Ecom Express raises over $16.5M from Peepul Capital

Delhi-based e-commerce logistics solutions provider, Ecom Express Pvt Ltd, has raised more than Rs 100 crore ($16.5 million) from Peepul Capital.

“The infusion (of this capital) will go towards strengthening our current reach, expanding operations, investing in technology and automation, attracting key talent and building a healthy flow in working capital,” said TA Krishnan, co-founder and CEO of Ecom Express.

Earlier, Live Mint reported that Ecom Express raised around Rs 75.5 crore from Peepul Capital.

The startup was founded in 2012 by a team of four entrepreneurs -- Krishnan, K Satyanarayana,

Manju Dhawan and Sanjeev Saxena. Ecom Express was started in January 2013 with operations in 35 towns and 42 distribution centres in North India with around 250 employees on board. Today, the firm employs 3,000 people and has presence in over 100 towns and 190 distribution centres across the country. It now plans to expand to more than 800 locations in five years.

Ecom Express has 10 processing centres in Delhi-NCR, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Pune. The firm claims that it delivered nearly 5 million packages last year, and expects to deliver around 20 million packages this year.

Currently, the company is focused on opening up new locations across north, south and west India. Ecom Express plans to expand its distribution capabilities in the east and north-east in a phased manner within the next few months. “With these rounds of expansion, we would offer reach across the country. Within the next year or so, the company expects to cover nearly 500 towns and cities,” said Krishnan.

Last year, Ecom Express had raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding led by Oliphans Capital, which specialises in early-stage investments.

 â€œThere is a tremendous opportunity for a dedicated logistics player who can understand and play an enabling role for the e-commerce industry. Ecom Express is strongly positioned to leverage this opportunity given their track record and the experienced leadership team behind the company,” said Srini Vudayagiri, Investment Director at Peepul Capital Advisors. “In a short span of time, Ecom Express has strengthened its operations, acquired prominent clients in the e-commerce industry and expanded into three key geographies of the Indian market,” he added.

Peepul Capital is an institutional investor specialising in buyouts, restructuring, early-stage, growth and expansion investments across technology, media, healthcare, consumer services and specialised engineering industry verticals. It manages a corpus of over $700 million across its three funds for growth-oriented investments focused on India.

Recently, e-commerce logistics firm Delhivery raised $35 million (around Rs 212 crore) in its Series C round led by private equity firm Multiples Alternate Asset Management, with participations from Nexus Venture Partners and Times Internet. Last month, Holisol Logistics Pvt Ltd, a provider of back-end logistics services to e-commerce companies, received $1.5 million in venture funding from Sundeep Bhandari, director and CEO of Datavision, a software development and data processing company.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)