PayPal Ventures, Bertelsmann lead $41.3 million funding in Shiprocket

Logistics aggregator Shiprocket, that enables shipping for direct-to-consumer (D2C) retailers, has raised $41.3 million in Series D1 funding, co-led by PayPal Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of American payments major PayPal Inc. and existing investor Bertelsmann India Investments.

New investor Info Edge Ventures and existing backers March Capital and Tribe Capital took part in the round. Strategic partners such as Razorpay and Innoven Capital, and entrepreneurs including Cred founder Kunal Shah and Deepinder Goyal, founder, Zomato also participated.

The latest fund-raise takes Shiprocket’s total funding to $94.3 million. The Delhi-based firm will invest the capital in existing and new products, research and development, hiring, continue market expansion and accelerate overall growth.

A part of the funds will also be directed towards its new strategic initiatives, including global expansion starting with the Middle-East.

“Shiprocket’s mission, ever since its inception, has been to help merchants focus on what they do best and ease their burden by taking on the heavy lifting of supply chain automation. D2C commerce forms roughly 15% of the overall e-commerce market in India; this is projected to grow to 30-35% in the next 5 years,” said Saahil Goel, CEO, and co-founder of Shiprocket.

Marc Donnadieu, director, PayPal Ventures said “Shiprocket has excelled by focusing on building products that solve major logistical problems for businesses as they scale, much like PayPal has supported merchants with payments. We’re thrilled to join Shiprocket as an investor and support the development of its tools that will continue to shape the dynamic commerce ecosystem in India for years to come.”

In February, PayPal Inc said that it will be winding down its payment operations in the country and will shut down its domestic payment services in India, starting 1 April.

Launched in 2017, Shiprocket became profitable in 2018-19 is on track to close this 2021-22 at $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR). The startup currently processes over 5 million monthly shipments, enabling more than 100,000 sellers to sell directly to their consumers across India.

Pankaj Makkar, MD, Bertelsmann India Investments said, “…The company has built very deep technology and AI products which could take the user experience, on the merchant as well as end-user side, to the next level and drive India’s supply chain and logistics growth.”

“….The goal is that as Shiprocket expands its capabilities and tools for sellers, anyone with a product to sell should be able to avail of its suite of products and services at one click to get their business off-the-ground with an Amazon-like one-day delivery experience,” said Kitty Agarwal, Partner, Info Edge Ventures.

Goel said, “The future lies in enabling the entire stack of solutions for the post-purchase leg for D2C e-commerce transactions.”