India's Moglix raises $120m Series E at $1b valuation
Indian B2B services player Moglix has raised a $120 million Series E round led by Falcon Edge Capital and Harvard Management Company at a valuation of $1 billion.
Tiger Global Management, Sequoia Capital India, and Venture Highway also participated. It brings total funds raised since inception in 2015 to $220 million, including a $60 million Series D provided by Tiger, Sequoia India, and Composite Capital in 2019. Previous investors also include Jungle Ventures, Rocketship.vc, Accel Partners, SeedPlus Singapore, and InnoVen Capital.
Moglix claims to be the largest and fastest growing platform of its kind in India. The company's core offering is an industrial goods and services procurement marketplace primarily serving the manufacturing sector. It is also developing an operating system that will cover packaging and supply chain financing.
The platform has 500,000 stockkeeping units and a supply chain network of around 16,000 suppliers and 35 warehouses and logistics facilities. It is used by more than 500,000 small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and 3,000 factories across India, Singapore, the UK and the United Arab Emirates.
The client base also includes significant manufacturers such as Hero MotoCorp and Tata Steel, as well as large public sector players the likes of Air India. Fast-moving consumer goods giant Unilver uses Moglix for about $30 billion of material spend a year.
The capital injection is expected to support an expansion in Europe and the Middle East, which Falcon Edge has existing networks. Moglix has also pledged to help solve challenges around distribution and sharing of oxygen concentrators related to an ongoing spike in COVID-19 transmissions. The company has been active this year in protective equipment distribution in more than 20 virus-hit countries.
"We are strong believers in [Moglix CEO and founder Rahul Garg], his first-mover advantage, his full-stack solution for under-serviced customers, and his ability to drive robust unit economics," Navroz Udwadia," a co-founder of Falcon Edge, said in a statement. "Moglix's distinctive customer value proposition and ROI [return on investment] are visible in its outstanding customer and revenue retention numbers."
Falcon Edge was active in this space as recently as last month, when it led a $110 million round for OfBusiness at a post-money valuation of $800 million. OfBusiness runs a marketplace that offers a similar suite of supply chain and procurement services for manufacturing and construction SMEs. It is also seen as positioned to enter the Middle East.
Indian B2B and SME supply chain marketplaces have proven attractive to private equity, especially where technology upgrades and international expansions can be facilitated. The leader in this category is arguably Udaan, which has raised about $1.1 billion since 2018, including a $280 million round earlier this year. Udaan has differentiated itself to some extent through a focus on India's rapidly digitizing micro-businesses sector and e-commerce logistics.
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