Shiprocket Raises Funds, Joins The Unicorn Club

The latest investment raised the company’s valuation to $1.2 billion, a filing with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs showed.

After creating unicorns, or startups worth $1 billion or more, in 2021 and early this year at a record pace, the number of new unicorns created in India has slowed as global liquidity and volatility in public markets eased. has gone. Private investors more sensible.

5ire was the last Indian startup to achieve this status before Shiprocket, which made it to the list on July 15.

Only 20 Indian startups have become unicorns this year, most of them in the first three months of the year, compared to 42 startups last year.

Shiprocket, Powered by Bigfoot Retail Solutions Pvt. Ltd. sold 59,793 Series E2 compulsorily convertible preference shares for 43,394.13 each. The company’s board had approved the sale in a meeting held on August 10.

Temasek and Lightrock Put In 78 crore and 75 crores respectively. Bertelsmann Netherlands, March Venture Capital Management Services LLC, Moore Strategic Ventures LLC, Huddle Collective and PayPal Inc. brought in the remaining capital.

Emails sent to the spokespersons of Shiprocket, Temasek and Lightrock India did not elicit any response.

In December, Shiprocket raised $185 million in its Series E round co-led by Zomato, Temasek and Lightrock.

Founded in 2017 by Gautam Kapoor, Sahil Goyal and Vishesh Khurana, Shiprocket provides logistics services to small and medium-sized businesses, direct-to-consumer brands and social commerce vendors.

The startup claims to provide over 29,000 pin codes in India.

In a June interview, Goyal said without disclosing details that Shiprocket’s core business is profitable.

The company’s revenue more than doubled in the financial year 2020-21 from 364 crores 161 crore in the last year, according to VCCircle’s data and intelligence platform VCCEdge. However, the company is yet to report its earnings for FY22. In July, Goyal also said that the company is not yet looking for an initial public offering but wants to be ready without specifying a timeline for it.

For the past few months, ShipRocket has been actively pursuing growth through acquisitions. Last month, Shiprocket acquired Arvind Ltd’s omnichannel technology business Omni 200 crores.

Omuni was Shiprocket’s fifth acquisition. In June, the startup bought Picker for about $200 million in a mix of cash and stock.

Earlier this year, the company acquired Glaucus Supply Chain Solutions, Rocketbox and Vigjo Technologies.

In the interview, Goyal said that the company will continue to look at inorganic growth opportunities in the post-purchase category including customer services, shipping, packaging, returns and refunds. He said the company has substantial cash reserves without giving any numbers and most of them are reserved for acquisitions.

He also tried to dispel the notion that it is looking to take on big players in the logistics space, such as Delhivery and ExpressBiz, which are also its partners.

Shiprocket also expanded into the international market with its entry into Saudi Arabia last year.

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