Metalbook, a digital supply chain platform for the metals industry, has raised $5 million in seed funding led by Axilor Ventures. The round also saw participation from Foundamental, RTP Global, Stride Ventures and a few angel investors.
The Delhi-based startup has received its exports licence and has plans to scale to 12 other geographies with this fundraise. It also plans to use the capital to strengthen its global network of processing centres, build the team, and enhance its cloud factory platform.
Pulkit Baldev, Co-founder, Metalbook, said,
“We are here to provide a premium procurement experience to the consumer in the most orthodox industry having low tech penetration. India is currently the second largest steel producer, Metalbook aims to enable and expand the reach of Indian-make steel products to the whole world.”
Nandan Venkatachalam, Principal at Axilor Ventures who led the investment, commented,
“Verticalised full-stack platforms are the need of the hour for global supply chains. Metalbook’s platform is helping the iron and steel industry decentralise global supply and demand. With India as the second largest producer of steel, this is a great supply base for the company to start with as it begins global operations. The opportunity combined with the Metalbook team’s strong domain know-how on the segment were deciding factors in our investment.”
As per Pulkit, “The international market is a $3 trillion opportunity in itself which is ripe for disruption and we believe that we should successfully be able to replicate our success achieved in India to other geographies.”
Founded in 2021, Metalbook aims at digitising the global supply chain for the metal industry through its SaaS-enabled marketplace and cloud manufacturing platform.
The company said it works with over 500 global metal manufacturers, dealers, and suppliers across the value chain and currently caters to over 350+ customers, providing them with a premium metal procurement experience. It also works with global steel players such ArcelorMittal, Nippon Steel, Tata Steel, JSW, EU Metals, JSPL, etc., and several enterprise customers onboard such as DLF, BL Kashyap, Bygging, etc. Metalbook has plans to expand to other metal categories such as Aluminium, Zinc, etc.
Metalbook is co-founded by Pulkit Baldev, Aman Tibrewal, and Raghavendra Pratap Singh, who come in with domain expertise, having worked at companies such as Tata Steel, OfBusiness, JK Tyre, Uber, Loconav, Red Doorz, Oyo, etc.
Shubhankar Bhattacharya, General Partner at Foundamental, said,
“Steel supply chains represent a large market that forms the backbone of manufacturing and infrastructure, especially at a time when commodity access has been upended across the world. We are thrilled to be backing Raghavendra, Pulkit, and Aman as they scale Metalbook to become India’s largest marketplace for steel.”
Metalbook is currently doubling its top-line Q-o-Q, profitably, and aims to reach a $100 million+ run rate by FY24.
