Bizongo Granted Patent for A High Precision Internal Positioning System to Track Movement of Inventory, Equipment and Workforce

Builds moat around automation of warehouse and factories, setting a global benchmark for accuracy tracking of 10cm

Aims to offer higher accuracy and ease of installation to enable Indian manufacturers compete in the global arena of exports.

India's leading supply chain automation platform Bizongo, today announced securing a patent for its innovative technology, InLocate 6.0, a high precision internal positioning system that will transform tracking inventory, machinery and people with an accuracy of 10cm in indoor and outdoor environments. The patent has been recently granted to Clean Slate Technologies, acquired by Bizongo earlier this year, by the Government of India.

The granted patent, InLocate 6.0 will enable live location visibility, process monitoring, deviation alerts and provide data driven insights on inLog, a web based enterprise-ready, real-time locating systems (RTLS) - IIoT platform. Once deployed, the technology will fit seamlessly with Bizongo's vision of equipping 100 factories by 2023 with Internet of Things (IoT) to power Indian manufacturing and supply chain to compete in the global arena of exports.

With the Indian government hoping to have 25% of the economy's output come from manufacturing by 2025, Bizongo’s technology will help manufacturers, including some of the largest factories and warehouses in India optimize production by preventing inventory misplacement, minimizing inventory carrying costs, eliminating incorrect dispatches, increasing fulfillment throughput, improving overall equipment efficiency, and optimizing space utilization.

A bottleneck in the development of indoor positioning has been achieving the high accuracy at a lowered cost. While there are multiple indoor and outdoor positioning systems that work in an accuracy range of 2 to 20 meters, they offer limited efficiency and precision in managing flow of material in a warehouse or factory. Often a factory’s expensive man hours, which could be used to enhance productivity are spent searching the possible location of the goods. Here, Bizongo’s patented technology sets a global benchmark in enabling tracking of any object class with high precision accuracy.

A powerhouse of technology innovation, Bizongo has built a considerable moat in digitizing vendor management, supply chain automation and supply chain finance in the made-to-order or customized goods segment. While it initially started with bringing automation across the packaging industry, over the last three years Bizongo has expanded to several other segments including Textiles & Fashion, FMCG, Metals, Specialty Chemicals, Consumer Durables, Automobile, Healthcare and Construction.

Bizongo Co-founder and CEO, Sachin Agrawal said, "We are proud of our team at Clean Slate Technologies that has put in tremendous effort to build a technology that takes warehouse and factory shop floor management several notches higher in terms of visibility, insights and operations. Bizongo has continuously supported innovation and we are truly humbled to power teams that are building some of the best technologies in supply chain automation anywhere in the world. InLocate 6.0 is our contribution in taking Indian manufacturing right to the center of global trade."

Clean Slate Technologies Co-founder and CEO Siddharth Desai said, "It is a very humbling moment for all of us as the patent is a recognition of the power of home-grown innovation and Indian talent. Several of our large blue chip customers and global partners will benefit from InLocate6.0 to improve throughput, compress order-to-cash cycles, boost productivity, increase efficiency and cut costs."

inLocate 6.0 and inLog sets the foundation for powering digital twins of factories and warehouses which allow for MSMEs to run their factories and warehouses in the most productive and cost-efficient manner.

About Bizongo

Bizongo was founded in 2015 by three IIT graduates Aniket Deb, Sachin Agrawal, and Ankit Tomar, to digitally transform the fragmented and unorganized yet unique and ubiquitous B2B segment of customized goods. Today, the company focuses across made-to-order segments including packaging, textiles, apparel & other contract manufacturing goods as its product portfolio and has a network of over 6,300 partner factories. Through its proprietary digital platforms, such as Procure Live, Partner Hub, and Artwork Flow, Bizongo offers Digital Vendor Management, Supply Chain Automation & Supply Chain Financing as key services to its enterprise customers. The B2B e-commerce platform services 450+ enterprise customers in fashion & lifestyle, pharmaceuticals, consumer discretionary, consumer staples, home & personal care, and e-commerce. For more information on Bizongo, please visit https://www.bizongo.com

Bizongo in Talks for Series-C Funding, targets Fourfold Hike in Revenue by Next Fiscal

Multi-category packaging services provider Bizongo is in the process of raising fresh funds to finance ramping up of technology and product offerings as it targets fourfold jump in turnover to around Rs 1,600 crore by the next financial year, according to a top company official.

