Funding alert- Bizongo raises USD 110 million in funding. What a piece of exciting news it is!
Let us talk about funding. Funding is the method, a way to pour in funds in any business. We all know the value of funding and the benefits it brings along with it- it helps the business in carrying out the daily activities, helps in increasing the working capital.
A business with extra funds can always employ new personnel and human force. It can always invest in modern technology and complex machines which actually make the work easy and simple.
And in the end, a business with an extra portion of funds at its disposal can always plan for the expansion of the business, wherein it can even introduce new lines of business. It can go for domestic expansion and in many cases for international expansion even.
We all know that the last year, which is 2020, had seen a lot of suffering. The COVID 19 was declared a pandemic and the world was under lockdown. The economy had stopped functioning and there was no movement happening.
People had lost their jobs, many businesses were completely closed and their offices shut off because of lack of funds and no customers to buy a product or avail a service. Most of the businesses were at a loss.
That time was a period of tension and hustle. Nobody knew what would happen when and life seemed so unpredictable and uncertain.
But the economy has opened up as of now, the virus is not as disastrous currently, but we don’t know of the future! We are now hearing news of fundings, acquisitions, mergers, takeovers, daily, thus showing that the economy is moving and is in action.
So, let us now talk about the funding of the startup which has taken place recently.
About the funding of the startup
The startup, Bizongo, has raised funds of USD 110 million, which equals to INR 825 crores, as announced on December 06, 2021. This round of funding was the Series D round of funding and was led by Tiger Global Management, which is based in New York.
The hedge fund will put in the startup INR 337 crore in this round of funding. The other participants of this round of funding are B- Capital, CDC Group (which is UK-based), Add Ventures, International Finance Corporation, Chiratae Ventures, and Castle Investments.
B Capital and CDC Group will be together investing in INR 131 crore. Post this round of funding, the startup has come up to the value of USD 570 million. Previous to this round of funding, the startup eight months before had raised USD 52 million.
That round of funding was the Series C round of funding. The participants in that round of funding were CDC Group (UK-based), International Finance Corporation, Bruno Raschle, Accel(an existing investor), and Schroder Adveq(Switzerland-based hedge fund).
The startup in total has raised USD 187 million to date. There was also news that the startup was in discussion and talks to raise funds from marquee investors.
About the newly funded startup
The startup, Bizongo, was founded in the year 2015 by Aniket Deb, Sachin Agarwal, and Ankit Tomar, all three being IIT graduates. The startup aims at digitally transforming the fragmented and unorganized yet unique and ubiquitous B2B segment of customized goods.
Today, the focus and the line of the business of the startup is on packaging, textiles, apparel, and other contract manufacturing goods as its product portfolio and has a network of more than 1500 curated manufacturers across these categories.
It has proprietary digital platforms like Procure Live, Partner Hub, and Artwork Flow. Through these platforms, the startup offers Digital Vendor Management, Supply Chain Automation, and Supply Chain Financing as its key services to its enterprise customers.
The B2B e-commerce platform has more than 120 enterprise customers in fashion and lifestyle, pharmaceuticals, customer discretionary, consumer staples, home, and personal care, and e-commerce.
Some of the figures on which the startup boasts itself are-
It has more than 1500 manufacturers across the nation.
It has more than 2 million tonnes in total monthly capacity.
It has more than 120 enterprise clients.
It has more than 860 million units delivered.
The startup is engaged in manufacturing carry bags, material handling equipment, protective packaging, pouches, and tubes, non-paper-based packaging, containers, cans, shippers, paper products, bulk packaging, cartons, and more.
It is in collaboration and partnership with big names like Flipkart which is owned by Walmart, Ecom Express which is IPO bound, Tata Cliq, Licious, and many others.
Talking about the financials and the accounts of the startup, it has shown a loss of INR 134.56 crore in the financial year 2020, which is a 118% rise from INR 61.6 crore which was in the financial year 2019.
The total operating revenue in the year 2020 has shown a 106% rise as compared to the financial year 2019, wherein 2019 it was INR 119.96 crore and in the year 2020, it was INR 61.6 crore.
Talking about its competitors,the startup is in competition with Vistaprint’s, Bambrew, Sirion Labs, Zoho, and Freshworks.
About Tiger Global Management
Founded in March 2001, Tiger Global Management is an American investment firm, with a focus primarily on the internet, software, consumer, and financial technology. It was founded by Chase Coleman III and has its headquarters in New York, United States.
It has around 100 employees and some of the notable investments are-
Alibaba, DST Global, Spotify, Yandex, Coinbase, Byju’s, Facebook, Flipkart, Glassdoor, Quora, Yandex, Linkedln, Carta, and many others.
The startup is doing great and we wish the startup nothing but good luck and a bright future ahead.
