Bengaluru-based B2B steel marketplace Virtual Metalstreet has raised around ₹5 crores ($700,000) in an angel funding round.
The freshly infused funds will be used to strengthen product team, along with expanding its onboarding and trade enablement teams for a digital and personalised experience to users and resolving supply chain issues.
Virtual Metalstreet was founded by Shashank Ananth, along with Arun Shukla and Nupin Pillai in 2017. The startup provides a marketplace for steel to enable customers including manufacturers, importers, distributors, and dealers to seamlessly discover, connect and trade in a virtual, secure and transparent environment.
Shashank Ananth, Founder and CEO of Virtual Metalstreet, completed his MBA from St. Joseph’s College of Business.
According to the startup, it is looking to forge strong partnerships, in order to offer trade finance and logistics services, to its users.
Virtual Metalstreet has expanded into a 13 member team, with its advisory board compromising of Tushar Patel, former Chief Operating Officer of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, India.
The startup provides a secure virtual trading ecosystem to enhance the user experience, along with boosting efficiency and profitability for its users.
With the Goods and Services Tax in place to ease inter-state trade, the startup is confident to expand its customer and supplier base, as these customers and suppliers look towards a safer and secure platform to reduce their trade risks.
Presently, Metalstreet is operational across Bengaluru, Chennai, Rourkela, and Raipur in India, serving around 1,500 users on its platform.
Other established players in the Indian logistics domain, where Virtual Metalstreet looks to strengthen its business, include, BlackBuck, ElasticRun, Delhivery, 4tigo, among many others.
Earlier this month, Logistics startup LetsTransport raised ₹90 crores from Fosun International, others. While, BlackBuck raised ₹202 crores from Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, and Sands Capital Ventures. Another logistics startup ElasticRun raised ₹60 crores from Norwest Venture Partners and Kalaari Capital.