Infibeam to foray into UAE market

With a foray into the United Arab Emirates (UAE) through its Buildabazaar platform, Infibeam is set to become first Indian e-commerce player to go overseas. The company has lined up three large clients even as 5-6 more are in pipeline.

Out of the three clients, while one is the largest retailer of UAE by number of stores (300 stores) and does a topline of $ 1 billion, another is a private mobile virtual network operator who will go live in December. Yet another client is an electronics chain to go live in January 2014 by volume largest retailer in UAE with a $ 3 billion topline. "We have also entered into a large partnership in UAE with a government telecom company," said Manu Midha, VP strategy and planning, Infibeam.com.

Based out of Ahmedabad, Buildabazaar.com is Infibeam's cloud based e-commerce platform which has completed close to 18,000 e-commerce store implementations since its launch in 2011. Buildabazaar offers a self-service online selling platform to sellers who can set up their own websites using Buildabazaar platform. The platform comes with all the e-commerce features of product upload, promotions, accounting, analytics, payment gateway, logistics and reporting.

The company has successfully implemented the platform for a wide variety of large retailers in India ranging from TheMobileStore (www.themobilestore.in), Crossword (www.crossword.in), VijaySales (www.vijaysales.com), VIP bags (shop.vipbags.com) as well as small and medium enterprises such as Bookmywish, Mumbaibookstore, Netbhet, TheElementFactory and others.

According to Midha, to facilitate its clients in UAE, Buildabazaar has been ported into 20 languages including Arabic, apart from supporting all currencies. "UAE merchants can also ship to Oman, Qatar and Egypt using our platform," he said.

What's more, bullish about its international business, Infibeam is planning to expand its global presence. The company is looking at global expansion wherein it will Buildabazaar to other markets. 'We will expand internationally in across 10 nations in 12 months including Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, Africa, Europe and South East Asia," said Vishal Mehta, founder and CEO, Infibeam.com.

Total transactions on Buildabazaar are valued at $ 62 million whereas, Infibeam and Buildabazaar together have a turnover of Rs 1000 crore, CAGR of which is expected to be 100 per cent for the fiscal 2013-14.

Total investment in both the companies has been around Rs 100 crore. A year and half back, a private equity (PE) firm invested around Rs 40 crore. "Overall, Infibeam looks to be profitable by 2013-14 end," said Midha.

According to Mehta, Buildabazaar is the reverse of market place model. "Market place is building IPR without allowing sellers to own anything. We want to allow sellers to grow with their own means," he said.

In terms of product deliver, Buildabazaar offers sellers to ship it themselves with the courier service being integrated with the platform.

The sellers can also use Buildabazaar's infrastructure where the company helps them ship their products, apart from allowing sellers to use its warehouses.