MGF.com enters India, to invest $10 mn over 5 yrs

With India poised to become a major manufacturing hub, US-based online portal MGF.Com plans to tap this opportunity by providing a common trading platform for mid-size Indian manufacturing companies.

"India will be the next manufacturing hub after China as the latter is becoming costlier. We want to tap both the manufacturers and suppliers. We will be investing $10 million in the next 5 years in India," MGF.com's Founder and Chief Executive Officer Mitch Free told PTI here.

The company has opened an office in Bangalore last month and plans to invest $10 million (Rs 45 crore) over the next 5 years in technology, back-end operations and adding more workforce, Free said.

He said the company would recruit over 100 professionals in sales and marketing over the next 18 months.

Atlanta  headquartered MGF.com offers a faster, easier, efficient and cost-effective model to source manufacturing products compared to online directories and trade shows. It also helps buyers and suppliers witness the prevailing trend of demand and supply in their relevant sectors on a day-to-day basis.

"Our aim is to transform manufacturing sourcing into a single, on-demand service, enabling products to be sourced and built more easily, quickly and profitably and not just to work as a directory," Free said.

The company, which has a customer-base of 4-lakh, earns its revenues from subscriptions, Free said, adding that its rates start from $3,000-20,000 per subscriber.

At present it has offices in Atlanta, Geneva, Paris, Munich and Shanghai.

Free further stated that according to the Investment Commission of India, the manufacturing sector is estimated to touch $180 billion (Rs 8,10,000 crore) in the next five- years and thus there was a tremendous potential in this sector.

The company has a current turnover of $30 million (Rs 13.5 crore) but anticipates an exponential growth over the next five years.