Matrix Moments: Building a B2B platform that helps digitise manufacturing in India

Chaitanya Rathi and Siddharth Vij, Founders of the B2B (business-to-business) startup Bijnis (Shoekonnect), were studying Economic Honors at Delhi University. And like every other college grad the duo felt they will get placed into a company through campus placements. 

“But we also were inclined towards entrepreneurship. Chaitanya was also into some entrepreneurial activities in those times and at that point of time, I think Indian ecosystem was just at the start,” said Siddharth in a conversation with Vikram Vaidyanathan, Managing Director at Matrix Partners India, and Sudipto Sannigrahi, Vice President at Matrix India.

The duo also had family businesses and had realised the significant pain points that manufacturing SMEs (small and medium enterprises) faced. 

“Realising that we were second and third generation businessmen from the family perspective we thought if we go back, we will be repeating the same thing that has been going on for years now. And we knew that technology would be a great leveller,” added Chaitanya. 

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The duo felt while there are multiple companies in the consumer internet segment that have seen significant growth and tech adoption, the B2B businesses, especially the small and medium ones have a long way to go. 

Founded in 2015 by Siddharth Vij, Chaitanya Rathi, Siddharth Rastogi, and Shubham Agarwal, Bijnis focuses on facilitating a digital transaction layer between manufacturers and retailers in the largely unorganised categories of footwear, fashion, and accessories.

Siddharth explains,"My father has been running a factory for many years and I always thought that they had a lack of alternatives. But in hindsight I think a lot of technology innovation or experimentation was happening on the consumer side, but not on the business side. I had a thought about retailers, wholesalers or SME. It was manufacturing because I’ve seen my father doing manufacturing."

Bijnis currently enables 400+ manufacturers to serve more than 60,000 retailers across 700 districts in India.

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