1. Ashish Mohapatra came from Orissa and made it to IIT Kharagpur without any coaching. He had made everyone proud. But, he took a big step when he dropped out of his high-paying consultant job at McKinsey and then a job as a leading Venture Capitalist (VC) in August 2015. What Ashish wanted to do next was even crazier.
2. He wanted to solve the unorganised Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) at a time when consumer businesses like Amazon and Flipkart were booming in India. Everybody called him foolish, but Ashish went ahead and started OfBusiness in 2015. 🚀
3. OfBusiness started by providing metals and cement for the manufacturing and infrastructure industry. The business was off to a great start, with over 20 CR orders monthly and 30 Lakhs profit. But he realised he was missing one major thing. 🤔
4. 95% of transactions happened on Credit. But, OfBusiness had no credit capabilities in-house. Ashish knew that without Credit, SMEs would not buy from him. He had to raise money to give Credit, or his startup would close. But fundraising became a nightmare for Ashish!
5. VCs were unable to build conviction on the credit model and its profitability. Ashish had no background in Credit, and VCs put that as the final nail in the rejection coffin. In six months, 73 VCs had rejected. Though, Ashish didn’t give up.
6. He studied the balance sheets of three companies every day for one year. He went to possibly every SME’s office he knew for nine months to see how he could underwrite loans for them. He was ready for the battle now. In December 2016, OfBusiness raised 70 CR led by Zodius Capital. 💸
7. And the model just took off. Ofbusiness touched revenues of 100 CR. Its low-interest and collateral-free model had just taken off. The SME credit window came from 90 days to 72 hours. Ashish had started to solve the problem he aspired to. By 2018, OfBusiness disbursed 100 CR loans and touched a revenue of 500 CR. 📉
8. The market got Credit but lacked the technology to manage it. So, Ashish expanded into digital services in 2019 with BidAssist (Government Tender mapping) and ProcureAssist (Vendor management). The rejected OfBusiness became VCs favourite startup, raising 500 CR in two years from Norwest, AlphaWave and Innoven Capital.
9. With more capital, Ashish acquired 7 lakh SMEs by 2021. He expanded into agricultural products and speciality chemicals as OfBusiness touched revenues of 2000 CR. Its lending vertical had a loan book of 1500 CR, contributing 43% to the total revenue. And, the dream moment came. 👇
10. In August 2021, OfBusiness raised 1300 CR from Tiger Global and became a 10,000 CR company. Yes, it became the 18th unicorn of 2021. 🦄
➡️ Today, OfBusiness has a revenue of 7,139 CR and a valuation of a whooping 40,000 CR.
Story of Ashish Mohapatra – The man rejected 73 times to make 74th a billion-dollar success. 💪