Power2SME garners funding from Nilekani

Power2SME, the first ‘Buying Club’ for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India, has received strategic investment from Infosys co-founder and former UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani.

The SME sector is poised for high growth, and the strategic investment from Nandan Nilekani in Power2SME will prove to be a big boost for the Power2SME business as it continues to empower SMEs across their sourcing needs as well as financial requirements, the company said.

Power2SME, an Inventus Capital Partners, Kalaari Capital and Accel Partners funded company, began operations in 2012. Committed to empowering SMEs by increasing their profits, Power2SME focuses on reducing purchase prices for SMEs and enhancing productivity.

Power2SME enables SME clients to focus on their core business of driving growth and expansion, while taking on the role of sourcing input raw materials at the most competitive price points across multiple products in categories such as chemicals, additives, inks, paints, metals, polymer commodity, and polymer engineering, among others.
All existing investors Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital and Inventus Capital participated in this funding round.

With a sharp business focus to break even in the coming financial year, Power2SME will broaden its product portfolio, strengthen and deepen vendor relationships through its SME transformation camps, while strengthening its technology platform and mobile app offering, the company added.

“Indian SMEs act as an engine for growth of our nation and they are critical to making India a manufacturing hub. Power2SME has a unique business model that focuses on making SMEs bankable and profitable and am excited to watch the growth journey of this company as it continues to contribute in strengthening the SME social fabric of the nation,” Nandan Nilekani said.

“To have Nilekani as our strategic investor and receive his support for Power2SME’s vision to make Indian SMEs bankable is exciting for us.” Power2SME founder and chief executive officer R Narayan said.
DH News Service

 It is critical to foster the sector to meet the national imperatives of financial inclusion and to generate employment in India. Power2SME is working towards creating an ecosystem that addresses SMEs’ challenges in raw material procurement and financial assistance, which are major roadblocks for growth of SMEs. We have a very aggressive plan for developing our business and boosting revenues in the future,” Narayan added.