IndiaMART InterMESH Limited was incorporated as a public limited company on September 13, 1999. The Company received the certificate for commencement of business from the RoC on October 27, 1999. Prior to incorporating the Company, Dinesh Chandra Agarwal, Managing Director and one of the Promoters, was engaged in the business of operating the website www.indiamart.com through InterMESH Systems, a sole proprietorship firm. Pursuant to an agreement dated January 1, 2000, the Company acquired the assets and liabilities, of InterMESH Systems as on December 31, 1999, from Dinesh Chandra Agarwal, for a consideration of Rs.100 million, paid in the form of 8,000,000 Equity Shares and 2,000,000 10% non-cumulative redeemable preference shares of the Company issued to Dinesh Chandra Agarwal.
India's largest online B2B marketplace, IndiaMART is at the forefront of transforming the landscape to facilitate ease of doing business through a well-entrenched network of hi-tech solutions and services. While the business established its roots in 1996, the Company was established in 1999. It connects buyers and suppliers across product categories and geographies in India. The Company is an e-marketplace for business needs, which acts as an interactive hub for domestic and international buyers and suppliers.
IndiaMART is India's largest online B2B marketplace for business products and services with approximately 60% market share of the online B2B classifieds space in India in fiscal 2017, according to the KPMG Report. The Company primarily operates through its product and supplier discovery marketplace, www.indiamart.com or 'IndiaMART'. Its online marketplace provides a platform for mostly business buyers, to discover products and services and contact the suppliers of such business products and services. IndiaMART had an aggregate of 325.8 million, 552.6 million and 723.5 million visits in fiscals 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively, of which 204.8 million, 396.9 million and 550.3 million comprised mobile traffic, or 63%, 72% and 76% of total traffic, respectively.
The Company refers to sellers of products and services listed on its IndiaMART marketplace as 'suppliers', and suppliers that subscribe to paid services on IndiaMART as 'paying subscription suppliers'. The Company refers to each visitor to IndiaMART, including, among others, each separate visitor from the same business entity or establishment, for whom the company obtains basic identifying and contact information as its 'registered buyer'. As of March 31, 2019, the company had 82.70 million registered buyers and it had 5.55 million supplier storefronts in India. These Indian supplier storefronts had listed 60.73 million products as of March 31, 2019 of which 76% of goods comprised products and 24% were services. The Company refers to an enquiry placed by buyers on IndiaMART through telephone, SMS, email or by posting an RFQ as a 'business enquiry'. The Company counts business enquiries received by a supplier, including each receipt of the same business enquiry by multiple suppliers, as a business enquiry delivered. A total of 156.84 million, 289.98 million and 448.97 million business enquiries, respectively, were delivered to IndiaMART suppliers in fiscals 2017, 2018 and 2019. For the years ended March 31, 2018 and 2019, the company had 52.59 million and 72.52 million daily unique buyer requests, respectively, of which 52% and 55% were repeat buyers calculated on the basis of the past 90 days, respectively.
IndiaMART provides a robust two-way discovery marketplace connecting buyers and suppliers. Buyers locate suppliers on its marketplace, including both Indian small and medium enterprises, or 'SMEs', and large corporates, by viewing a webpage containing the supplier's product and service listings, or a 'supplier storefront', or by posting requests for quotes called 'RFQs' or 'BuyLeads'. Its marketplace offerings from which buyers can search for and view product and service listings cover a widespread range of industries spread across India, rather than relying on a single target industry or type of geography. As of March 31, 2019, the company had organized its listings across 54 industries.
IndiaMART provides an effective and trusted platform to help businesses leverage the power of the internet to increase their market reach and conduct commerce. According to the KPMG Report, the growth in internet penetration across India is helping companies move their businesses online and reach out to a larger customer base. Its online marketplace is particularly relevant in India, which, unlike many other countries, has no major multi-brand or multi-category offline retailer of scale for business products and services.
Furthermore, according to the KPMG Report, the growing B2C e-commerce market has led to a large number of sellers bringing their businesses online, which is leading to the B2B e-commerce market gaining traction as well. Given the ticket sizes associated with B2B and wholesale transactions, the opportunity for B2B e-commerce is even higher as compared to B2C e-commerce market, according to the KPMG Report. Its online marketplace capitalizes on this opportunity by helping buyers gain access to a national pool of suppliers, comprehensive product and supplier information in a standardized format and greater transparency in prices. Its online marketplace also provides suppliers with cost-effective ways to reach new buyers across geographies.
