OfBusiness’s BidAssist platform is finding most of its users outside India’s largest cities, offering a window into how digital procurement is changing the way smaller businesses participate in infrastructure and public-sector markets. More than 60 per cent of its 1.7 million users are based in Tier-II and Tier-III cities and towns, according to company data.
The figure matters because public procurement is not only a government function. It is also a mechanism through which roads, buildings, civil works and other infrastructure generate business opportunities across the urban system. The ability of smaller firms to identify and evaluate tenders can influence which companies compete for those contracts, how quickly they find opportunities and whether they can assemble the financial capacity needed to execute them.
BidAssist, the tender intelligence unit of SoftBank-backed OfBusiness Tech, aggregates procurement opportunities from government departments, public sector undertakings and other organisations. The platform tracks more than 50,000 live tenders daily and has indexed over 55 million tenders and tender results across India. Its tools allow businesses to assess eligibility, examine historical outcomes and study competitor participation before deciding whether to commit resources to a bid.
That process addresses a longstanding friction in public procurement: information is available, but finding, interpreting and acting on it can be difficult for smaller enterprises. A tender is not simply an announcement of work. It contains eligibility requirements, technical conditions, financial obligations, deadlines and signals about the level of competition. For a small contractor or supplier, the cost of screening unsuitable opportunities can itself become a barrier to participation.
The geographic distribution of BidAssist users suggests that this information problem is particularly relevant beyond the biggest metropolitan markets. Industrial and commercial hubs in smaller cities often host contractors, manufacturers, suppliers and service providers that depend on public-sector or infrastructure-linked demand. The company’s data does not establish that every user wins more work through the platform, but it does show that digital tender tools are being adopted at scale among businesses located outside the largest urban centres.
## Infrastructure demand is creating the use case
BidAssist’s data also points to stronger procurement activity in sectors linked to construction and infrastructure. Tender value in civil and construction increased by approximately 25 per cent across Q3 FY26 to Q2 FY27 compared with the preceding four quarters, while road construction grew by approximately 27 per cent, according to the company. Across the 15 largest sectors tracked by the platform, tender value increased by approximately 14 per cent over the same period.
These figures are company-tracked measures rather than a government-wide assessment of infrastructure spending. They nevertheless help explain why tender intelligence is becoming commercially important. When the number or value of opportunities rises, firms face a larger and more complex field of potential contracts. A platform that filters notices and adds information about past outcomes can become part of the decision-making process before a bid is submitted.
The construction and roads segments are especially significant for smaller urban economies because their supply chains extend well beyond the project site. They involve civil contractors, equipment providers, material suppliers, consultants, transport operators and financial institutions. A tender awarded in one location can therefore create demand across several connected businesses, although the source material does not quantify the local employment or economic impact of these contracts.
For cities, this creates a link between procurement transparency and market access. Public tenders determine how opportunities are presented to businesses, while digital tools can affect which firms are able to see and understand those opportunities. The platform does not replace the government’s tendering process, but it can reduce the search and interpretation burden for participants.
## From tender discovery to financing
BidAssist’s role extends beyond identifying tenders. OfBusiness said its customers include 10 Nifty 50 companies and leading private-sector banks. Banks use the platform to identify tender winners that may require bank guarantees and project financing. Asian Paints uses project-award alerts to identify potential sales opportunities, according to the company.
This range of users shows that tender information has value at several points in the infrastructure cycle. Contractors need it to locate work. Banks can use award information to identify financing needs. Suppliers can use project signals to find potential customers. The same public procurement event can therefore become a commercial data point for multiple organisations.
For OfBusiness, BidAssist fits into a broader model covering the SME order cycle. Its commerce platform supports raw material procurement, while Oxyzo Financial Services provides financing. BidAssist addresses the earlier stage of finding orders. The company describes the three services as a way to help businesses find orders, secure materials and finance execution.
That integration is important because winning a contract does not automatically give a small business the capacity to deliver it. A company may need materials before receiving payment, arrange guarantees, hire labour or purchase equipment. By connecting order discovery with procurement and credit, OfBusiness is positioning itself across several operational constraints faced by industrial SMEs. The source material does not establish how many businesses use all three offerings, but it explains the commercial logic behind the group’s expansion.
