Japan's MonotaRO invests $15 mn in joint venture with Industrybuying.com

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Japan's MonotaRO Co Ltd has invested USD 15 million (about Rs 110.5 crore) in a joint venture with Emtex Engineering to grow the latter's SME (small and medium enterprises) e-commerce business in India.

Emtex Engineering operates Industrybuying.com. It has two businesses -- SME e-commerce and large enterprise.

MonotaRO will own 51.6 per cent stake in the JV, IB monotaRO Pvt Ltd, while the rest will be held by Emtex Engineering Pvt Ltd.

"As part of the deal, Emtex has transferred its SME business into the JV, and continues to grow its large enterprise businesses independently," a statement said.

Industrybuying.com now has access to MonotaRO's know-how, product portfolio, supplier network and e-commerce expertise to develop market leadership position in India.

MonotaRO gets entry into the large and emerging India B2B e-commerce market via a well established, profitable platform, the statement added.

"MonotaRO's deep e-commerce expertise and catalog of over 10 million products can propel India business to a highly profitable, IPOable growth trajectory in a very short time. So, we are excited to be partnering with them in this phase of our growth," Industrybuying.com CEO Swati Gupta said.

Parallely, the company will continue to grow its large enterprise and other businesses independently and profitably, she added.