Deal. OfBusiness raises $325 million in Series G funding

Raw material procurement and SME lending company OfBusiness has raised $325 million in Series G funding from Alpha Wave Ventures II, Tiger Global Management and Softbank Vision Fund 2.

This round has grown the company’s valuation to $5 billion. Other investors such as Norwest Venture Partners, Matrix Partners India, Zodius Technologies, Pantherea Growth Fund and Marshall Wace also participated in the round.

Asish Mohapatra, CEO, OfBusiness, told

BusinessLine that a substantial part of the fund-raise, $140 million out of the total funding amount, is liquidation for early investors, who have taken a partial exit from the company.

“With this funding, the aim is to do a lot of M&As in our related fields, for example, we are getting into private labels, contract manufacturing and dealerships. So, one objective is the expansion of the market by getting into better supply chains, largely through the acquisition route. Second, we will invest in the technology products that we are building on the financial services arm of our business and our SaaS business,” Mohapatra added.

Valuation

OfBusiness was last valued at $3 billion in September when it raised $207 million from Tiger Global. “Our commerce business has grown by about 4.2 times in the past nine months in terms of revenue and the financing business is 2 times year-on-year right now. The growth in our valuation is largely a function of growth. For us, the opportunity to raise was from the point that we plan to do M&As,” said Mohapatra. OfBusiness aims to do an IPO in 9-12 months.

OFB Tech (OfBusiness) is a tech platform that facilitates raw material procurement and credit for SMEs, with a focus in the manufacturing and infrastructure sectors.

The company integrates technology to SMEs’ buying behaviour to provide them with better products at good prices. Key raw materials include metals, chemicals, polymers, agri commodities, petrochemicals, and building materials.