'We Are Set To Transform Packaging Industry In India' Rahul Garg, Founder & CEO, Moglix
Tell us about your venture? From IIT'an to Founder of a Unicorn? How has been the journey?
I started Moglix with a simple goal - to disrupt the B2B Commerce space for the manufacturing industry. Technology enablement in the Indian manufacturing supply chain ecosystem in 2015 was at less than 2%. Building an enterprise that would leverage technology to reinvent B2B commerce and supply chains in India and transform a segment that had not seen innovation in a long while. We wanted to bring the success of consumer commerce to the B2B world.
After graduating from IIT Kanpur in 2001, I worked with several tech companies, building the designs of contemporary wireless technology products and brainstorming on the future technology roadmap. I think I was lucky enough to be in the thick of things across different dimensions of business. Be it product engineering, strategy development, or sales and marketing I got the opportunity to invest in my capability and team building skills in my early days. Before starting Moglix I spent 5 years at Google Asia where I launched the Advertising Exchange and was driving sales strategy.
During my stint in Google, I could see the nature of B2B commerce was changing. Enterprises and end consumers were moving away from search-based behavior towards transaction-based behavior. These insights coupled with my observations from closely observing manufacturing enterprises in my hometown Faridabad and accumulated experiences from work helped me to envisage a transaction-based model for both large enterprises and MSME suppliers to buy and sell industrial goods from a single digital platform. That paved the path for me to build Moglix in 2016.
We recently touched the USD 1 billion mark in valuation, achieving unicorn status within six years of launch. It is the first of the many milestones in our journey as we aim to create a larger global impact.
What are your offerings? Who is your targeted audience? What has the response so far been?
From sourcing to financing, we offer a full stack operating system to manufacturing and infrastructure sector companies. Moglix enables manufacturing and infrastructure companies to transform their end-to-end supply chain, from procurement to distribution. Through our digital platform, supplier and buyer network, and logistics strength, we bring down cost, enhance sales, improve operational efficiency, and make the supply chain touchless.
In a span of six years since inception, our marketplace Moglix.com has grown to 500,000 MSMEs and 16,000 suppliers who buy and sell goods through the portal. Moglix Business, our enterprise supply chain solutions vertical enables indirect procurement of 700,000+ SKUs across 50 MRO categories. We provide fully integrated supply chain solutions to some of the largest EPC companies. We are enabling the construction of some landmark infra projects like the Mumbai Trans Harbor Link, the Kondakulam power plant, and the East-West Freight Corridor that are shaping India as the next manufacturing supply chain partner to the world.
Our packaging vertical is meeting the packaging needs for more than 70% of e-commerce orders in the country. We are giving source to site packaging supply chain solutions to large manufacturers across industries to resolve their challenges of limited shelf life of perishables, pilferage, spoilage, and wear and tear during transit journeys for domestic and global trade.
Today close to 25% of the India Fortune 500 companies have invested their trust in Moglix as their partner supply chain transformation.
3. What is the current situation of the B2B market in India? What opportunities lie ahead? What is the market size?
The Indian manufacturing sector is pegged at about USD 350 billion in 2021. We are optimistic about a digital supply chain transformation boom as Indian manufacturing continues to grow towards the strategic USD 1 trillion mark. That is also a benchmark for us as a country.
Technology integration in global B2B commerce is less than 5%. While the fundamentals of India’s real economy are strong, it is time for all stakeholders in India’s manufacturing sector to absorb the learnings from the COVID19 pandemic. With technology integration, we can fill the void that has been created in the global supply chain.
What changes in a startup when they achieve the ‘unicorn’ title? What is the importance of the Unicorn title?
We started six years ago with a firm belief in the untapped potential of the Indian manufacturing sector. Today, as we enter the next stage of our evolution, we feel this title is a testimony to our journey of innovation and disruption.
The milestone in our journey is also a testimony to the distance that India’s manufacturing supply chain ecosystem has traversed in these six years, its digital transformation, and the promise it holds for us as we chase the target of a USD 5 trillion GDP manufacturing economy.
Brief us about your recent developments and future plans for Moglix? Pour some light on your vision and mission?
The pandemic has changed the way people look at processes, products, and purchases. We have focused on building a robust packaging vertical over the last two years.
Our packaging team empathized with the single most important concern of our customers and their end customers and treated packaging the way it should be; as an “essential”. I am proud of the fact that our packaging team has done a great job of extending end-to-end packaging supply chain solutions and support to other essential goods manufacturers, such as food and beverages, pharmaceutical, and online groceries.
