In his first solo personal investment, Flipkart chief executive officer (CEO) Kalyan Krishnamurthy has invested an undisclosed amount in Noida-based Moglix, a business-to-business (B2B) industrial goods marketplace backed by Ratan Tata and World Bank's IFC.
With this investment, Krishnamurthy joins Moglix’s individual investors that includes Jeff Epstein, former chief financial officer at Oracle, and Vikrampati Singhania and Shailesh Rao, ex-vice presidents at Twitter and Google, respectively, among others.
“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,” Krishnamurthy said in a statement.
It is not immediately clear whether Krishnamurthy will take an advisory role at Moglix or if the deal is a precursor to a potential business alliance between Moglix and Flipkart, India’s largest business-to-consumer e-commerce firm.
Started in 2015 by a former Google executive Rahul Garg with an aim of bringing in revolutionary and exciting solutions to the global e-commerce, Moglix.com is an online platform and a one stop shop for almost all the need of Industrial Tools (Power Tools, Hand Tools, Adhesives, Safety & Security and Electricals).
Rahul Garg, Founder and CEO, Moglix said, “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.”
Moglix, which competes with Tolexo and Industrybuying, has raised a total of $39.2 million in funding over six rounds, according to the data by Crunchbase.
Indian e-commerce market is expected to reach $120 billion by 2020, growing at an annual rate of 50% and globally, the B2B e-commerce almost doubling in size vis-à-vis the B2C e-commerce market and India is no exception to this. As the country is backed up by huge investments from global players, India is expected to be the next battle ground in the domain.