Premium| Listen to this article |
NEW DELHI: E-commerce logistics provider Xpressbees on Wednesday turned unicorn, a company valued at $1 billion or more, having secured a Series F funding of $300 million led by Blackstone Growth, TPG Growth and ChrysCapital.
The latest round of fund raise has valued Xpressbees at $1.2 billion, said a person aware of the matter on condition of anonymity. The round also saw participation from existing investors, Investcorp and Norwest Venture Partners, the company said.
VCCircle in October had reported that Xpressbees, operated by BusyBees Logistics Solutions Pvt Ltd, was in the process of raising funds at unicorn valuation.
The company, backed by Investcorp, is looking at an initial public offering (IPO) as early as this year, VCCircle had reported, quoting Gaurav Sharma, head of private equity (PE) at Investcorp India.
With this, the platform has raised over $500 million. It plans to use the latest funds for product development, hire talent, and scale to a full-service logistics organisation.
A spokesperson of Xpressbees said the company's revenue jumped 95% in 2018-19 (FY19) and it is looking to clock 75% revenue growth in 2021-22.
Set up in 2015 by serial entrepreneurs Amitava Saha and Supam Maheshwari, the platform claims to be currently present across 3,000 cities and caters to sectors such as e-commerce, pharmaceuticals, fast-moving consumer goods, retail, manufacturing, electronics and consumer durables sectors.
The company claims to be delivering in more than 20,000 pin codes, and said that it delivers over 1.5 million packages per day. It has over 100 hubs across India and operates across 52 airports in the country.
"Xpressbees is playing an important role in India’s booming e-commerce sector, which is still at an early stage and has a long runway of development. We look forward to leveraging Blackstone’s deep expertise and global network in logistics and ecommerce to accelerate Xpressbees’s growth," said Mukesh Mehta, Senior Managing Director in Blackstone Private Equity.
The company started as the logistics arm of Pune-based baby products retailer FirstCry about 10 years ago. The business was spun out from FirstCry and it commenced independent operations in September 2015.
It raised its first round of funding the same year, from venture capital investors such as SAIF Partners and Chiratae Ventures.
"As the Indian e-commerce market continues to grow, the need for end-to-end supply chain solutions that can meet the needs of diversified customers across industries has never been more pronounced.
Xpressbees has developed a differentiated, highly scalable, and asset-light operating model that is fully integrated through a customizable tech platform," said Akshay Tanna, Partner at TPG Growth.
Avendus Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Xpressbees on this transaction.
Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!!