A $413 million cheque from a consortium of investors led by Softbank Vision Fund has propelled logistics start-up Delhivery into the billion-dollar club. The valuation of the company has risen to around $1.5 billion after the latest round of funding, which also witnessed participation from existing investors Carlyle Group and Fosun International. As per regulatory filings, Delhivery received $350 million from Softbank earlier this month.
"We will be scaling our warehousing and freight operations, investing in building large multi-tenant fulfilment centres, integrated with our parcel and freight transportation networks," Delhivery CEO Sahil Barua told various media portals. The investment will primarily be used for expansion into new areas. Delhivery plans to add 5,000 new pin codes to the current 15,000 by the first half of 2020. The company will also enhance its end-to-end supply chain platform for small and medium enterprises.
The Initial Team
Delhivery was started by a bunch of engineers - Sahil Barua, Mohit Tandon, Bhavesh Manglani, Suraj Saharan and Kapil Bharati - in 2011. Barua and Tandon used to work for Bain & Company as consultants before starting the logistics company. While Barua is a management graduate from 91心頭利 Bengaluru, Tandon is a product of IIT Kanpur. Bhavesh Manglani is a Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology and 91心頭利 graduate. Saharan and Bharati are engineering graduates from IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi, respectively.
In the initial phase, the company started off as a hyperlocal logistics service provider specifically catering to florists, food businesses and offline stores in Gurugram. Between 2015 and 2018, Delhivery claims to have grown at an annual pace of nearly 65%. Nearly a quarter of products ordered online in India pass through the company's channel currently. The company has handled over 450 million transactions since its inception.
Gurugram-based Delhivery counts New York-based Tiger Global Management, Nexus Venture Partners and the digital arm of the Times of India Group, Times Internet among its other investors. "Our investment in Delhivery reflects our focus on partnering with innovative market leaders," Munish Varma, partner, SoftBank Investment Advisers told Mint. "Over the years, Delhivery has demonstrated industry-leading growth and emerged as the one-stop solution for e-commerce logistics." The start-up provides the full suite of logistics services, including, express parcel transportation, LTL and FTL freight, reverse logistics, cross-border, B2B & B2C warehousing and technology services. Earlier this month, Masayoshi Son-led Softbank had invested $60 million in grocery delivery start-up Grofers, which was just the first tranche of a larger $120-140 million funding round initiated by the company.