PandoCorp Pvt. Ltd, which operates e-logistics firm Pando, has raised Rs 64 crore (approximately $9 million at current exchange rates) in its Series A funding led by the Bengaluru-based Chiratae Ventures.
Other investors that participated in the funding round include the Siemens-backed Next47 and existing investor Nexus Venture Partners, Pando said in a statement
Angel investors that contributed to the round include VMWare India executive Ramkumar Narayanan, Indifi CEO Alok Mittal, and xto10x Ventures’ Saikiran Krishnamurthy.
The latest transaction takes the total funding raised by Pando to Rs 80 crore, the statement added.
The investment also represents Next47’s first India bet. The venture firm says it has offices around the world and provides startups with access to customers in the industrial, energy and infrastructure sectors.
Nitin Jayakrishnan, co-founder and chief executive officer at Pando, said the funds will be used for strengthening its India offering, scaling for global markets, boost its technological platform, acquire talent and enhance its transactional capabilities.
“Pando has helped shippers and transporters address this need through a full-stack solution. Their quality of execution at marquee customers, where Pando has become indispensable within a few months of adoption is remarkable,” Chiratae Ventures founder and managing director TC Meenakshisundaram said.
Chennai-based Pando was set up by Jayakrishnan and Abhijeet Manohar in 2017. The company says its platform helps enterprises of all sizes digitise, monitor and optimise their supply chain operations with its scalable solution. It also allows companies to control their fragmented, multi-tiered logistics ecosystems from a single screen.
The firm says its clients include companies such as Britannia, Marico, and Philips. In April 2018, Pando raised $2 million (around Rs 13.08 crore) in a seed round led by Nexus Venture Partners.
Deals in India’s logistics segment
India’s logistics and logistics-technology segment has seen heavy investor and strategic movement in recent years, with startups seeking to organise the fragmented sector as well as apply frontier technologies to make supply chains and peripheral sectors more economical and efficient.
There are a number of logistics-tech ventures that have raised a large amount of capital. These include SoftBank- and Carlyle-backed Delhivery, Warburg-backed Ecom Express and Goldman Sachs-backed BlackBuck.
Earlier this month, Intelligent Retail Pvt. Ltd, which operates logistics and distribution startup Ripplr, raised capital in a seed funding round led by early-stage venture capital firms 3one4 Capital and Sprout Venture Partners.
In November last year, reports said Blackbuck raised Rs 56 crore (around $7.83 million) in a mixed equity and debt funding round from venture debt fund Trifecta Capital. In the same month, Info Edge (India) Ltd, which owns and operates portals such as job site Naukri.com, led a pre-Series A funding round in the digital logistics platform Shipsy.
