Delhivery Raises $275 Mn Funding Ahead Of IPO

IPO-bound logistics tech unicorn Delhivery has raised $275 Mn in what is expected to be the final funding round before the firm files for an IPO later this year. This is the Series H funding round for the logistics unicorn.

The Gurugram-headquartered startup disclosed it had raised $275 million in a primary funding round led by Boston-headquartered investment firm Fidelity ($126 Mn), in a regulatory filing. Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, Abu Dhabi’s Chimera, and UK’s Baillie Gifford also participated in the new round. Delhivery also counts SoftBank Vision Fund, Tiger Global Management, Times Internet, The Carlyle Group, and Steadview Capital among its investors.

The new round valued the 10-year-old startup at about $3 Bn having raised $1.23 Bn to date. The development was first reported by Entrackr. 

“We are delighted to welcome Fidelity and our other new investors to our cap-table. This round of financing significantly strengthens our balance sheet and is a statement of confidence as we plan to go public.” Sahil Barua, Delhivery’s co-founder and chief executive officer, said in a statement. He also added that the investment coincides with two other significant milestones as Delhivery completed 1 Bn cumulative shipments till date in April 2021 and will be 10 yrs old in June 2021.

The company entered the unicorn club in 2019, after raising $413 Mn from SoftBank and other investors. It has raised about $1.2 Bn to date (including this round) from investors such as Nexus Venture Partners, Multiples, CPP Investment Board and others. Its last funding round was in December 2020 when it raised $25 Mn for Steadview Capital for secondary shares, according to Crunchbase.

Delhivery was founded by Mohit Tandon, Sahil Barua, Bhavesh Manglani, Kapil Bharati and Suraj Saharan in 2011. It provides a full suite of logistics services such as express parcel transportation, LTL and FTL freight, reverse logistics, cross-border, B2B & B2C warehousing and technology services. The company claims to have fulfilled over 850 Mn transactions since its inception and works with over 10,000 direct customers. 

In the financial year 2019-20 (FY20), Delhivery managed to cut its loss 6.8x, from INR 1,781 Cr in FY19 to INR 284.13 Cr. The decline in losses comes ahead of a critical year for the company. The company also reduced its expenses by 6% to INR 3,250 Cr and increased its revenue by 74% to INR 2,986 Cr in FY2020.

In September last year, the company’s COO Sandeep Barasia had confirmed that it was planning to list in India. It has also amended its articles of association (AoA) to include the scope of a public listing as a secondary exit for existing investors. In March 2021, the startup confirmed that two of the founders Manglani and Tandon, had quit the company and stepped aside from day-to-day operations and their status had been  reclassified as ‘retiring/non-active promoters’ 

The company has been trying to go public for the last two years, but plans for the same in 2019 coincided with the Indian general elections. “It was probably not the best time to go public because a lot of focus was going to be on elections,” Barasia had said. 

Besides Delhivery, several other Indian companies are planning an IPO this year. These include Zomato, InMobi, MobiKwik, Paytm, Ola, Grofers, PolicyBazaar, PhonePe and Lenskart. Interestingly, SoftBank is an investor in most of these companies — Paytm, Ola, Grofers, PolicyBazaar and Lenskart.