Sundaram Fin Buys 40% In Infreight.com

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Mumbai: : Chennai-based Sundaram Finance, one of the oldest players in the truck and vehicle finance business, has taken an equity stake in transport portal Infreight.com. Sundaram Finance has taken a 40 per cent stake in the company. The other shareholders in Infreight.com are its promoter Rahul Mehta and a software company - Byzan Technologies - which has developed the software solutions for the portal.

Speaking to eFE, Mr Mehta said: “Sundaram Finance brings a great deal of value to this business, it’s not just the capital investment, through their 100-odd branches throughout the country we can reach hundreds of customers and grow the business together.”

Infreight.com is a one and a half-year-old logistics portal which is focussed on the transport sector. Currently the portal is focussed on the transportation industry in the western region. Infreight.com has a registered user base comprising transporters (200 members), brokers (55) and clients (110).

The portal offers databases for transporters and clients along with the base rates for various routes. Apart from this, it provides business information services to supplement its revenue stream. “We have a tie-up with Tenderinfo.com to upload tenders from corporates, government bodies, etc,” says Infreight.com general manager (sales and marketing) TN Parameswaran. He adds that the portal’s main revenue streams are subscription charges, business promotion facilities, banners, selling of content and commission on the transactions effected on the portal. Says Mr Parameswaran, “We are currently working on fleet tracking systems and are planning one that uses SMS.” Other features that the portal plans are reverse auctions and online logistics facilities.