$413 million funding helps Delhivery enter coveted unicorn club

Bengaluru: Logistics startup Delhivery Pvt. Ltd has secured $413 million in a funding round led by the SoftBank Vision Fund, the company said on Sunday. Existing investors Carlyle Group and Fosun International also participated in the funding round, which has put Delhivery in the coveted unicorn club with its valuation rising to more than $1.5 billion. Earlier this month, SoftBank’s $350 million was pumped into the company as per its regulatory filings.

Delhivery plans to use the fresh fundingto expand its presence to 20,000 pincodes by the first quarter of FY20 from 15,000 pincodes; grow its e-commerce market share investment; and expand its end-to-end supply chain platform to enterprise customers and small and medium businesses.

“We will be scaling up our newer warehousing and freight services through large investments in infrastructure and technology, and global partnerships in addition to improving the reach, reliability and efficiency of our transportation operations, and sharing these benefits with our customers and partners,” said Sahil Barua, chief executive, Delhivery.

The company claims to have grown at an annual average pace of 65% since FY15, with almost one in four packages ordered online in India going through its network, or accounting for more than 500,000 parcels daily, and over 450 million transactions since its inception.

Delhivery was founded in 2011 by Barua, Mohit Tandon, Bhavesh Manglani, Suraj Saharan and Kapil Bharati.

The company also counts Tiger Global and Nexus Ventures as its investors.

“Our investment in Delhivery reflects our focus on partnering with innovative market leaders,” said Munish Varma, partner, SoftBank Investment Advisers. “Over the years, Delhivery has demonstrated industry-leading growth and emerged as the one-stop solution for e-commerce logistics.”

SoftBank Vision Fund had last invested in grocery player Grofers, $60 million of which came in earlier this month.