The ecommerce revolution in India was kickstarted by Rediff back in the early 2000s that started its operations with knick-knacks. Today, we have an established online marketplace holding several items ranging from small food items to automobiles.
The cement industry in India alone has an 8% share in the world market. Despite having a robust offline foundation, the industry is still taking its initial steps into entering the online business.
Ashutosh Kumar (Jha), the founder & CEO at cemX observed the functioning of the cement sector & noticed a few things about the operation of the industry. He saw that several concerns like retail shops not providing wide brand variety, the hassle of visiting multiple stores in finding the best deal, retailers with credit facilities facing troubles in recovery often leading to lengthy legal consequences many times, high retail sale price per cement bag & consolidated industry with a very solid entry barrier for new entrants without a enormous capital investment.
Creating a hassle-free & bargain-free online platform
Comprehending the entire situation, Kumar decided to develop an integrated platform cemX with stores online and offline, while being a part of the online market switching consumer revolution, bringing one solution to multiple problems.
Hailing from Sitamarhi Bihar, Ashutosh Kumar, CEO at cemX, said,
“We are contributing our best to support the digital India initiative by making cement deals hassle-free and easily available on the door at the best competitive price.”
The unique early-stage startup is India’s first online platform with offline extension stores where a customer can buy cement of different brands available in the Indian market at the best competitive price. Customers can order directly through cemX’s online platform or can even visit the nearest e-store where the e-dealers are available for assistance. The startup currently majorly operates in Bihar and very soon kicking off the pilot in Bangalore, Mumbai, etc. & provides various PPC cement brands like Ambuja, ACC, Jaypee, etc.
Almost a month later after official Launch, Ashutosh was scheduled to meet his senior,
Sourav Chakraborty, from grad school in Kolkata to discuss a research paper. Sourav
was now in town post completion of his second masters, MSc in Business Management
from Imperial College London. Ashutosh shared his startup Idea and welcomed him on
board as a co-Founder & CBO
Sourav Chakraborty, co-founder & CBO at cemX & an Imperial College graduate, believes that the modern-day businesses exist on their groundbreaking potential. He added,
“We at cemX want to break the age-old orthodox walls of the Indian cement Industry only to build newer houses for the New Smart India.”
Challenges faced & company’s vision
Initially, the online cement firm faced challenges in credit-based purchases & developing the trust with the end customers in an orthodox setup of the present industry. The firm’s operations have been bootstrapped by both Kumar & Chakraborty and have been approached by several investors for funding & strategic partnerships.
“We are currently in a very early stage of negotiations with them,”
says Kumar.
The duo considers the very idea of transforming the conservative cement industry & shifting to a digital e-commerce domain while breaking the barriers of building material e-commerce & credit-based purchasing as their very first milestone. The cement startup, currently in its revenue generation phase, visions to bring the entire Cement Industry into the digital domain by molding it into being a wholly hassle-free & bargain free sector.