As a brand, the packaging for your product is a manifestation of all the effort gone into your product. As a user, the moment you see the packaging, you are assured of the safety and quality of the product. That is why packaging holds a special place for businesses.
Going forward, we are looking to deepen focus on providing the complete supply chain for the transition to sustainable packaging for companies and users.
How Moglix Became India's Largest Cost-Effective Packaging Solutions Provider? How are your products better than other Cost-Effective Packaging Solutions in the market?
Prior to Moglix, there was no such large integrated packaging supply chain solutions provider in India.
Packaging was being done by a highly fragmented vendor base, leading to stacking of costs across design, development, production, inventory and logistics. By integrating the activities in the packaging value chain, we are able to give a lower cost, seamless and transparent supply chain for packaging.
We created a technology integrated supply chain ecosystem to consolidate packaging purchase order volumes, values, and vendors. For instance, we have integrated 16,000 suppliers, 40 logistics partners, and our 30 warehouses into a single ecosystem for 6000 packaging SKUs spread across 45 categories.
We are a one-stop solutions provider for packaging needs. Our products go through 3 levels of quality check and comply with government regulations. We are reducing the costs of compliance with the amendments to the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2021 that will come into effect from July 01, 2022 and enabling large enterprises to hit the ground running with agility. Through our supplier capability mapping process, we are continuously expanding our pan-India packaging supplier base, thereby reducing the costs of supplier search and product development for sustainable packaging solutions.
How is Moglix enabling brands to adopt end-to-end sustainable packaging solutions?
We have a strong focus on product development and innovation in packaging. The critical lever is not to identify sustainable materials but develop a robust supply chain that can provide packaging components made from sustainable materials at the right cost and quality. We are partnering with brands to help them identify and transition so they can achieve packaging sustainability compliance ahead of the phased SUP ban to be effective from 2022.
We are driving the end-to-end supply chain for sustainable packaging across e-commerce, food & beverage, FMCG & personal care, grocery, home furnishing & textile, pharmaceuticals & health care, automotive & industrial packaging, logistics, and electronics sectors. Moglix Packaging Solutions include product development, production, warehousing, and inventory management across 30 locations, and onsite deliveries of sustainable SKUs such as paper bags, compostable bags, molded trays, bagasse trays, cotton carry bags, and customized biodegradable packaging. Previously, the adoption of sustainable packaging had been sluggish due to the high costs of substitution owing to sub-optimal production capacity of suppliers, most of whom are MSMEs. We are well positioned to challenge the status quo and help manufacturers stay at the leading edge of sustainable packaging transformation with the large scale manufacturing capabilities that we are bringing through pan-India supplier integration.
Moglix is now the key packaging supply chain partner for the e-commerce industry? Which other industries are Moglix planning to explore/partner with?
Moglix is the largest Packaging Solutions Provider in the country. We cater to the packaging requirements of more than 70% of e-commerce players in India. Moglix is also focusing on Food & Beverages, Textiles, Cosmetics and Personal Care, Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare, Automotive Packaging solutions.
How is Moglix helping brands uncover cost efficiencies through packaging supply chain consolidation? How is it working out so far? What are your expectations with this initiative?
We are leveraging our end-to-end supply chain operations expertise to integrate suppliers into our ecosystem. Our expectations with this initiative are to enable brands to have greater transparency in the supply chain operations and help them save time and costs. For example, a world-leading OEM was able to consolidate 60% of vendors using the Moglix platform, minimized lead time with Moglix warehouse support, and enabled price standardization. One of India’s fastest-growing express logistics service providers was able to minimize complexities around product sourcing and maximize savings by getting information on critical SKUs for priority procurement on the Moglix platform.
What other products are in the pipeline?
We are working on reducing the carbon footprint in Packaging. This is in line with achieving packaging sustainability compliance ahead of the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2021 that will come into effect from July 01, 2022.
For this, we are developing products which are substitutes for plastic. Such as compostable bags, hexa paper, honeycomb paper, compostable garbage bins, etc.
What are your further funding and expansion plans?
We have expanded to new geographies including the U.K. and the UAE. We hope to scale up our supply chain footprint across the MENA region and are very keenly assessing opportunities to deploy more of our solutions in the region, including packaging procurement as well as infra solutions for the construction and manufacturing sectors.