The company also said BidAssist’s subscription revenue exceeds its operating costs, making the platform a self-funded customer acquisition channel for OfBusiness’s commerce and credit businesses. In this model, tender intelligence is not only a standalone software service. It also becomes a route through which the group can identify businesses that may later need materials or finance.
## What the data does and does not show
The strongest evidence in the company’s account concerns reach and activity: 1.7 million users, more than 60 per cent located in Tier-II and Tier-III cities and towns, more than 50,000 live tenders tracked daily, and more than 55 million tenders and results indexed. These numbers indicate significant demand for organised procurement information.
The data on tender values provides a second signal. Civil and construction tender value rose approximately 25 per cent, road construction approximately 27 per cent and the 15 largest tracked sectors approximately 14 per cent over the comparison period given by the company. However, the figures do not provide a complete picture of contract awards, project completion, payment delays or the distribution of work among large and small firms.
They also do not show whether greater access to tender information results in more competitive bidding or improved outcomes for public agencies. A platform can make opportunities easier to discover, but eligibility rules, technical capacity, bid security, working capital and execution history continue to shape who can participate successfully. Digital access is therefore one part of the procurement chain, not a substitute for financial and operational capacity.
The distinction is relevant to smaller cities. Their businesses may be closer to local infrastructure demand, but proximity alone does not remove the barriers associated with public contracting. The available information shows that firms are using digital tools to navigate the opportunity landscape. It does not establish whether the tools have changed the success rate of smaller firms or narrowed the gap between them and larger contractors.
## The institutional shift behind the platform
Government departments, public-sector undertakings and other organisations remain the originators of the tenders aggregated by BidAssist. Their procurement systems generate the underlying information, while the private platform organises it into a searchable intelligence product. This creates a division between the public authority that commissions work and the private service that helps businesses interpret the market.
The arrangement reflects a wider institutional shift in urban infrastructure markets. Public agencies increasingly generate large volumes of digital information, but raw availability does not guarantee usability. Companies are building services around the work of collecting, sorting and analysing those records. In the case of BidAssist, historical tender outcomes and competitor participation are presented as inputs for commercial decisions.
For banks and suppliers, project-award information can also function as an early signal of future demand. A winning contractor may need a guarantee or loan. A project award may indicate potential sales for a material supplier. These connections turn procurement data into a coordination layer across finance, construction and manufacturing.
The model also raises a structural question about access. If private platforms make complex tender information easier to use, businesses that can pay for better intelligence may gain an advantage over firms relying only on public notices. The supplied material does not provide subscription pricing or evidence of unequal access, so it cannot establish whether such a gap exists. It does show, however, that tender data has become valuable enough to support a specialised commercial ecosystem.
## A new map of India’s infrastructure economy
The concentration of BidAssist users in smaller cities challenges the assumption that digital business infrastructure is primarily a metropolitan phenomenon. The platform’s adoption pattern suggests that demand for procurement intelligence follows industrial and commercial activity, not only population size or technology-sector concentration.
This has implications for how India’s infrastructure economy is understood. Large projects may be announced by national or state institutions, but their commercial effects are distributed through networks of smaller contractors, suppliers and service providers. Digital tender platforms make some of those networks more visible by connecting procurement notices with firms seeking work, finance and inputs.
The evidence confirms that tender intelligence is becoming part of the operating infrastructure for a significant user base outside India’s biggest cities. It also confirms that infrastructure-linked procurement is a major use case for the platform. What remains unclear is whether this digital access is translating into wider participation, better project delivery or a more even distribution of public contracts. Those outcomes will depend on factors beyond discovery, including eligibility, financing, competition, execution and payment.
OfBusiness, founded in 2015 by Asish Mohapatra, Ruchi Kalra, Vasant Sridhar and Bhuvan Gupta, is preparing to file for an initial public offering of approximately $600 million to $800 million as it expands across the industrial SME value chain. BidAssist’s growth will therefore be watched not only as a technology story, but also as an indicator of how procurement, construction demand and SME finance are becoming increasingly connected across India’s urban and industrial network.
