InfraMarket, a Mumbai-headquartered online marketplace for construction supplies, has acquired Equiphunt, a smaller competitor based in South India that lets builders rent construction equipment. According to the deal, Equiphunt founder Shashank Dangayach will continue to head the company, while Manish Sharma, who was heading the equipment vertical at InfraMarket, will join the former’s board.
A report by local media Economic Times pegged the deal at USD 10 million. Citing a source, the report said all the investors of Equiphunt will exit from their investment. This is the first acquisition by InfraMarket that became a unicorn in February this year. American hedge fund Tiger Global led its Series C round of USD 100 million that valued the company at USD 1 billion.
InfraMarket connects real estate builders with manufacturers of construction materials such as paint, cement, iron, and heavy machinery used for construction. It counts major real estate companies such as Tata Housing, Phoenix Market City, Hiranandani, among others, as its clients.
Also read: India’s B2B marketplace Moglix becomes latest unicorn after USD 120 million round
“Construction is one of the largest components in India’s economy, and yet ironically, one of the most unorganized sectors. Equiphunt team has successfully built a pioneering construction equipment management platform, and we are excited to partner with them to build out India’s largest digitized equipment solutions platform,” said Aaditya Sharda, co-founder of InfraMarket.
Four-year-old Equiphunt has a presence in over 25 cities across India. It claims to be a one-stop solution for real estate builders to find and rent the equipment they require. Equiphunt also offers a software-as-a-service solution for businesses to list and digitally manage their entire catalog of construction equipment such as tractors, stone crushers, excavators, and different types of cranes.
This acquisition, the companies said, will help Equiphunt in scaling up its equipment renting business. “As a part of the existing InfraMarket ecosystem, we would be able to build stronger consumer connections and accelerate our journey. Equipment management is a pain point for today’s construction companies, and we will continue our journey to digitize and solve the pain points in the construction equipment value chain,” said Shashank Dangayach, founder and CEO of Equiphunt.
