Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy Invests in Ratan Tata-backed B2B Industrial Goods e-Marketplace, Moglix

Moglix, a Ratan Tata-backed company and India’s leading B2B industrial goods e-marketplace, today announced an expansion in its marquee investor base with a personal investment from Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO of Flipkart. The investment, which is Mr. Krishnamurthy’s first individual backing of a company in the B2B e-commerce space, follows a Series C funding round that raised $23 million for Moglix in December.
India’s B2B e-commerce market is expected to expand significantly over the coming decade, making it a major growth area for the economy. Research suggests it will likely assume a size that will be double the estimated USD 200 billion market of B2C e-commerce by 2026. Technological disruptions however remain key with a vast majority of the existing B2B market still in the unorganized space in India.
With a robust team comprising of over 450+ people, Moglix currently operates across 12 centres in India and caters to both institutional customers (B2B) and individual customers (B2C) in the manufacturing sector.It currently focuses on the automotive, metals, mining, and fast-moving consumer durables (FMCD) markets.
Moglix’s existing investors include Accel Partners, Jungle Ventures, Venture Highway and International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group, Shailesh Rao and InnoVen Capital. They participated in company’s Series C funding round, raising USD 23 million to support Moglix in strengthening its B2B distribution network and supply chain across India and expanding into new market segments.
Welcoming the investment from Kalyan Krishnamurthy,Rahul Garg, Founder & CEO, Moglixsaid, “It’s great to have Kalyan back us as an investor and join an illustrious list of global investors who have believed in Moglix’s potential. Kalyan has played an important role in shaping e-commerce in India and his experience in scaling businesses will serve as a guiding light for us as we execute on our vision to transform B2B commerce and the Indian manufacturing sector using technology and innovation.”
Mr. Krishnamurthy is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Flipkart and also holds overall responsibility for leading fashion portals Myntra and Jabong. In prior roles, he served as the Managing Director at Tiger Global Management LLC and as Director, Financial Planning & Analysis at eBay South-Asia.
“I am happy to join the Moglix team as an investor in my personal capacity. Moglix, under Rahul’s leadership, has charted impressive growth in the B2B commerce space and is creating meaningful impact on the manufacturing industry through innovative use of technology. It is gratifying to be able to support this home-grown industrial B2B leader at this important juncture,” saidKalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO, Flipkart.
Moglix was recently recognised as the fastest growing company in APAC (ex-China) by Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific Program. Its Board of Advisors has manufacturing and technology experts including Tata Group Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata, Jeff Epstein, former CFO of Oracle, Vikrampati Singhania, Director, JK Group, Jim Baum, former President and CEO, Netezza and Shailesh Rao, Ex-VP Twitter and Google.