As we reported earlier, Delhivery – the logistics startup which was in talks to raise $100 million capital, has today announced that it has secured the said funding in a latest round, led by Carlyle Asia Partners Fund IV.
Along with Carlyle, Tiger Global Management has also participated in this round. As per the reports, US-based investment fund Carlyle Asia Partners IV has picked up a significant minority stake in e-commerce logistics company. The startup is now valued at over $600 million.
This deal marks the world’s second largest PE investment firm Carlyle’s first big logistics bet in the Indian e-commerce and logistics space. The deal is also among the largest PE investments in this space, after Warburg Pincus agreed to invest $133 million in Ecom Express in July 2015.
Neeraj Bharadwaj, managing director at Carlyle Group in India, said,
In India, 70% of the e-commerce market is mobile and electronics. If you look at markets worldwide, categories like apparel, home decor, grocery, furniture form a larger share in a mature market. We believe these categories will grow in India, accelerating the need for third party logistics players.
The horizontal players will continue to be the largest players while categories like grocery and furniture will see the emergence of vertical players.
Delhivery, the Gurgaon-based company, began operations in 2012 as yet another hyperlocal food delivery startup. Soon, it pivoted to an e-commerce logistics company piggybacking on the online retail boom. It currently services over 600 cities and 8,500 PIN codes. It has a network of 12 fulfilment centres and works with companies like Flipkart and Paytm.
The company had registered revenue of Rs 524 crore in fiscal 2016 with losses amounting to Rs 317 crore, according to data aggregation service Tofler. The company had a revenue of Rs 228 crore and a loss of Rs 71 crore in fiscal 2015.
Earlier, the company was said to be in talks with PE firm for its pre-IPO placement. While other details on the IPO are still unknown, Delhivery’s growth underscores the importance of last mile e-commerce delivery in the booming online retail market.
As per the report by investment bank Avendus Capital, technology-enabled logistics businesses are expected to emerge as the next big market, growing from $1.4 billion in 2015 to $9.6 billion by 2020.
