March 31, 2000
Financial Express

indiamarkets.com eyeing vortals for acquisition

indiamarkets.com, a business-to-business (B2B) portal, is in talks with a couple of vertical portals for possible acquisitions.

The Bangalore-based IMO Communications, which promotes indiamarkets.com, is planning to fund the proposed acquisitions from its equity capital. It has already earmarked about $10 million mainly for setting up sales and customer services network in the country.

"We will soon announce one or two deals to this effect within a couple of months. IMO has also initiated discussions with companies offering services to the manufacturing sector for entering into strategic alliances," IMO communications managing director Rohan Ajila said.

The proposed alliance with service firms many involve equity participation as well. However, he declined to name the companies which own the vertical portals. The main aim behind the strategic investment is to enhance IMO's bottomline. indiamarkets.com is also setting up industrial cafes in 70 locations which will serve as customer support and e-commerce training centres. These cafes will be utilised by Indian Institute of Materials management (IIMM), among others, to conduct training sessions for its members and affiliates.

Ajila claims that over 2,500 companies visit indiamarkets.com everyday, generating more than 1.3 lakh hits and over 150 product enquiries. The site's registered user-base, which is currently growing at 100 percent a month, has reached 13,000 users.

IMO Communications has already received funds from EM Warburg, Pincus & Co LLC and the BPL group. IMO is also planning to expand its workforce to 200 people from the present 38 in a phased manner.