Gurgaon-based e-commerce logistics firm SSN Logistics Pvt. Ltd, which operates under the brand Delhivery, is in talks with multiple investors to raise up to $150 million (Rs 900 crore) in funding over the next 24 months, according to co-founder Sahil Barua.
"We are currently in talks with a few investors including the existing ones," he said. “The funds will be used to enhance our last-mile delivery services and real-time tracking technology.â€
The startup was founded in 2011 as an express logistics services firm by a team of five -- Barua, Mohit Tandon, Suraj Saharan, Bhavesh Manglani and Kapil Bharati. The firm offers last-mile delivery, third-party and transit warehousing, reverse logistics, payment collection, vendor-to-warehouse and vendor-to-customer shipping services to e-commerce companies.
Currently, Delhivery has 255 delivery centres (DCs) across the country, and is now planning to hit 5,000 centres-mark by the end of 2016. At present, Delhivery is present in 180 towns and cities.
In September, Delhivery raised $35 million (around Rs 212 crore) in its Series C round of funding, led by private equity firm Multiples Alternate Asset Management, with participations from Nexus Venture Partners and Times Internet.
Talking about the challenges in the India market, Barua said, "The challenge with the existing logistic models is that the way it is set up is typically eight or nine kilometres away from a customer’s residence. What we realise is that our delivery centres (DCs) need to be actually closer to where the customers are," he noted.
He also added that returning of products is another key challenge it is facing. "Every e-commerce company we work with has its own return policy. It is a non-uniform process. Customers call them and then they call us. Ideally, the customers should be in touch with the logistic companies because they are the ones who will come to pick the product," he said.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)