In order to strengthen its last-mile delivery service in the e-commerce segment, Aramex has invested in two logistics startups. While it has committed to invest around Rs. 20 crore in Grab.in, it’s investment in Logisure remains unknown.
Grab-a-Grub is an on-demand hyperlocal delivery service provider, which also handles first mile and reverse logistics across 10 cities. It works with Snapdeal, Zomato, McDonalds, Pantaloons and Grofers among others.
It will use the funds to create verticals and further develop its technology. Earlier, Zomato acquired minority stake in Grab. The firm has also raised funding from Sixth Sense Ventures, Oliphans Capital and Haresh Chawla.
While the size of the deal is undisclosed, documents with RoC show that Grab has raised Rs.13.34 crore in debt from Aramex Ventures in the first tranche. It also details that the company will raise two more tranches from Aramex, for almost 25% of the total paid-up share capital on a fully diluted basis.
On the other hand, Logisure has developed a platform for intelligent urban freight management. It was founded in 2014 by Vikas Sethia, Anirudh Batwara, Vinay Jain, Sharwan Sharma and Darpan Pathak.
Commenting about the funding, Percy Avari, country manager for Aramex India, added,
Ecommerce’s contributions to our overall revenue are on the rise. Due to the rise of the Omni-channel shopping model, we believe customers will be soon looking for new and more delivery solutions, especially for same-day deliveries of ecommerce sales.
Apart from this, Aramex has also announced an investment in UK-based geocoding system what3words. It has invested $2.94 million in a Series-B round of the startup. The firm aims at creating a global grid of three word addresses.
Aramex is a UAE-based global provider of comprehensive logistics and transportation solutions. It is now expanding its e-commerce footprint across West Asia, Asia and Africa.
The investments in Grab and Logisure are part of its recently launched ‘Rapid Scaling-Up’ model that aims to leverage partnerships with mobile-based startups to improve last-mile delivery solutions. In India, Aramex works with all major e-commerce marketplaces. It is also shipping India-bound orders on Amazon.com.
1 comment