Using its reservoir of supplier/buyer behavior and preferences data, the company is able to deploy analytics to implement behavioral data based algorithmic matchmaking on its platform, thereby ensuring much more relevant discovery of products and services. This leads to an increase of repeat buyers on its platform. For the year ended March 31, 2019, the company had 55% repeat buyers calculated on the basis of the past 90 days. In addition, as 39% of the suppliers as of March 31, 2019 on its platform have acted as buyers of other products and services in the last 12 months, a virtuous cycle of user engagement is established, leading to a self-sustained traction in trade enquiries.
The Company's online marketplace is accessible through desktop and mobile-optimized platforms and apps on personal computing and mobile devices. Its IndiaMART mobile website, together with IndiaMART mobile app, accounted for 63%, 72% and 76% of total traffic to IndiaMART for fiscals 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively.
During the year 2020, Company acquired a 26% stake in Vyapar, a mobile-based accounting software for small businesses. It made Initial Public Offer (IPO) through offer for sale of 4,887,862 Equity Shares of Rs. 10/- each @ Rs. 973/- per Equity share aggregating to Rs 4,755.89 Million.
As on March 31, 2021, Company had over 125 million registered buyers and 6.5 million suppliers, across 97,000 categories and 56 industries spread across the country.
As at March 31, 2022, Company had 149 million buyers and 7.1 million suppliers registered, of which 169,324 were paying subscription suppliers. Its wide supplier base contributed to 83 million products and services being listed across 95,000 categories and 56 industries.
During the financial year 2022, Company acquired 100% of the Paid-Up Capital of Busy Infotech for Rs. 5000 million and became the wholly owned subsidiary of the Company effective from April 06, 2022. It entered into a agreement with Industry Buying for acquiring 26% of share capital and on completion became the Associate Company effective from March 03, 2022. It increased stake to 27% in the share capital of Vyapar.
In FY'22, the Company made investments in expansion of channel sales partners as well as hired ~1,000 new employees to strengthen the resource base across their product, sales and service functions. It came out with new innovations across product lines and sales network. In addition to this, it launched an exclusive service for Indian exporters, IndiaMART Verified Export Services', which enables 50,000 export-oriented sellers on IndiaMART's platform to expand their business across the globe. It further invested in advanced technologies to enhance matchmaking and boost system efficiencies during the year.
During the financial year 2022-23, the Company acquired 51.09% of the paid-up capital of Livekeeping and subsequently, became the subsidiary of the Company effective on May 23, 2022. Mobisy became an Associate Company of the Company effective November 15, 2022. During FY 2023, the Company increased it's stake by 7.96% by way of subscription, purchase or otherwise, in the equity shares, preference shares, debentures and/or other securities of Mobisy aggregating to 25.08% in the share capital of Mobisy, on fully diluted basis. IB MonotaRO Private Limited became an Associate company on March 03, 2022. As on March 31, 2023, the Company holds 26% of its paid-up share capital on fully diluted basis in Industry Buying. As on March 31, 2023, the Company holds 26% of its paid-up share capital on fully diluted basis in Industry Buying. SuperProcure became an Associate company on June 05, 2021. As on March 31, 2023, the Company indirectly through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Tradezeal Online Private Limited, holds 25.02% share capital of SuperProcure on fully converted and diluted basis.
During FY 2023, the Company indirectly through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Tradezeal Online Private Limited, acquired 26.01% share capital of Realbooks. Subsequently, Realbooks became the Associate company on April 06, 2022. Shipway Technology Private Limited become an Associate company on April 29, 2021 and As on March 31, 2023, the Company indirectly through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Tradezeal Online Private Limited, holds 26% share capital of Shipway on fully converted and diluted basis. EasyEcom become an Associate company on January 03, 2022. As on March 31, 2023, the Company indirectly through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Tradezeal Online Private Limited, holds 26.01% share capital of EasyEcom on fully converted and diluted basis. Agillos E-Commerce Private Limited become an Associate company on August 16, 2021 and As on March 31, 2023, the Company indirectly through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Tradezeal Online Private Limited, holds 26.23% share capital of Aerchain on fully converted and diluted basis.
The Company acquired Busy Accounting Software and Livekeeping - a Tally on Mobile application during the year 2023. It also acquired the ISO 31000 certificate for Enterprise Risk Management. As at March 31, 2023, the Company had 170 million buyers and 7.5 million suppliers registered on their platform, of which, 202,690 were paying subscription suppliers.