Hardeep Singh
Xpressbees, an Indian express logistics startup that works with several e-commerce firms in the country, has more than tripled its valuation to $1.2 billion in a new financing round.
On Wednesday, the Pune-headquartered startup said it had raised $300 million – $100 million in essential and $200 million in secondary (to give incomplete exit to Alibaba and complete exit to one unspecified Chinese investor) – in a Series F subsidizing from Blackstone, TPG and ChrysCapital. The new funding takes the startup’s record-breaking rise to $575.8 million.
However, Xpressbees is the second Pune-headquartered startup to become a unicorn this week. Commerce startup ElasticRun disclosed in a document on Monday that it had raised funds at a valuation of $1.5 billion.
Moreover, Xpressbees helps more than 1,000 customers – including financial and eCommerce services goliath Paytm, a social commerce startup Meesho, eyewear seller Lenskart, phone maker Xiaomi, online drug store NetMeds, and online marketplace Snapdeal – deliver their items the nation over. It has a presence in over 3,000 cities and towns, and it processes more than 3 million orders per day.
3PL (integrated store network services) eCommerce delivery players have gained a critical foothold in the beyond four years because of the proliferation of e-commerce and social-commerce startups that don’t have their coordinated factors networks.
As more rustic and semi-metropolitan populaces of India begin to order online, these coordinated operations firms are expected to acquire market share as they provide the “most efficient last-mile delivery to stick codes in-country in semi metropolitan region,” experts at Bernstein wrote in a report a year ago.
Now, “he said, we are excited to welcome our new partners, Blackstone Growth, TPG Growth, and ChrysCapital, in our development journey. With their huge network and operational expertise, we believe that they will further fuel our efforts in seeking newer opportunities and will help expand our impression,” said Amitava Saha, founder, and chief executive of Xpressbees, in a statement.
The startup, expecting a 70% development in the current financial year, plans to deploy the fresh funds to become a “full-service logistics” firm. Xpressbees competes with some firms, including Delhivery, which filed for a $1 billion first sale of stock in November. Now, “Xpressbees is assuming a significant part in India’s blasting eCommerce sector, which is currently at an early stage and has a long runway of development,” said Mukesh Mehta.
Pune-based operations fire up Xpressbees has raised $300 million in a Series F financing round, making it the eighth or 8th company in 2022 to become a unicorn. However, the latest fundraise values the firm at $1.2 billion. The subsidizing round was led by private equity funds Blackstone Growth, TPG Growth, and ChrysCapital, and includes an essential capital mixture of $100 million and a secondary share sale worth $200 million.
As we know, Chinese asset management company CDH Investments made a complete exit in the sale while early investors Elevation Capital and Alibaba booked fractional exits.
As per information from Venture Intelligence, the rate of unicorn financing adjusts has already doubled for this present year-the initial two months of 2021 saw three new businesses join the unicorn club while, in the same period this year, eight firms have joined the fleeting trend with 18 days to go. Moreover, the financial year 2020-21 (FY21) saw 13 new companies turn unicorns, whereas FY22 has seen 47 unicorns, with over a month remaining.
“Despite the hiccup in the public market, the pace of unicorn fundraises shows the confidence of worldwide investors in the Indian beginning up ecosystem. Albeit a departure of asset allocators from Chinese internet new businesses is one piece of the story, the advanced proliferation in India and the efforts of domestic asset managers in running a steady boat are other significant reasons,” said Siddarth Pai, overseeing partner of venture capital firm 3one4 Capital. There have been four unicorn fundraises this week (counting Xpressbees). The first to enter the club was blockchain fire up Polygon with a $450 million fundraise from Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, SoftBank, among other investors. This not just happened at a valuation of around $10 billion yet additionally made it the most valuable Web3 Company in India.
Business-to-business (B2B) eCommerce fire up ElasticRun was next in line. The SoftBank-led fundraise tripled its valuation in one go even as it raised $300 million in the round. The third beginning up to achieve a billion-dollar valuation this week home decor company LivSpace which raised $180 million at a valuation of $1.2 billion in a round led by private equity major KKR.
As indicated by a report by market intelligence firm PGA Labs, around 45 new businesses have the potential to achieve a $1-billion or more valuation soon. “2022 will see the combination as the winners will begin getting separated from the ones that are not developing quickly enough,” said Madhur Singhal, overseeing partner and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Praxis Global Alliance. “Solid beginning up movement in new sectors, for example, health tech, software-as-a-service (SaaS), and B2B will acquire momentum in India.”
The median financing valuation of new companies in the round before unicorn valuation is $400 million-$600 million. There are currently 27 new businesses here. Of these, 18 have a valuation of over $500 million and are close to becoming unicorns.
Solid Development
Now, “In this round, we are well over unicorn valuation. The leap in valuation is because of business development and improvement in performance on both the topline and bottom line of the company. We had 95 percent development in FY19, and in FY22, we are developing at around 75 percent,” Amitava Saha, Founder, and Chief Executive Officer, Xpressbees, told BusinessLine.
However, He added that the company is EBITDA positive and will be shutting FY22 at over ₹1,800 crore revenue. Moreover, The capital will be used to achieve Xpressbees’ vision to evolve into a full-service operations association, support the business in its next phase of development, item development, and employ talent.
Mukesh Mehta, Senior Managing Director in Blackstone Private Equity, added, “Amitava Saha has done a phenomenal occupation of changing Xpressbees from an exceptional beginning up into one of the top coordinated factors businesses in India today. Xpressbees is assuming a significant part in India’s roaring e-commerce sector, which is currently at an early stage and has a long development runway. We anticipate leveraging Blackstone’s deep expertise and worldwide network in operations and eCommerce to accelerate Xpressbees’ development.”
Founded in 2015, Xpressbees is currently present across 3,000 cities. As we know, serving over 20,000 pin codes and delivers over 1.5 million packages per day. Xpressbees now has over 100 centers across India, 10 lakh sqft. In addition, the warehouse limit and operates across 52 air terminals in the country.
