Khazanah Buys Stake In Xpressbees From Elevation Capital For $40 Mn

Third-party logistics (3PL) unicorn Xpressbees has raised $40 Mn from Khazanah Nasional Berhad, the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, via a secondary sale as Elevation Capital, an early investor, sold a further stake in the company.

To be sure, Xpressbees’ valuation reached $1.1 Bn in February 2022, when it raised $300 Mn in primary capital in a round led by Blackstone, TPG and ChrysCapital. As such, the secondary sale increased the 3PL unicorn’s valuation, a rare occurrence in transactions of such kind.

The startup has raised more than $600 Mn in multiple rounds to date.

“We continue on our path to becoming a dominant end-to-end logistics player and look to leverage any strategic opportunities. Khazanah’s disciplined long-term investment approach makes the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund a perfect partner for us in this journey,” said Amitava Saha, founder and CEO of Xpressbees.

This is the second time Elevation has cashed out its stake in the 3PL unicorn. Last August, it sold a considerable stake to Avendus Future Leaders for INR 195 Cr. Incidentally, Avendus was the financial advisor for the present transaction.

Khazanah joins Blackstone Growth, TPG Growth, ChrysCapital, Alibaba Group, Elevation Capital, Investcorp, Norwest Venture Partners and Gaja Capital on the Xpressbees captable.

Xpressbees, founded in 2015 after being spun off from ecommerce giant FirstCry, delivers goods to over 20,000 pin codes in the country. The third-party logistics unicorn has more than 100 hubs across India, more than 3 Mn sq. ft. of warehouse capacity, and operates across 52 airports in the country.

It competes with fellow 3PL giants such as listed logistic startup Delhivery and IPO-bound startup Ecom Express.

Xpressbees’ operating revenue soared 1.8X to INR 1,904.4 Cr in FY22 from INR 1,010.1 Cr in FY21. At the same time, the logistics unicorn reported a 1.8X jump in its expenses, going from INR 1,088.3 Cr in FY21 to INR 1,957.1 Cr in FY22. As such, its net loss declined over 57% to INR 27.1 Cr from INR 63.4 Cr in FY21.

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