Gurugram based B2B e-commerce Power2SME announced today that it has raised $36 million in a Series E funding round led by its existing investors, Inventus Capital Partners, Accel, Kalaari Capital and Nandan Nilekani with participation from IFC.
The newly raised financing will be used by the company for its geographical expansion, introduce a new series of products and make further investments in sales and marketing resources.
Around 2 weeks ago, International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group invested $10 million in Power2SME. Since its inception in 2012, Power2SME has raised around $44.8 million in five funding rounds.
Currently, Power2SME operates in 14 states and has over 50,000 SMEs registered on its platform. It offers a digital ecosystem to small and medium-sized enterprises for material procurement, financing and buying. Its goal is to make all SMEs bankable coupled with improved efficiency. They have amicable relationships with various financial institutions and the banking sector that assist SMEs in succeeding.
The company’s overall growth is just magnificent. In the past one year, Power2SME has had a dramatic growth rate of 2.6 times. In November 2016, it achieved a substantial profitability. With the recent takeover of the tax scheme by GST, the company will further be able to expand its reach in non-operational markets. The company has estimated that in next five years, this will raise the number of transacting SMEs on its platform by up to 10 times.
Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises have a major share in India’s economy. They account for 45% of India’s industrial output and 40% of its exports. Most of these enterprises find it difficult to pull loans from banks. Against a total demand of a whopping $500 billion, the drawn funds account for only $320 billion. Considering the current scenario of SMEs and with the government’s Make In India initiative, companies like Power2SME seem to have a bright future.
Power2SME is currently one of the leading companies in the B2B digital ecosystem and their growth rate has been remarkable.
