Meesho Launches Tech Platform Valmo To Fill Gaps In India’s Supply Chain

Ecommerce unicorn Meesho introduced its tech platform Valmo on Wednesday (February 7) to enable low-cost deliveries and fill the gaps in the supply chain network in the country by enabling micro entrepreneurs to deliver orders.

The platform brings together logistics platforms, technology partners, and small entrepreneurs who operate sorting centres to optimise the delivery process.

Valmo is currently being used by the ecommerce player to deliver the orders placed on its marketplace. 

Valmo operates on disaggregated network nodes, including first-mile, last-mile, and sorting centres across the country. This also allows delivery partners to be located close to users, thereby reducing the time taken for each delivery, Meesho said. 

“Valmo is about getting unorganised smaller players to play a part in the larger e-commerce system. The smaller players amount to only about 20-22% of the ecommerce deliveries today. With Valmo as a network, we believe we can take that share to 45% in the next one year,” Meesho’s CXO – fulfilment and initiatives Saurabh Pandey said.

The startup said it has been working on the development of the platform since the past 18-24 months. It launched the platform last year.

Meesho said it has partnered with companies like ElasticRun, FarEye, LoadShare and Shipsy to develop the technological capabilities required for Valmo. 

Explaining the network’s model, Pandey said that disaggregating the logistics supply chain is a better strategy than operating through large node models. It reduces the investment on the platform and is a more reliable model as it helps in establishing a better connection between sellers and the logistic partners involved across stages. 

Meesho claimed that Valmo currently helps in managing over 9 Lakh daily orders. The deliveries managed by Valmo reach about 6,000 pin codes across over 20 Indian states. 

The startup claimed to have onboarded 3,000 micro entrepreneurs on the platform. It said it generates 35,000 indirect jobs through engagement with these local partners as of now.

It said it is also experimenting with Valmo for grocery deliveries. 

Pandey said that Valmo has helped Meesho cut its logistics cost by 5%. However, the unicorn has no plans as of now to shift fulfilment of all orders on the network.

Meesho said it will continue to work with third-party logistics providers such as Delhivery, Shadowfax, Xpressbees, Ecom Express, among others.

With the rise in ecommerce penetration in the country, the Indian logistics market is expanding at a rapid pace. Meesho competes with Flipkart and Amazon in the ecommerce market. Both the giants have their own logistics arms as well. Flipkart’s logistics arm eKart also offers services to small, medium and large (SMB) businesses and other brands across India.

Last year, Amazon invested an additional INR 400 Cr in its Indian logistics arm Amazon Transportation Services. With it, the company planned to deliver non-Amazon orders with a new vertical called Amazon Shipping. 

Meesho’s net loss declined 48% year-on-year to INR 1,675 Cr in FY23 while operating revenue surged 77% to INR 5,735 Cr.

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