SaaS Logistics Startup Shipsy Raises $6 Mn In Series A From Sequoia, Info Edge

Gurugram-headquartered SaaS (software-as-a-service) startup for shippers and logistics companies, Shipsy, has raised $6 Mn in Series A funding in a round led by Sequoia Capital India’s Surge, a rapid scale-up program for startups in India and Southeast Asia, and existing investor, the publicly-listed Indian online classifieds company Info Edge. 

The company claims that the funding would be directed towards its efforts of creating the largest global trade network by bringing all stakeholders of the international logistics ecosystem on a single platform. 

The company explains its approach as ensuring a strong SaaS workflow management platform which allows network participants to collaborate, thus reducing process bottlenecks and improving efficiency. 

The five-year-old startup claims to be processing 10% of India’s trade and having some of the biggest players in the Indian logistics and manufacturing space, such as DTDC, Bajaj Steel Industries and Zenith Birla (India) Limited as its clients. 

“The platform helps shippers reduce freight costs by automating and digitising freight negotiations, reducing incidental charges, significantly improving shipping turnaround time and minimising working capital loss for shippers through advanced machine learning models,” said  Soham Chokshi, cofounder and CEO of Shipsy. 

“The money raised will help fuel our growth and enable us to become a market leader, allowing us to continue our aggressive geographical expansion, besides investing in product innovation to keep us ahead of the curve,” he added. 

Shipsy was cofounded in June 2015 by IITians Soham Chokshi, Dhruv Agarwal, Himanshu Gupta, and Sahil Arora. Shipsy’s platform helps enterprises manage their end-to-end logistics across multiple modes and also collaborate more efficiently with their vendors onboarded on the platform. 

Seeing the needs of the market where players needed real-time visibility and reduced costs, the team set out to build a platform for supply chain management—creating the largest supply chain network by bringing all participants such as exporters, importers, third party logistics, shipping lines, banks, insurance companies on a single platform.

The company claims to have multiplied its revenue 3x in the last 18 months, and doubled its customer base amid the Covid-19 induced lockdown this year, with enterprises searching for digital solutions to manage their shipments. 

The company had last raised funds in November 2019 from Info Edge in a Pre-Series A round, although the amount for the same was undisclosed. Shipsy has raised INR 10 Cr in funds to date and says that it has customers across Dubai, Saudi Arabia, North Africa, Singapore and Malaysia. 

At present, the logistics market is crowded with a lot of existing players and startups. Some of the players that are operating in this space include Cogoport, Rivigo, Shipsy, Delhivery, Blackbuck, Freightwalla among others. The logistics tech sector has produced two unicorns — Delhivery and Rivigo — as the rise of ecommerce, distribution for online platforms and hyperlocal deliveries have got the innovation and investments flowing in the sector.

According to an Indian Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) report, the Indian logistics industry is poised to touch $215 Bn in 2020, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.5%. It is estimated the industry will employ around 40 Mn people by this year.