Power2SME Raises $ 36 Million for Innovation Led Business Expansion

Power2SME announced that it has secured an additional $36 million USD in capital for its Series E Financing round, in order to continue its meteoric growth and dominance as a B2B Digital Ecosystem platform for SMEs.  The latest round, representing the largest deal size for Power2SME, is a co-investment by its existing investors Inventus Capital Partners, Accel, Kalaari Capital and Nandan Nilekani with participation from IFC, a member of the World Bank Group.

Completing 6 years in January 2018, Power2SME pioneered the category of the B2B Buying Club for SMEs and boasts of a strong digital ecosystem platform for SMEs. Power2SME which commenced operations in 2012, offers a digital SME ecosystem that addresses some key SME challenges with the firm’s ‘enterprise grade solutions’ for SMEs. Its increased portfolio offering – addresses challenges in raw material procurement, Finance and MRO needs. Its B2B raw materials buying club (Power2SME.com) aggregates demand from SMEs for most commonly acquired raw materials (such as steel, polymers, yarns, chemical, etc.) and procures and sells these at competitive prices. Raw material accounts for 70 percent of the recurring costs of manufacturing SMEs every month. Second, its platform (FinanSME.com) connects empaneled lenders with SMEs in order to provide working capital finance at better terms from banks and non-banking financial institutions for purchases on Power2SME. Third is a one stop shop addressing SME MRO needs (SMEShops.com) to meet the growing and frequent requirements of SME buyers for consumable industrial goods.

Today Power2SME, operates out of 7 offices and 14 states in India and has a current employee strength of 250.  With a registered SME base of 50,000 SMEs, the company is steadfast in building India’s No1 digital ecosystem for SMEs delivering raw material procurement at competitive prices and access to finance at improved rates of interest thus driving higher efficiencies and profitability.

Power2SME’s fast paced growth has been driven by dramatic year on year growth of 2.6 times. The firm achieved profitability in November 2016. Implementation of GST will further enable expansion of Power2SME into non-operational markets with ease thereby increasing the number of SMEs it can reach out to, thereby increasing the number of transacting SMEs on its platforms by up to ten times in the next five years.

Power2SME will use the additional financing to continue geo expansion, accelerate product growth and innovation, invest in additional sales and marketing resources, and continue evaluating strategic acquisition opportunities.

“Power2SME’s goal is to empower SMEs to reach efficiencies of scale thus driving profitability for them. Our work has been driven by our vision to make SMEs bankable. Our deep networks and relationships with the banking sector and financial institutions helps us to make our SMEs succeed like never before," says R Narayan, Founder and CEO, Power2SME.  “This capital gives us additional resources to expand quickly and strategically into new markets, innovate rapidly, and deliver on our vision.”

“As demonstrated by their remarkable growth and widespread adoption, Power2SME clearly leads the market in the development and delivery of an Impactful B2B digital ecosystem,” says Parag Dhol, MD, Inventus Capital Partners. “Our investment will help Power2SME capitalize on the growing demand for their solutions, and accelerate the company’s pace of product innovation.”

Mahendran Balachandran, Partner, Accel expressed that “Power2SME is the largest B2B commerce platform in India focused on delivering extraordinary value to SMEs, be it access to raw materials at highly competitive prices, access to working capital and introducing new technologies to improve procurement efficiency.”

“In 2012, we invested in Power2SME because we believed in SME growth story.” Says Vani Kola, MD, Kalaari Capital. “Since then, Power2SME has shown proof of concept of its procurement offering as well as its finance offering and has emerged as a leader in its category. For India, SME growth and empowerment will help in bringing up the GDP contribution of the sector to the nation and Power2SME is leading this change from the front. We are committed to helping the team become the dominant player in this market.”

“MSMEs will play a critical role in making India a manufacturing hub; and thereby make the growth process more inclusive. The opportunity for both the government and private players such as Power2SME is large and focused and continued contribution could well bridge financial inclusion for the sector.” Says, Nandan Nilekani, Co –Founder and Non-exec Chairman Infosys Ltd.

“Our investment in Power2SME will spur greater VC interest in the SME sector in the country and support India’s vision to become a global manufacturing hub,” said Ruchira Shukla, South Asia Regional Lead for Venture Capital at IFC, World Bank Group. “By working with SME-focused companies and partner financial institutions, we aim to improve access to finance for over one million SMEs in the next five years. Bridging the financing gap for women-owned enterprises is also a key focus for IFC’s strategy in India.”

Micro, small and medium enterprises form a large part of the Indian economy, accounting for 45 percent of the country’s industrial output and 40 percent of its exports. There are 48.8 million MSMEs in India, which employ 111 million people. There is critical shortage of long-term funding for the sector. Some estimates put the gap at $320 billion against a total of demand of $500 billion. India has the largest base of SMEs in the world after China, however Indian SMEs contribute only 8-10 per cent to the nations GDP as compared to 60 per cent contribution by SMEs in China. This is a huge opportunity for both the government and Industry.