Reserve Bank (RBI) approved TReDS platform, M1xchange has raised $4.5 million in equity round funding from Singapore based BENEEXT Asia, and Mayfield.
“The company will use the new round funding to expand its network across India, and to emerge as comprehensive supply chain finance leaders,” M1xchange in its statement said.
Founded in 2017 under license from RBI, M1xchange has scaled up to discount invoices worth more than Rs 10,000 crore. Some of their USPs include being a bank agnostic platform with 35 banks on-board.
Speaking on the Fundraise, Sundeep Mohindru, CEO of M1xchange believes, “The pandemic has had a profound effect on supply chains, businesses, and economies. In the last few months, the substantial positive movement has been felt for growth in business volumes versus the previous quarter and this is also reflected in the surge in volumes on M1xchange (TReDS).”
“MSMEs across 352 Cities have logged into TReDS Platform since Pandemic time and have discounted invoices at a rate of interest ranging between 4.75% pa to 8% pa. 60% of such MSME Enterprises are from Tier 3 & Tier 4 Cities and can take the benefit of this digital revolution. In coming days this secured marketplace for receivables financing will be integrated with other government digital initiatives,”
“M1xchange plans to utilize the investment over a few years to enhance its market reach and further evolve the technology for ease of use. The newer models of Supply chain financing and the resultant technology will be deployed in coming months”, Sundeep said.
Adding to the statement, Sundeep further said, “This has been of great help since many MSMEs have been able to reach out directly to the TReDS platforms and get themselves registered with us. There has been considerable participation from corporates in the last 8 months (post lockdown) as they witnessed merit in Supply chain finance, as a means for the reduction in their Business cost and providing cash flow support to their suppliers under the revised definition. PSUs have also started to allow their MSME suppliers to transact on the platform during the last few months. Some of these are, IOCL, BPCL, NTPC, ONGC, Power Grid, HAL, EIL, etc. The PSUs are working on gearing up to the digital handling of their MSME suppliers to maximize the advantages of the platform.”
Commenting on the investment in M1xchange, Hero Choudhary, Partner at BEENEXT, said, “We are very excited to partner with M1xchange in their journey. COVID-19 has accelerated digitization of cash, digitization of SME workflow and payments, commerce penetration into tier 2, tier3 towns and villages, and B2B payments to name a few things. M1xchange stands to benefit from all of these trends. With solid software background, the team has built a remarkable product to empower Indian MSME vendors over the next decade.”
“M1xchange continues to be the leader in this space and the only TReDS platform that is attracting international investor interest. Continued investor participation validates this large market opportunity. This round should go a long way in enhancing technology development and personnel to achieve greater scale.” Said Vikram Godse, Partner, and Managing Director, Mayfield Fund India.
Maple Capital Advisors, a Delhi based Investment Banking firm, acted as the financial advisors for this round of funding.