Business-to-business vendor-digitisation platform Bizongo has announced the acquisition of FactoryPlus, a factory management app for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME).
Better Capital and Titan Capital, seed-stage investors in FactoryPlus, have secured an exit with the deal.
Bizongo declined ET’s request for comment on the commercials. But ET had reported in October that the company was in advanced discussions on an acquisition.
In 2022, Bizongo had acquired two companies: Hexa and Clean Slate Technologies.
The latest acquisition comes on the heels of the Mumbai-based startup firing about 15% of its workforce in October, immediately after a fresh fundraise of $50 million in October.
The Tiger Global-backed Bizongo was founded in 2015 by IIT graduates Sachin Agrawal, Aniket Deb and Ankit Tomar. It offers software-based vendor management and supply-chain automation and financing.
Over the years, Bizongo has changed its focus to various segments of vendor digitisation, from packaging, textiles and apparel to contract manufacturing. It has also been trying to shift focus from unsecured financing for vendors on its platform to raw material sourcing, primarily steel and aluminium.
FactoryPlus was founded by Vatsal Rustagi, Sparsh Koyarala and Bikash Dash in 2021 as an operating system for manufacturers to make factories smarter and cost-effective with technology.
The company will help integrate its mobile-first software-as-a-service capabilities into Bizongo, such as factory inventory management, real-time raw material prices, news feed and digital catalogues among others, as per a statement from Bizongo.
Post acquisition, local manufacturers on the integrated platform will be able to use an artificial intelligence-powered raw material procurement solution to source raw materials from vendors.
Bizongo will also facilitate embedded financing on the go to help manufacturers combat delays in raw material procurement and supply chain challenges arising from blocked working capital, the statement added.
“Integration with an industry leader like Bizongo will help take this idea to new heights and help unleash technology-led efficiency inside the factories and build data driven industrial supply chains,” Rustagi said in a statement.
The top three categories that FactoryPlus serves are metals, plastic and paper, which together make up 76% of the raw material demand from MSMEs on its platform.
Over 50% of the raw materials bought by SME vendors on Bizongo’s platform are steel and aluminium, while paper and polymer command about 15% each.
FactoryPlus has seen 40% month-on-month growth in revenues, the statement claimed.
