IndiaMART acquires 26% stake in IB Monotaro

Partners with Japan based firm to build India’s largest B2B e-commerce platform in MRO category

IndiaMart, the largest B2B marketplace of India, has acquired 26% (on fully diluted basis) share capital of IB Monotaro Private Limited (“Industry Buying”). The company acquired 8.1 lakh shares from Emtex Engineering Private Limited for a total consideration of INR 104.2 Cr.

Pursuant to this transaction, MonotaRO Co. Ltd. (Japan) will hold 51.6% stake, IndiaMart will hold 26% stake and Emtex Engineering Pvt Ltd (representing the promoter group and early investors) will hold 22.4% stake in Industry Buying.

Along with the core capabilities of discovery and conversation, this investment is aligned to the strategic vision of IndiaMART to enable commerce for the MSMEs. MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Operations Supplies) is a USD 50Bn market in India and is growing at a CAGR of 12% YoY. With the increased adoption of internet and GST shifting the market to online platforms, this tie-up possesses an opportunity for both IndiaMART and MonotaRO.

Speaking about the investment, Mr. Dinesh Agarwal, founder and MD of IndiaMART said “This transaction is a part of strategic initiative of moving towards commerce enablement. Category experience of MonotaRO combined with the IndiaMart leverage over buyers and suppliers in the domestic market will help in the future growth and expansion of this company.”

Masaya Suzuki, CEO, MonotaRO Japan commented “This capital participation by IndiaMart will further accelerate IB Monotaro’s growth in India, leveraging the B2B MRO e-commerce expertise MonotaRO has built up in Japan. We aim to become the leading B2B e-commerce platform in India”

Swati Gupta, CEO IMPL commented “IndiaMart is the largest online B2B marketplace in India. MonotaRO possess expertise in the industrial B2B ecommerce and IndiaMart has deep understanding about the Indian markets. We are very excited to partner with both of them and take industrybuying.com to new heights in the coming years”