IPO-bound OfBusiness co-founder Nitin Jain to start AI venture

Nitin Jain, co-founder and chief business officer (CBO) of OfBusiness

Nitin Jain, who had co-founded OfBusiness and serving as its chief business officer (CBO), is set to kick off an artificial intelligence (AI) startup, four people aware of the developments told Moneycontrol. He has also held discussions with venture capital firms like Z47 (formerly, Matrix Partners India) to raise capital, they said.

Jain will be moving on from OfBusiness to focus on his AI venture, as per three of those sources. “The move is a very well thought out exit. It's been in the works for a few months now. Some of the senior leadership of OfBusiness, including founders, are likely to put in seed money in Nitin's new venture,” one of them said.

Jain, however, told Moneycontrol that he is “very much part of OfBusiness, (and is) just exploring options" with OfBusiness as a partner. "I’m still a proud OfBian.”

“…I will just be an investor in the venture started by my friend and will not be moving out of OFB and will continue to drive growth at OFB in a full time capacity,” Jain said in a fresh statement issued to Moneycontrol on October 16.

To be sure, Jain has spoken with several other investors and will leave OfBusiness only once he successfully raises the money to fund his new company. His new venture will focus on building solutions in Human Capital Management (HCM) with the use of AI, one of the persons cited above added.

Z47, which is also an investor in OfBusiness, did not respond to Moneycontrol’s queries. Interestingly, Asish Mohapatra, another co-founder and chief executive of OfBusiness, used to work at Z47 between 2010 and 2015.

The move to start a new AI firm comes at a time when an increasing number of companies are looking for AI solutions to tackle their daily tasks which explains why venture capital (VC) firms are also rushing to back several AI ventures in India.

Over the past weeks, enterprise solutions company Nurix AI, road safety solutions provider Nayan Tech, Ai Health Highway and several others have raised money as investors increasingly bet on AI in India.

At the same time, homegrown investment firms like Premji Invest are looking to back global companies like US-based Galileo as the AI boom gathers momentum beyond India. Along with Galileo, there are several other domestic and international AI companies that are in talks with investors to raise money and expand their operations.

What does OfBusiness do?

SoftBank-backed OfBusiness operates as a business-to-business (B2B) platform for companies to procure raw materials like metals, chemicals, building components and agriculture commodities through a network of suppliers. It competes with the likes of Tiger Global-backed InfraMarket, Accel-funded Zetwerk, and Peak XV-backed Moglix.

The company, founded in 2016 by husband-wife duo Asish Mohapatra and Ruchi Kalra, along with Vasant Sridhar, Bhuvan Gupta, and Jain, has so far raised more than $800 million from investors, including Tiger Global, Norwest venture partners, Softbank, Matrix Partners and Alpha Wave Global.

Its last 2021 funding round valued it at $5 billion. OfBusiness is now targeting a valuation of $6-9 billion as it gears up for a $1-billion India IPO  in 8-12 months.