Introduction:
Amid a spike in the nation’s online shopping activity, Ontario Teachers’ late-stage venture growth fund Ontario Teachers’ Fund Backs Indian Logistics Unicorn Xpressbees spearheaded a $80 million fundraising round for Xpressbees, an Indian logistics company that partners with multiple e-commerce companies in the nation.
At a valuation of roughly $1.4 billion, the Canadian pension fund purchased a stake in the Pune-based business at the same price as it raised a Series F funding round previously. After the most recent funding round, Xpressbees has raised almost $680 million in total. The name of the round and the percentage of the fresh raise that came from secondary trades were withheld.
With support from TPG, Alibaba, Blackstone, and the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah, among others, Xpressbees works with over 1,000 clients to deliver their goods across the nation. These clients include the financial and e-commerce giant Paytm, the social commerce startup Meesho, the phone maker Xiaomi, the online pharmacy NetMeds, and the seller of eyewear, Lenskart.
It is present in more than 2,000 towns and cities and handles over 2.5 million orders daily. The struggling startup reported $300 million in revenue for the fiscal year that concluded in March. The fact that the Canadian pension fund has arrived suggests that Xpressbees is getting ready to go public in a year or two.
Ontario Teachers’ Fund Backs Indian Logistics Unicorn Xpressbees:
Ontario Teachers’ Fund Backs Indian Logistics Unicorn Xpressbees [Source of Image: Techcrunch.com]
In 2012, Xpressbees began operating inside the FirstCry e-commerce platform for baby items. However, Amitava Saha, the co-founder and chief operating officer of FirstCry, left the company to take the helm of Xpressbees in 2015, marking its transition to an independent enterprise. The second co-founder of Xpressbees is Supam Maheshwari, who also serves as chief executive of FirstCry.
In a statement, Deepak Dara of Ontario Teachers said, “We are excited about the market opportunity for end-to-end logistics and supply chain solutions that can meet the needs of a diversified customer base across industries, including e-commerce in India.” “Xpressbees has developed a highly scalable and effective asset-light model with demonstrated execution capabilities, under the leadership of a strong team.”
India has received almost $3 billion in investments from Ontario Teachers, which views it as one of its “key strategic” nations.
Xpressbees faces competition from a small number of well-established companies and startups, such as Delhivery, a publicly traded company, and Shadowfax, which is reportedly in advanced stages of negotiations to fund roughly $60 million in a round-headed by TPG NewQuest, as previously reported by TechCrunch.
