After Rivigo and Delhivery, meet the highest funded logistics startups in India

Wednesday October 31, 2018 , 4 min Read

The logistics industry in India is currently worth $160 billion, and is expected to touch $215 billion over the next two years, according to the Economic Survey 2017-18. Employing 22 million people in India presently, the logistics industry is expected to be the largest job creator in the country by 2022.

A bunch of entrepreneurs had seen the opportunity that the sector offers early, with advanced technology as their tool. And a few of them have established themselves as players to bet on, as proven by the funding they have raised.

For instance, seven-year-old Delhivery--backed by Tiger Global Management and Nexus Venture Partners, among others--has raised $257.5 million so far. The Delhi-based company was founded by Mohit Tandon, Sahil Barua, Bhavesh Manglani, Kapil Bharati, and Suraj Saharan.

Ecom Express, which was founded in 2012 by TA Krishnan, Sanjeev Saxena, K Satyanarayana, and Manju Dhawan, has also around $180 million, while Bangalore-based Black Buck--founded by Chanakya Hridaya, Rajesh Yabaji, Ramasubramaniam B in the same year--has raised around $130 million from investors including Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital.

Recently, the focus has been on Gurugram-based Rivigo, founded by Deepak Garg and Gazal Kalra in 2014, which has $180 million in its kitty. Rivigo is inching closer to unicorn status, with its valuation touching $900 million in its last funding round earlier this year.

However, the list of prominent logistics startups does not end here. Investors are keen to build on an industry which will grow at 13 percent over the next three years, according to research firm CRISIL. The following startups have surely caught their eye:

Stellarvalue was launched in Mumbai in 2016 by Anshuman Singh, who had earlier played a crucial role in building logistics for the Future Group. In private equity from Warbug Pincus, it has got $125 million, and was among the first to introduce blockchain technology in building value chain.
XpressBees: Pune-based XpressBees counts Chinese conglomerate Alibaba along with SAIF Partners and IDG Ventures among its investors. Founded by Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha in 2015, XpressBees has raised around $150 million in four rounds, and is now owned by SoftBank-backed online retailer for baby products FirstCry.
Shadowfax: Spread over Bengaluru and Gurugram, ShadowFax is backed by angel investor Zishaan Hayath as well as Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, along with NGP Capital and Qualcomm Ventures. Having raised $22 million in Series C funding in August, Shadowfax now has total $41 million in its kitty.
ColdEx: As the name suggests, this Delhi-based company focuses on cold chain solutions for food and FMCG sectors. Founded by Gaurav Jain, with a headstart in 2005, the company has raised $36 million from Asia Climate Partners. Their clientele includes MNCs like Startbucks, KFC, and McDonald's, among others.
Let’s Transport: Launched in Bengaluru in 2015, LT has raised around $17 million from investors including Rebright Partners and Shanghai-based Fosun Capital. Angel investors Neelesh Bhatnagar and Manish Dhingra, among others, also back this startup, which was founded by Pushkar Singh, Sudarshan Ravi, and Ankit Parasher.
ElasticRun: Backed by Kalaari Capital and Norwest Venture Partners, this Pune-based startup has raised $17 million since its launch in 2015. Co-founded by Shitiz Bansal, Saurabh Nigam, and Sandeep Deshmukh, ElasticRun has been largely run on stealth mode following an asset-light model.
Porter: Four-year-old Porter, based in Bengaluru, has raised around $14 million from investors including Sequoia Capital and Kae Capital, along with a few angel investors. Founded by Vikas Choudhary, Pranav Goel, and Uttam Digga, Porter merged with Mahindra Group’s logistics aggregator platform Smartshift earlier this year.
Fareye: This five-year-old Delhi-based startup has raised $13 million from DHL and SAIF Partners. Founded by Kushal Nahata, Gautam Kumar, and Gaurav Srivastava, the company has a global footprint, and serves companies like Walmart and Amway, in addition to providing SaaS solutions for ecommerce.