Delhivery Targets $4 Bn Valuation Through IPO This Year

Logistics unicorn Delhivery, which is expected to go for an initial public offering (IPO) this year at a valuation of $3.2-4 Bn, is reportedly planning to raise $800 Mn through the public listing. 

In 2021, the stock markets have rebounded after a slow 2020 and are witnessing record-high levels of growth. The company is said to be in talks with several bankers such as Kotak MahindraCapital Company, Morgan Stanley, Citi, ICICISecurities, JP Morgan and Bank of America for the IPO. 

“The appointment of bankers is underway. The formal launch may stretch to the September or December quarter,” a senior executive involved in the process told ET, which first reported the development. 

The public listing may also include a secondary sale of shares to facilitate the exit of some existing private equity investors. 

Founded in 2011 by Mohit Tandon, Sahil Barua, Bhavesh Manglani, Kapil Bharati and Suraj Saharan, Delhivery 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. 

It claims to have successfully fulfilled over 850 Mn transactions since inception and works with over 10,000 direct customers. The company entered the unicorn club in 2019, after raising $413 Mn from SoftBank and other investors. It has raised about $959.6 Mn till date from investors such as Nexus Venture Partners, Multiples, CPP Investment Board and others.

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 3,250.4 Cr and increased its revenue by 74% to INR 2,986.4 Cr in FY2020. 

In September last year, the company’s COO Sandee 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.

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.