Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Group's business-to-business online shopping hand JSW One Platforms declared a Rs 205-crore fundraising from Japan's Mitsui & Co. The funding, which is also the maiden capital enhancement from an institutional shareholder, has been done at a valuation of Rs 2,750 crore, as per an official statement. The $22-billion conglomerate launched the business in July 2021 aiming to leverage on its expertise in manufacturing and building materials, tech-enabled logistics, and credit, to be a platform of choice for MSMEs and enterprises in India.
It plans to use the funds to strengthen its market presence and enhance tech capabilities, the statement said, adding it is expanding operations in newer geographies such as NCR, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh. It will also invest in credit, logistics, and technology stack to improve customer experience.
Masaharu Okubo, the country chairperson of Mitsui, said the investment should be seen as one which signals its belief in the firm's robust business model and also long-term growth prospects of the B2B ecommerce space. JSW One Platforms' chief executive Gaurav Sachdeva said Mitsui has prior experience of working in the B2B space.
"Their investment will help us penetrate deeper into the industrial and construction industries. We also look forward to bringing other industry segments onto the platform and will continue to leverage technology to be an industry-leading platform for MSMEs," he added. Parth Jindal, director of the company, said India is home to five lakh MSMEs in the building and manufacturing sector, and the company aims to supply building materials to them.
Other key players in the infrastructure space, especially Birla and L&T, have plans or are already operating dedicated e-commerce platforms. JSW is targeting to invest up to Rs. 4,000 crores for the ecommerce business by FY27. Sachdeva had previously said it will start looking for external investors after hitting a gross market value of the goods sold on the platform at $1 billion per year.
The company, which is funded by the JSW group's cement, steel and paints arms, aims to break even and start registering profits by FY27, at which point of time it is targeting to have a GMV of USD 5 billion on the platform.