Gurgaon-based Delhivery, an e-commerce enablement firm, today announced that it has closed a $35 million round of funding. The Series C investment has been led by Renuka Ramnath-led private equity firm Multiples Alternate Asset Management. Existing investors, Nexus Venture Partners and Times Internet Limited also participated in the round.
"We are delighted to welcome Multiples to the Delhivery team. Our focus is to create outstanding consumer experiences by enabling e-commerce for online retailers, small and medium enterprises and traditional brick-and-mortar retailers.This round of financing will be used to invest extensively in our growing portfolio of commerce technologies and towards expanding our logistics infrastructure, fulfilment and transportation services," said Sahil Barua,CEO & Co-founder, Delhivery.
"When we invested in Delhivery, Indian E-commerce was ready for explosive growth which in return needed world class logistics infrastructure. While it was never an easy problem to solve, the Delhivery founding team were young, competent and very well balanced with the right head on their shoulders to go after this large problem. We always believed that this team can build a new generation tech enabled logistics company which is innovative and very different from any other player. This fund raise should further help them improve their differentiated capabilities," said Gautam Sinha, COO (Times Internet Limited), who has been a board member and advisor to the company since 2012.
"Underlying this investment is our strong belief in Sahil and the founding team's DNA of technology and the execution focus that they have demonstrated. Delhivery has the right ingredients to build a highly differentiated logistics company that could expand beyond being a critical service provider for online retailers, into also becoming a strategic partner in fulfilling the online aspirations of many brick-and-mortar businesses," said Sudhir Variyar, Managing Director, Multiples.
"What impressed me most about Delhivery, was the consistent endorsement from the largest ecommerce players about the ability of Delhivery in understanding and suitably innovating to meet the unique requirements of the rapidly growing and evolving e-Tailing industry", said Abhi Dhall who led the diligence from Multiples.
Delhivery, which started as a transportation services provider in 2011, now provides a range of products and services for business looking to go online including online channel integration services, strategic sourcing, catalogue management, inventory management and analytics along with multi-city fulfillment, express transportation and reverse logistics.With presence in 180+ cities already, the company now plans to expand its network to over 250 cities by the end of this calendar year.
Satyan Gajwani, CEO of Times Internet Limited says, "We have been early believers in Delhivery and its founding team, and they have always surpassed our expectations. With this raise, the company is well positioned to further its position as the leading ecommerce solutions provider in India."
Echoing the need for new-age commerce ecosystem enablers like Delhivery, Suvir Sujan, Co-founder and MD of Nexus Ventures Partners says, "One of the most critical infrastructure requirements for ecommerce in this country is logistics. The Delhivery team has the deep understanding and execution capability to be a market leader in this space."
With a rapidly growing team of over 4000 employees, Delhivery handles over 70,000 transactions for 25000+ merchants, 800 e-commerce companies and 80 offline retailers across its network. The company expects to double volumes by the end of the financial year. The company raised its Series A round from Times Internet Limited in April 2012 and Series B from Times Internet Limited and Nexus Venture Partners in September 2013.
