idea is to resolve common industry issues around transparency, unreliable quality, a fragmented vendor base, and inefficient logistics.

Infra.Market claims to be growing at a rate of 4x year-on-year, with more than two-thirds of sales coming from its own brands. Operations extend across 10 states in India, while export markets include Singapore, Bangladesh, and United Arab Emirates.

The company expects to benefit significantly from the 34% increase in allocation for infrastructure projects in the 2021 Union Budget of India.

"Infra.Market … is reshaping India's construction materials supply chain," Scott Shleifer, a partner at Tiger Global, said in a statement. "With pioneering technology innovation and the ability to stitch together private label brands, Infra.Market is positioned for strong growth, healthy economics and profitability."

B2B supply chain marketplaces that streamline processes in India's fragmented industrial sectors are a popular investment category. PE and VC-backed standouts in this space include OfBusiness, which also helps construction companies procure raw materials, and Udaan, which offers a range of online logistical and subcontracting services.

Earlier this month, US-based Greenoaks Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners led a $120 million round for Bengaluru-based Zetwerk, a marketplace for outsourcing small manufacturing jobs. Zetwerk's investors also include Accel and InnoVen. Lightspeed is an investor in Udaan.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Industrials
• Support services
• Expansion
• India
• Tiger Global Management
• Evolvence Capital
• Accel Partners
• Sistema Asia Fund
• Logistics
• SME