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Procurement technology company NowPurchase, which works in the metal manufacturing industry, has raised $2.4 million in a seed funding round led by Orios and InfoEdge Ventures. Angel investor Neeraj Arora — a previous Global Business Head of Whatsapp and Co-Founder of HalloApp — also participated in the round.
The Kolkata-based company will use the new funds to expand its business into other parts of India and establish a global supplier base. It also plans to strengthen its technology team and procurement platform, and its manufacturing intelligence software — MetalCloud.
In an official statement, Naman Shah, Founder & CEO, NowPurchase, said, “Metal is the primary building block of the physical world and will remain so in the foreseeable future. As a result, it is critical that we are able to manufacture metal efficiently. The source and quality of raw materials has a significant impact on metal manufacturing efficiency. NowPurchase is a one-stop procurement platform for these raw materials and we believe that efficient raw material sourcing can have a significant positive impact on the metal manufacturing industry.”
Aakash Shah, Founding Director, NowPurchase, said, “Such a strong investor interest validates our model of going deep within a customer segment and building a strong repeatable and predictable business model.”
Vinit Bhansali, Senior Vice President at Orios Venture Partners, said, “Digitising procurement is a critical milestone and one of the most important gaps that remains to be filled in India's manufacturing sector. NowPurchase's tech-first platform will be a game changer in this space.”
Kitty Agarwal, Partner at InfoEdge Ventures, said “We are very excited to partner with NowPurchase in their journey to become a disruptor in cloud procurement in the metal manufacturing industry. India has a strong advantage in production and conversion costs in key metals and NowPurchase’s innovative solution ensures transparent and efficient procurement for metal manufacturers.”
NowPurchase provides its users with a WhatsApp bot to discover prices and stock in real time, a dedicated technically-trained team to provide on-ground service and quality assurance, and access to proprietary software MetalCloud to optimise the manufacturing process.
The company was founded in 2017 by Naman Shah and Aakash Shah, with an initial investment of $300,000 from Nipha Group. NowPurchase now has nearly 100 foundries on the platform, with 70 of them transacting monthly.
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