Snapdeal officially announced today that it has invested an additional $20 Mn (INR 131 crore) in logistics and delivery services venture GoJavas. This is the second round of investment made by Snapdeal in the company.
Earlier this year, Snapdeal had entered into a strategic partnership with Gurgaon-based GoJavas and invested an undisclosed amount in it.
“Our partnership with GoJavas has been tremendously successful. With the freshly infused funds, our aim is to help GoJavas become more successful and further expand their reach. Our teams will continue to work together closely in the future as well,” Rohit Bansal, co-founder, Snapdeal said in the company issued press release.
The new funds will be deployed to build capacities for the future and strengthen the supply chain ecosystem, the company said. GoJavas will use this investment to expand its operations to 100 more cities within the next 6-12 months.
According to Mint, Snapdeal increased its stake in the logistics firm from 20% to 42%.
Gojavas currently manages over 1 Lac square feet of fulfillment centers and has a delivery radius of 350 cities and towns in 3000+ pincodes. It closed the FY 2015 with revenues of over $30 Mn (INR 200 Cr).
Vijay Ghadge COO, GoJavas said, “Our strategic partnership with Snapdeal has helped us become one the largest independent logistics players in the country with current revenue run rate of INR 500 Cr ($77 Mn), while keeping our operations sustainable and efficient because of the higher visibility of future sales and targeted cities for expansion.”
“We were able to speed up our innovation pipeline because of assured support for new products like the 90 minutes reverse pickup as well as open box delivery for electronic products,” he added.
Snapdeal, which unlike its competitors does not possess its own logistics and delivery unit, has been working consistently for the last 8-10 months to strengthen its supply chain and logistics. The company has invested $100 Mn in the last 6 months to improve it delivery timelines by 70%. It will invest an additional $200 Mn in the next 12 months to further strengthen its supply chain.
Both the teams have also worked together to come up with innovative last-mile solutions like card-on-delivery, 90 mins reverse pick up and 4 hr delivery services.
Earlier this week, Snapdeal launched its omni-channel platform named as ‘Janus’. The platform integrates offline and online retail channels to provide a seamless and differentiated shopping experience to its customers.
It also recently invested in Gurgaon-based mobile-first hyperlocal grocery delivery startup PepperTap and aims to go public in India in the next five years.
