2021 has already been a golden year for the Indian start-up ecosystem, with nearly 14 firms entering the coveted unicorn family in the first half of the year. The second half promises to be similarly interesting, as market leaders Zomato, Flipkart, and Paytm are set to go public. Another player that could join that list for 2022, is logistics major Delhivery.
Ahead of its own IPO, regulatory filings show that, Delhivery, India’s largest e-commerce logistics and supply chain platform, raised $277 million in its latest funding round led by US-based investment firm Fidelity, increasing its valuation to over $3 billion. The round also saw participation from Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, Abu Dhabi’s Chimera, and UK’s Baillie Gifford. Gifford and Chimera are set to become Delhivery’s new investors.
While Fidelity invested around $125 million in the Gurgaon-based Delhivery, GIC invested around $75 million. The 10-year-old Gurgaon-based startup counts SoftBank Vision Fund, Tiger Global Management, Times Internet, The Carlyle Group, and Steadview Capital among its investors, and has raised about $1.23 billion to date. Delhivery had earlier raised $415 million in a Series F financing round led by SoftBank, which valued the new-age logistics company at $1.5 billion in 2019.
In its regulatory filings, Delhivery announced that the fresh capital would be used for the expansion of its business. It has evolved beyond a food delivery firm and works across sectors like consumer electronics, fashion, FMCG, and select industrial sectors like auto. It is currently present in over 2,300 cities and more than 17, 500 zip codes in the country, and has processed over a billion orders to date. It has 21 automated sort centers, more than 85 fulfillment centers and 3000 direct delivery centers, as well as around 15,000 vehicles and a team of more than 40,000 workers. It connects truckers, agents, and consigners, reduces brokers’ roles, and does its best to digitize the demand-and-supply system of the $200-billion rich logistics market.
Delhivery, Fidelity, and GIC declined to comment on the matter.
Delihivery is expected to raise around $650-$800 million when it goes public (it expects to be valued at around $4 billion at that time), which means that this could be Delhivery’s last major fundraiser, which is expected to a secondary share sale. It expects to record revenue of ₹3700-4000 crores in FY21, surpassing its competitors FedEx, Gati, and Blue Dart, a market leader.
