Nitin Jain, the co-founder and chief business officer (CBO) of OfBusiness may now launch an artificial intelligence (AI) startup for Human Capital Management (HCM) solutions, Moneycontrol reported, citing unnamed sources. HT couldn’t independently verify the information.
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Jain also held discussions with with venture capital firms like Z47 (formerly, Matrix Partners India) for raising capital, according to the report, which added that some of the senior leadership of OfBusiness will also put seed money into the new venture.
However, the report also quoted Jain as saying that he is very much part of OfBusiness, and will just be an investor in the venture started by a friend.
What does OfBusiness do?
OfBusiness, founded in 2016 by husband-wife duo Asish Mohapatra and Ruchi Kalra, along with Vasant Sridhar, Bhuvan Gupta, and Jain, is a business-to-business (B2B) platform for companies to purchase raw materials like metals, chemicals, building components and agriculture commodities through a network of suppliers.
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The SoftBank-backed startup valued at $5 billion in its last funding round in 2021, currently competes with Tiger Global-backed InfraMarket, Accel-funded Zetwerk, and Peak XV-backed Moglix, and is aiming for a $1 billion IPO in 8-12 months, according to the report.
There has been a surge in investor interest towards AI startups lately. For example, enterprise solutions company Nurix AI, road safety solutions provider Nayan Tech, AI Health Highway, along with several others have raised money lately because of this interest.
And the interest isn’t just with domestic startups. For instance, domestic investment firms like Premji Invest are also looking to back global businesses like US-based Galileo.
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