MSMEx, Mumbai-based Ed-Tech Platform Raises Funds To Help Small-Medium Businesses Get Access To Expert Advice Through One Tap.

Living in a shared & open innovation economy, an era where the sharing of resources is promoted & knowledge is shared to accelerate internal innovation. With the Indian MSME market gaining traction and being promoted to access a larger share of the economy, the National Sample Survey Report (2015-16) shows that over 63.3 million MSMEs were unincorporated. After agriculture, MSMEs account for the largest source of employment in the country. To promote self-employment & foster the growth of MSMEs, the Government of India has initiated various schemes such as Make in India, Skill India, Digital India, MUDRA & StartUp India, to name a few. Boosting the development of the MSMEs, the government provides financial assistance & incentives which allows for the further development of the economy. It is important to note that although the government is making considerable strides towards promoting the setting up of MSMEs, guidance & expert advice on how to grow the business while being cost-effective is a challenge faced by every small business. 

MSMEx, a Mumbai-based startup, recognizing this gap provides expert & effective business advice to the MSMEs through their platform. Founded in 2019 by Amit Kumar, Vishal Kumar, Dilip Kumar, Khushboo Arora, and Kumar Sambhav, who cumulatively have experience of over 65 years, have set up a platform to turn to in case of any queries. Connecting MSME owners with business experts, enabling them to transition to the digital space and provide them with expert business advice with respect to cost-effective & efficient business practices. The platform offers live business webinar sessions where SMB owners can ask questions through live community chat, growth packages, power series, growth training programs, & 1-on-1 video calls with experts.

The platform currently offers its content in English & intends to launch content in Hindi & various regional languages to cater to the largely non-English speaking user base. With half a million users from over 1200 cities across India, the ed-tech platform has raised $1 million in a pre-Series A round on 18th June 2021 led by Razorpay and TNF Investments. The startup had earlier raised funds from a clutch of angel investors, including Badri Pillapakkam(Partner, Omidyar Network), Krishna Kumar (Founder, SimpliLearn), Manoj Sharma (CTO, Cleartrip), and Heetesh Veera (an E&Y partner) among others. Speaking on the investment, Shashank Kumar, CTO, Razorpay said, “We are excited about investing in a team like MSMEx, which has its mission and commitment strike a strong chord with ours — to serve and solve the problems faced by the inadequately serviced market, the small businesses. We look forward to supporting MSMEx’s continued growth and innovation in this under-serviced space.” Adding on this, Samir Khosla, Managing Partner, TNF Investments said, “MSMEx’s unique positioning addresses the core challenges faced by the entrepreneurs leading these enterprises – access to high-quality business advice, focused mentorship, actionable business education — all within a tight budget and available on-demand. We envision MSMEx evolving into an integral and indispensable part of tens of millions of entrepreneurial journeys in India and internationally.” The company says that the funds will be utilized towards scaling operations, developing new intuitive technologies, an AI-based behavior analytics system, an Intelligent LIVE chat system, & a deep-learning-based recommendation system. 

Through the platform, MSMEx is making the dream of scaling operations for SMBs a reality. Find out more about the world-class business experts that you can reach out to through their platform.