Aimed at offering digital procurement for industrial buyers, Bizongo, an Accel and IFC-backed business-to-business (B2B) ecommerce marketplace, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with National Aluminium Company or Nalco, a Navratna Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE).
Bizongo will utilise its state-of-the-art B2B ecommerce marketplace (BizongoBuy) and embedded finance solutions (BizongoFin), to distribute multiple non-ferrous products such as Ingots, T. Ingots, Sows, Billets and Wire rods, sourced from Nalco, to meet the burgeoning demand for the metal across power, engineering, transportation, construction, wires and cables, and extrusion industries.
“Being entrusted as among the top tier distributors by Nalco is a testimony to our deep understanding of B2B marketplaces and supply chain financing solutions. This collaboration reflects a coming together of technology companies and government enterprises to unleash the disruptive power of technology in simplifying B2B businesses and powering industrial growth," stated Sachin Agrawal, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Bizongo.
Bizongo surpassed the monthly distribution of 1,500 to 2,000 metric tonne within the first quarter during the annual bid process this year, following which the technology company has been moved to among the top-most category of Nalco’s distributors, handling over 3,000 MT per month. In addition, Bizongo is slated to distribute over 27,000 MT of aluminium by March 2025.
“Our partnership with Nalco not only strengthens our position in the raw material procurement but also empowers SMEs and corporates to access premium-quality materials predictably,” stated Prahlad Krishnamurthi, CEO, BizongoBuy.
The new economy-government partnership comes at a time when India is gearing up to meet a substantially high demand for the non-ferrous metal, in line with the projected high gross domestic product (GDP) growth.
Several initiatives of the Government such as Make in India, 100 per cent rural electrification, Fame (Faster adoption of manufacturing of Hybrid and EV) schemes for electric vehicles, among others are expected to contribute to boost the consumption of the metal in the country, as per projections of the Ministry of Mines.
Currently India's per capita consumption of aluminium is around 2.5 kg, which is much lower than the world average of 11 kg and 31.7 kg as compared to China. Owing to its high price, non-digitised sources of procurement have an impact on cash flow. Addressing these, Bizongo’s tech-first platform offers the right time, right price and real time visibility during distribution for the benefit of industrial buyers.