Startups

India’s Infra.Market valued at $2.5B in Tiger Global-led $125M funding

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India tax department probe finds bogus purchases, undisclosed income by Infra.Market
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Infra.Market, an Indian startup that is helping construction and real estate companies in the world’s second-most populated nation procure materials and handle logistics for their projects, said on Tuesday it has secured its third financing round in the past nine months.

Tiger Global, which led the startup’s Series C round in February this year, has led the $125 million Series D financing round in the five-year-old startup. The new round valued Mumbai-headquartered Infra.Market at $2.5 billion (post-money), up from $1 billion in February and $200 million in December last year. The startup, which counts Nexus, Foundamental and Accel Partners among its investors, has raised about $275 million to date.

“We are delighted to double-down on our investment in Infra.Market. The team has demonstrated exceptional growth and continues to disrupt the construction materials industry. Over the past year, Infra.Market has become the go-to partner, especially during the pandemic when the traditional supply chains were disrupted,” said Scott Shleifer, partner, Tiger Global Management, in a statement.

Infra.Market, which competes with Lightspeed-backed Zetwerk, helps small businesses such as manufacturers of paints and cements improve the quality of their production and meet various compliances.

The startup adds its load cells to the manufacturing facilities of these small businesses to ensure there is no lapse in quality, and also helps them work with other businesses that can provide them with better raw material and provide guidance on pricing. It also works closely with businesses to ensure that their deliveries are made on time.

India poised for record VC year as unicorns head for decisive IPOs

These improvements, explained co-founder Souvik Sengupta, help small manufacturers land larger clients that have higher expectations from the businesses with which they engage. He said the startup has helped small manufacturers reach customers outside of India as well. Some of its clients are in Bangladesh, Malaysia, Singapore and Dubai.

“We continue to build on our vision of creating India’s largest multiproduct construction materials brand and transform the construction materials supply chain, not only in India, but also globally,” he said.

“We are also embarking on new business verticals within the construction ecosystem beyond materials to enable us to provide end to end solutions to our customers across the life cycle of a construction project. We are seeing huge growth in buyer wallet share as we are rapidly expanding our product portfolio and market presence and the launch of new verticals will help us fulfill our vision of creating a technology backed end to end construction solutions company.”

The startup, which said it expects to surpass $1 billion in sales by the end of this calendar year, plans to deploy the fresh fund to expand to new markets and also expand into new categories. It’s also looking to acquire younger firms, the startup said.

Tiger Global goes super aggressive in India

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