Shiprocket Raises $13 Mn In Series C Funding To Fuel International Expansion

Delhi-based ecommerce logistics startup Shiprocket has announced on Monday (May 11) that it has raised $13 Mn in Series C funding. The investment has been led by Tribe Capital LLC, Innoven Capital and existing investor Bertelsmann India Investments.

The company plans to use the fresh funds towards product development roadmap which includes hiring top talent across the data science and engineering domains.

The funds will also be focused on the company’s new initiatives including its international expansions. With the new funding, Arjun Sethi from Tribe Capital LLC will join Shiprocket’s Board of Directors. With this, the total funding raised by Shiprocket is $26 Mn from investors like Bertelsmann India Investments, Nirvana Venture Partners, Beenext and 500 Startups.

Founded in 2016 by Saahil Goel, Gautam Kapoor and Vishesh Khurana, Shiprocket is a logistics aggregator for global and domestic shipping for MSMEs operating in the ecommerce sector.

The company claims to ship to around 220 countries and across 26,000 PIN codes in India with 15 courier partners on-board. Shiprocket claims to have 1.5 lakh sellers and claims to have driven a GMV of more than $120 Mn till date.

The company claims that its USPs like AI-driven recommendation engine, cost-effectiveness etc has enabled the platform to secure a YoY growth rate of 300% throughout and onboard customers irrespective of their operational geographies or business volume.

Saahil Goel, CEO and cofounder, Shiprocket said, “This additional capital will allow us to accelerate our strategic goals and product development endeavors by hiring top talent in key areas.”

The company claims that it turned profitable in FY 18-19 with an annualised revenue run rate between $25Mn – $30 Mn. It claims to process more than 2 Mn monthly shipments, enabling more than 35,000 sellers to sell directly to their consumers across India.

Arjun Sethi, cofounder, Tribe Capital, said, “Today, the SME segment lacks capital finance and credit, infrastructure, technology, and marketing strategies. Shiprocket has enabled these businesses to grow at a time of emerging competition enabled by mobile internet and corporations.”

The logistics market in India has been fragmented for the longest time, even though in the last few years, several tech startups have identified the need to organise this sector. In the context of the funding amount, the recorded growth rate between 2014 and 2018 for startups in the logistics sector is 226%, according to DataLabs By Inc42.

The market size of the Indian logistics sector shall hit $215 Bn by 2020, logging 10.5% CAGR, said IBEF.

DataLabs by Inc42’s Annual Indian Tech Startup Funding report 2019 noted that logistics is the next emerging sector as the fastest growth rate for capital inflow (2014-19) was seen at logistics at 24% Further, the sector had the highest median funding amount with $942.73 Mn funding in 2019.