InnoVen Capital invests ₹35 crore in Xpressbees in fifth deal this year

Mumbai: InnoVen Capital, which provides loans to startups, has invested ₹35 crore in e-commerce logistics provider Xpressbees, marking its fifth deal in 2019. The venture debt firm has now invested about ₹75 crore this year across five companies, and has four-five more deals planned for the next couple of months, chief executive Ashish Sharma said over the phone.

Xpressbees (Busybees Logistics Solutions Pvt. Ltd), founded by Amitava Saha and Supam Maheshwari, is an end-to-end e-commerce-focused logistics provider. Its services include first and last-mile delivery and reverse logistics with facilities, such as real-time tracking, multiple payment collection and processing options. It claims to serve more than 10,000 pin codes across India, with 53 hubs and about 1,300 service centres.

Its clients include online retailers such as Snapdeal, Paytm and Flipkart. Till date, Xpressbees has raised close to $56 million in equity from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Paytm (One97 Communications Ltd), as well as venture capital funds such as SAIF Partners and Chiratae Ventures.

“Logistics is a large market covering many aspects of the supply chain…and this is not a winner-takes-all model,” said Sharma. “There will be many players that will thrive in this sector, though we believe that there’ll be a pervasive shift from unorganized players to larger, well-funded organised players,” he said.

The funds will primarily be used for the expansion of the existing network and creation of new business lines, co-founder and CEO Saha said.

Xpressbees, spun out of the logistics arm of child-care retailer FirstCry, raised $35 million from Alibaba in its last round of funding, in January last year.

Saha declined to comment on its current fundraising plans.

InnoVen’s investments have been growing by about 25% year-on-year, with ₹600 crore deployed in 2018, 28% over the previous year. In 2017, it said that it had invested $75 million, 25% higher than the previous year. Its investments over the years include online pharmacy 1mg, two-wheeler rental startup Bounce, and food delivery firm Swiggy.