Changing the way Buyers & Suppliers Connect and Communicate
Many believe that the future of social media is set to be more niche and community/sector focused. Realizing the need for having a platform for buyers and sellers and enhance the way professionals connect and collaborate, two serial entrepreneurs decided to come up with a platform that can significantly improve communications and relationships between sellers, buyers and business communities with an tech-based unique initiative – b2bsphere.com. B2bsphere.com is a unique solution offering a platform for buyers and sellers to hang out, explore opportunities and communicate all in one place. With integrations with tools and services most business use daily, it is an ecosystem for buyers and sellers to manage their supply chain network.
“B2BSphere was born out of the frustration of doing business with suppliers. The difficulty keeping track of e-mails, Skype, Whatsapp messages, documents and other files made the job frustrating and time- consuming. We created one system to keep track of all correspondence,” says Babu Jayaram, Co-founder, b2bsphere.com. Founders are veterans in technology and manufacturing, international trade, having spent many years in building technology companies and manufacturing industries around the world. Currently the team is primarily based in Bangalore and Sales & Support office in Houston, USA.
The idea popped up when one of the founders, an experienced manufacturing professional found it time consuming to use multiple tools in order to manage daily communications with existing customers and new leads. With no easier and alternative solution available in the market, the idea of b2bsphere.com was coined.
Talking about the features Sudhi Seshachala, Co-founder , b2bsphere.com says, “B2BSphere leverages the patent pending technology that facilitates business procurement and transaction between buyers and suppliers. Buyers or suppliers lookup, connect and interact with a suite of tools and integration points. Buyers and suppliers can interact over a simple messaging channel to share conversations and connect to take the conversation forward.”
Unlike any other platform, b2bsphere.com offers a suite of tools for buyers and sellers to share files on integrated cloud storage (or attach from anywhere Drop box, Google Drive etc.), chat, and messages over a safe and secured channel and even audio-video web conference all in one place. “Buyers can bring their existing supplier relations online, create private chat rooms, and bring all communications with suppliers to one place. Platform allows teammates, buyers, partners to come together and collaborate with options to create an unlimited amount of teams for each project and private conversation rooms,” adds Seshachala.
Business Model
B2bsphere.com is neither a pure directory listing service nor a knowledge-sharing platform. B2bsphere.com is a unique solution offering a platform for buyers and sellers to hang out, explore opportunities and communicate. Thus the business model also differs. “B2bsphere.com has different subscription plans for both buyers and suppliers. At present, most of the services are free for suppliers and buyers, while services through market place have different pricing structure based on the service.,” avers Babu.
Key Points
- Over 1 Million Suppliers from India & Indian Sub continent, Bangladesh, Pakistan, SL, Bhutan, Indonesia, China, Eastern Europe and the US and Buyers from US, UK, Germany and Canada to name a few.
- Over 1000+ users (Growing at a healthy rate m/m)
- Overwhelming 50% of users are using the platform to source, collaborate [Messaging, one-one Chat, Channel based chats, Sharing files/folders, Integration with thirdparty tools like Dropbox and Google Drive] and extend business relationships and transactions.
- Glowing reviews from marquee buyers like Stanley Black & Decker, ITT Enidine, Crane CPE and many more.
- Only company in India to introduce and offer buyer services to verify suppliers in India and sub continent through their network of partners.
- Over 1 Million worth of Business transactions have been established through business connections between buyers and suppliers in little over 8 weeks since going live.
- Initial round of discussions with B2B ECommerce company in India to offer the products in our Social Marketplace. Formal announcement will be made soon.
Marching Ahead
B2bsphere.com has managed over 1 million suppliers, 1000+ users within 2 months of its inception. The company is growing at an average of 50% user growth monthly. With this healthy growth the company is planning to add many features in the near future and raise some seed round of investment from prominent investor/s.
“B2b trade is a multi billion-dollar industry across the globe and we are aiming to capture a very small percentage of that market in the immediate future with our services. We are in discussion to raise undisclosed amount in an initial round to scale our sales & marketing team and product development. We are also in advance stage of talk with an Indian b2b ecommerce firm to develop product catalogue in our website,” concludes Babu.
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Website: www.b2bsphere.com
