In October last year, the Kanoria Foundation-controlled Srei Infra, launched iQuippo, an online portal, to tap into the $1-billion used construction equipment space in India.

A year down the line, iQuippo has been hived off as a separate company (iQuippo Ltd) under the Kanoria Foundation, and it now operates as a full-fledged e-commerce platform for buying, selling and financing of both used and new construction equipments.

The company, now headed by its 27-year-old CEO Anant Raj Kanoria – son of Sunil Kanoria, Vice-Chairman of Srei Infra – has brought in a set of young professionals who have mostly worked in start-ups.

“iQuippo was becoming a digital extension of Srei, but we wanted to have it as a full-fledged e-com portal,” Kanoria told BusinessLine .

According to him, the portal follows a marketplace model – it will not be stocking or owning any equipment on its own. Instead, it will facilitate listing by buyers, sellers and service providers. The portal earns fee-based income.

iQuippo has already tied up with equipment makers (such as M&M, L&T and JCB) for listing their offerings.

It will also offer e-auction and valuation services for used equipments. Over the last six months, the company reported a GMV of ₹1,500 crore and has 18,000 registered users.

In fact, iQuippo is now exploring the possibility of tapping the used construction equipment market in Africa and West Asia.

According to Kanoria, around 4-5 used cranes and excavators were purchased through the platform by contractors in Kenya and Tanzania.

This gave him the idea to expand the company’s reach to these markets.

Although the company intends to raise ₹100 crore in FY19 from private equities, it is also open to options such as strategic partnerships, tie-ups with equipment dealers or European construction equipment trading companies for its overseas foray.

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