E-commerce logistics services provider Delhivery has raised $85 million in a Series D round of funding led by Tiger Global Management and participation from existing investors including Multiples Alternate Asset Management, Nexus Venture Partners and Times Internet Limited.
The platform will use the funding to build infrastructure and design new services for e-commerce, hyper-local commerce, C2C commerce and other verticals with specialized requirements like reverse logistics, furniture and grocery.
Delhivery had previously raised $35 million in a Series C round of funding led by Multiples Alternate Asset Management, and participation from investors Times Internet and Nexus Venture Partners. Prior to this, the platform had raised close to $5 million in Series B investment from Nexus Venture Partners in September 2013, and Times Internet had bought a minority stake in the company for an undisclosed amount in June 2012.
Interestingly, Delhivery had claimed to be present in 180 towns and cities across India when it last raised funding, and had said then that it had plans to expand to 260 cities by the end of 2014. However, as indicated by its website, the service seems to be present in only 150 cities as of now.
Founded in May 2011, Delhivery provides logistics solutions for e-commerce companies. This includes solutions like last mile delivery, third party warehousing, reverse logistics and multiple payment collection and processing options. It also provides vendor-to-warehouse and direct vendor-to-customer shipping solutions.
Gharpay acquisition: Delhivery had acquired the offline cash collection network of Gharpay and the Gharpay brand for an undisclosed amount in June 2013. It’s worth noting that a month after the acquisition the company had faced integration issues with Gharpay and had to suspend Gharpay deliveries for some clients for a short period.
Other players in e-tail logistics:
– In February, e-commerce company Infibeam launched a SaaS-based logistics services aggregation platform called ShipDroid, which would help merchants deliver packages throughout the country. The service is currently integrated with Infibeam’s BuildaBazaar and to use it merchants have to enable the setting in BuildaBazaar.
– In September last year, mail and logistics group Deutsche Post DHL (DPDHL) chose India to pilot its e-commerce logistics business model for Asia-Pacific. It’s Indian subsidiary Blue Dart Express would conduct the pilot project on behalf of DPDHL. The company told DNA that it would invest €100 million in the country over the next two years to build the infrastructure for this business.
– The same month, Delhi-based e-commerce logistics solution provider Holisol Logistics raised $1.5 million investment from oil and gas professional Sundeep Bhandari through his company Datavision.
– In April last year Amazon India had started working with kirana stores in Bangalore for in-store pick up of products ordered from its website. The company had launched its third-party logistics service in India in November 2013.
– Flipkart opened up its logistics arm eKart Logistics to other operators, last year in February. eKart was originally created to serve WS Retail, Flipkart’s B2C side.
– Kartrocket, an e-commerce platform for SMEs and smaller retailers, also has an in-house shipping solution called Shiprocket which it had opened up as a stand alone service to all e-tailers in India, in December 2013.
Image source: Delhivery
