Power2SME to raise Rs 100 cr funding in six months

Power2SME, the B2B buying club for SMEs in the country, plans to raise up to Rs 100 crore in the next two quarters to fund its expansion plans.
The Gurgaon-based firm, which counts Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital and Inventus Capital among its investors, buys raw materials directly from manufacturers to sell to the small businesses, cutting out the middle link of distributors and wholesalers and lowering prices for the SMEs.
"We are currently present in eight states and in the next two years, we want to expand to 12-16 states. We are already there in places like Delhi-NCR, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and will start with Tamil Nadu and West Bengal soon," Power2SME CEO R Narayan told PTI.

"In series A and B, we have raised about Rs 50 crore in total. In the next two quarters, we are looking at raising between Rs 80-100 crore to fund our growth plans," Narayan said.
He added that there could be a new lead investor for the new round of funding.
The two-year old firm is looking at closing the year with more than Rs 150 crore in revenues this year.

"Last year, we had revenues of 65 crore and we already have 18,000 SMEs on board. Power2SME has become an important destination for SMEs for their business needs," he added.

Besides, Power2SME is also making significant investment in technology to strengthen its operating platform.
He said technology has helped open up significant business opportunity for SMEs.
"SMEs operate on low margins. The extra money (savings can go upto 30-35 per cent) they get after working with Power2SME can be utilised for various efforts including sales and marketing initiatives that brings in more business for the SMEs," he said.
"The power of the SME sector is largely untapped and it has a huge growth potential. SMEs account for 39 per cent of the USD 129 billion Indian steel, polymer and metal industry, the area where we operate...The potential is tremendous," he said.