Brick2wall Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which runs an online marketplace for construction material and other related services, has raised $200,000 (Rs 1.3 crore) in an angel round from a clutch of individual investors, a top company executive told VCCircle.
According to the filings with the Registrar of Companies, former Standard Chartered Bank managing director and the incumbent director of Singapore-based Sage Ventures Subramani Somasundaram, Lazada founder Sundeep Sahni, and Mayank Mittal, a vice-president of a Germany-based Bank, has backed Brick2wall.com. A few other high net-worth individuals have also participated in this round.
Brick2wall co-founder Nishant Garg said the startup will use the funds to upgrade its technology infrastructure, increase customer reach and develop new business verticals in Delhi-NCR.
New Delhi-based law firm Burgeon Bizsupport represented Brick2wall in the deal.
The company, which was incorporated in July last year by brothers Nishant and Shashank, had also bagged the 2016 INSEAD Venture Competition award.
Nishant holds an MBA from INSEAD and a civil engineering degree from IIT Guwahati. He had earlier served as a business consultant with McKinsey & Co, while Shashank is a business management graduate with 10-plus years in the construction materials industry.
“We have a family business that has been operating in the industry for 50-plus years. We have seen its evolution and how things have changed, particularly in the past 15 years. There were massive inefficiencies in the value chain, dwindling trust in the supply chain and very little effort was being made to ease the construction process for end-consumers. This led to the foundation of Brick2wall,†said Nishant.
The company provides live prices of over 40,000 products, including building material, sanitaryware, tiles, plumbing, electricals, wall finish and wood work. It has a network of 500-plus vendors in Delhi-NCR. Brick2wall also has over 5,000 contractors listed on its platform. It is planning to launch a mobile app soon.
“Apart from buying building materials, customers also look for a construction partner. We do not sell the services of a contractor, it is more of a value-addition. The idea is to provide an end-to-end solution for the construction ecosystem,†he said, adding that Brick2wall has been clocking double-digit growth month-on-month.
Building material
Several building material marketplaces have emerged over the past two years. The sector estimated to be about $70 billion, has also attracted investor interest.
For instance, Noida-based MOGLILABS Pvt. Ltd, which operates online business-to-business industrial goods marketplace Moglix, had recently raised $12 million in a Series B round from International Finance Corporation, the private-sector investment arm of the World Bank, and Silicon Valley-based venture capital fund Rocketship. Moglix’ existing investors Accel Partners, Jungle Ventures, Venture Highway and former executive of Twitter and Google Shailesh Rao had also participated in the round.
Last year, Bengaluru-based BuildTraders, an online construction materials marketplace, had raised $200,000 in a fresh round from existing investor Idein Ventures, a Dubai headquartered early-stage venture capital firm.
However, a few startups in the space also had to shut shop. For instance, Buildzar.com, which was run by Gurgaon-based Glow Homes Technologies Pvt. Ltd, downed shutters late last year as it could not generate enough revenues to sustain.
Noida-based IndiaMART InterMESH Ltd, too, discontinued with the retail B2B arm of its online business goods marketplace, Tolexo, due to flagging sales following the government’s demonetisation move.