The Mumbai-based firm is betting on food delivery and e-commerce business to be among major growth drivers besides retail and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sectors, according to Bizongo Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Aniket Deb.

The company provides end-to-end automated packaging design, development, procurement and artwork solutions to its clients across industries such as FMCG, food, retail, consumer durables, supply chain and e-commerce.

"The Indian packaging industry is a USD 72-billion market currently and is growing at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 16 per cent. Bizongo is in the right place to leverage this huge opportunity as packaging is inextricably linked to India's consumption growth story," Deb told PTI.

People are buying more branded goods both online and offline, ordering more takeaways even in smaller cities and towns which means these segments will need more packaging, he added.

Elaborating on the company's plans to tap the opportunity, he said, "Our next big bet is the food delivery and e-commerce business which is growing at 31 per cent and 32 per cent, year-on-year, respectively. Retail and FMCG are the two other areas with huge growth potential."

The plans is, he said, to increase the company's footprint by bringing in more delivery pin codes but added Bizongo does not want to lose sight of serviceability.

"We believe our efforts will see an increase in the number of clients," Deb said.

Bizongo's current clients include Amazon India, Tata Cliq, Sesa Care, FirstCry, Curefit, Myntra, Flipkart, MI, Bunge, Agarwal Packers and Movers Ltd, Liso Chocolatier, Godrej Interio, Reliance Retail, Godrej Tyson, Johnson & Johnson.

Deb said the company currently has a "revenue run rate" of Rs 400 crore and "we expect to approximately grow around 4 times in the next financial year".

When asked if the company is looking to raise fresh funds, he said, "Bizongo's Series-C fundraising process is still on" but declined to share details.

So far, the company has up to USD 22 million through two rounds of funding. Its investors include Accel, Chiratae Ventures (formerly known as IDG Ventures), Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin's venture capital firm B Capital and World Bank's investment arm International Finance Corporation.

When asked where the funds would be deployed, he said it will be "in ramping up our tech and product offerings. We will also invest in our flagship product ProcureLive. This will help in on-boarding more clients and give us the bandwidth to curate more sellers on the platform which is crucial to our expansion plans".

In terms of manpower addition in line with the expansion, Deb said, "Bizongo currently has 554 employees on its rolls and we would increase it to 700-800 to match our expanded operations. One of the major focus areas is to bolster our technology/suite of products that we offer to our customers and partner sellers." PTI RKL

Bizongo Raises $3M in Series A Round from IDG Ventures and Accel Partners

B2B packaging marketplace Bizongo has announced a $3M Series A round of funding from IDG Ventures and existing investor Accel Partners.

Bizongo is based out of Mumbai, and was established by IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi alumni in 2015. Bizongo is the sole online B2B marketplace in the $17Bn+ complex packaging industry in India. Bizongo currently deals in products such as boxes, containers, pouches, bags etc which is frequently required in several industries such Food & Hospitality, FMCG, Retail & Wholesale, Ecommerce and several others. The company has served more than 3000 businesses in the last year. Bizongo platform aims to make business procurement an efficient and hassle-free process. Custom packaging and branding options are also available on the platform itself. Unbranded nature of products, lack of pricing standardization and heavy supply side fragmentation further ensures that Bizongo is able to add value through its online platform with very clear and transparent product listings.

The company plans to use the funds raised in expanding its seller base, building automation and improving its supply chain. The company also wants to expand its talent pool especially in the technology and operations domains.

Bizongo is also looking to partner with large corporates especially in retail and manufacturing and handle their procurement process end-to-end. “We are really excited to see what the future holds for us” says Founder and CEO, Aniket Deb.

“A B2B purchase is distinctly different from a consumer purchase. Businesses purchasing from us trust our in-depth catalogue, quality, on-time delivery and ease of purchase – and not just best price. The best part of our business is that we get over 50% of our monthly revenues from repeat customers.” revealed Aniket.

“We partnered with Bizongo in mid-2015 in their seed round. Bizongo has grown 100x in the last one year and has become a great example of a modern B2B commerce marketplace, that leverages technology to make business more convenient – in a very complex vertical that is packaging” – Prayank Swaroop, Principal, Accel.

“Packaging forms a very fundamental element of almost all business. With over 28,000 vendors in India the supply chain is extremely fragmented, IDGVI is very excited to partner with this team to build the largest platform for packaging materials in the country “ said Ranjith Menon Executive Director, IDG Ventures India.