Monsoon expects triple-digit growth as it helps B2Bs along the digital transformation path
Dublin ecommerce firm is targeting large enterprises with Apex, its new platform which aims to help larger companies grow their online sales
Monsoon Consulting, the Dublin-based ecommerce company, expects to add 100 jobs in the coming years as it “aggressively” targets large B2B enterprises with a new platform aimed at helping them grow their online sales.
The Enterprise Ireland-backed firm is forecasting triple-digit growth in the next three years following the release of Apex, a new service “designed for the future”, which helps bigger enterprise companies embrace ecommerce.
“We will multiply in the next three to five years. I see us doing at least 300 to 500 per cent growth,” Bharat Sharma, the company’s founder and chief executive, told the Business Post. “We’re at 45 staff now, and I see us growing to 150 in that period.”
Sharma, an Indian native, has lived in Ireland since 2000 when he was headhunted for an IT job here. “They offered me a job in Dublin and I thought it was in South Africa at first,” he said. “I thought it was in Durban. My knowledge of Ireland wasn’t great.”
But once he moved, Sharma fell in love with Ireland and he has worked here ever since. Monsoon is his most successful business venture, providing ecommerce services to clients such as the FAI, Uniphar and the Central Bank of Ireland. The company has offices in London and Kyiv, and has just opened a new unit in Lisbon to help sustain its growth.
“We provide digital transformation services for very large and complex ecommerce implementations,” Sharma said. “We do both B2C and B2B, and some of our clients are doing €300 million in yearly turnover.”
One of the company’s biggest recent challenges has been the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with significant impacts on the 15 engineers it employs there.
Monsoon was also affected by Covid-19, but the turbulence of the pandemic actually helped the company, Sharma said, as it opened up a major new line of business among larger B2B providers who had to improve their ecommerce services.
The development of Apex pre-dated Covid, and while its commercial launch was even stymied by the pandemic, Sharma said it quickly became apparent that its features were a perfect fit for the moment as they improved online user experience and gave businesses the ability to increase digital sales.
“Apex is still in the lab, really. We launched the first version in the pandemic, but lockdowns slowed us down,” Sharma said. “It provides B2B ecommerce functionality to clients, who have quite different needs from B2C companies. The pandemic exposed the risk for them of not being online, so they’re rushing to build that.”
Sharma said the company plans to “aggressively” focus on Apex in the coming years, “in order to create a niche around B2B ecommerce and go after it”.
“If you look at the trends in ecommerce growth, B2B ecommerce is going to be the biggest growth sector,” he said.
This Making it Work article is produced in partnership with Enterprise Ireland
