India’s Moglix enters UAE after funding round values it at $1bn

The online marketplace, which has a network of more than 16,000 suppliers, has set up base in Abu Dhabi's Kizad

Rahul Garg, Moglix’s founder and chief executive, says the company aims to use the UAE base as a gateway to the Middle East. Courtesy Moglix

Moglix, an industrial business-to-business marketplace in India, has entered the UAE market after raising $120 million in its latest funding round that valued the company at $1 billion.

The company is operating out the Khalifa Port Free Trade Zone in Abu Dhabi and plans to expand operations across the Middle East, it said in a statement.

Moglix is rolling out its B2B e-commerce platform, moglix.ae, that provides a digital catalogue of 500,000 industrial products across more than 50 categories. The platform will be fully operational in a few months, the company said.

“We are excited to enter the UAE ... [which] is a gateway to the GCC and a major hub of global commerce and innovation with a vision to transform into a digital economy,” Moglix’s founder and chief executive Rahul Garg said.

“The UAE government’s mission and investment in digital upskilling is unmatched and we are looking to collaborate with local talent to jointly drive digital transformation.”

Moglix provides solutions to more than 500,000 small and medium enterprises and 3,000 manufacturing plants. The start-up has raised $220m in financing to date giving it a $1bn valuation following a a Series E funding round, which was led by Falcon Edge Capital through their Abu Dhabi based Alpha Wave Ventures.

The company, which runs a network of more than 16,000 suppliers over 35 warehouses and logistics infrastructure, helps companies across the manufacturing and oil and gas sectors with end-to-end supply chain solutions from procurement to distribution.

Moglix connects suppliers with a fragmented buyer base through its data science-driven technology. The company said it aims to build a digital operating system in the UAE that is closely aligned with the digital initiative of the Emirates.

“Moglix demonstrates immense value addition to the manufacturing sector and has proven tangible ROI [return on investment] in India, which can be scaled globally, and is building a business with robust and sustainable unit economics,” Navroz D Udwadia, co-founder of Falcon Edge Capital, an investor in Moglix, said.

There are “significant procurement and efficiency benefits to buyers as well as scale and reach benefits to suppliers," he said.