Delhivery Confirms $413 Mn Funding Round Led By SoftBank

On Sunday (March 24th), Gurugram-based ecommerce logistics startup Delhivery announced its latest funding round of over $400 Mn led by Japanese investment firm SoftBank.

Other existing investors in the company such as private equity firm Carlyle Group, and China-based conglomerate and investment company Fosun, also reportedly participated in this round. This round is believed to have taken Delhivery’s valuation to about $1.5 Bn.

“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,” said Delhivery Chief Executive Sahil Barua.

In February, SoftBank had got the final approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to pick up 22.44% of the total share capital of Delhivery Pvt. Ltd. CCI along with the approved acquisition of preference shares in Delhivery by CA Swift Investments, which is the special purpose vehicle of Carlyle Group.

As per a Registrar of Companies filing accessed by paper.vc, Delhivery has issued 1.23 Mn Series F compulsorily convertible cumulative preference shares (CCCPS) each at a premium of INR 20,063 to Cayman Islands-registered SVF Doorbell (Cayman). Further, 158,831 Series-F CCCPS were issued to existing investor Carlyle Group’s CA Swift investments at a premium of INR 20,063, and 63,532 Series-F CCCPS went to Fosun International.

The filing also said that SoftBank and Carlyle Group will now hold 23.41% and 12.39% respectively in Delhivery.

“Our investment in Delhivery reflects our focus on partnering with innovative market leaders. Over the years, Delhivery has demonstrated industry-leading growth and emerged as the one-stop solution for ecommerce logistics,” Munish Varma, partner, SoftBank Investment Advisors said in a press statement.

Delhivery’s Expansion Picks Up Pace

Delhivery was cofounded by Mohit Tandon, Sahil Barua, Bhavesh Manglani, Kapil Bharati, and Suraj Saharan in 2011. It’s services are available in about 600 cities and 8,500 pincodes in India. As of December 2018, the company had setup 12 fulfilment centres for B2C (business to consumer) and B2B (business to business) services and have partnered with ecommerce companies such as Flipkart and Paytm.

Delhivery has witnessed a 42% jump in its revenue in FY 2018. Its operational revenue contributed almost 95% to its total revenue of $153.26 Mn (INR 1,073.64 Cr) in the year, as against $107.92 Mn (INR 756 Cr) for the last year.

Earlier last month, Delhivery acquired the India business of Dubai-based logistics company Aramex with plans to take over the Aramex’s local operations which included logistic support to ecommerce giant Amazon India, and hyperlocal players such as Reliance-acquired Grab.in, and Logisure.