Everstone Capital has invested Rs 220 crore ($40.7 million) in Delhi-based Transpole Logistics Pvt Ltd, a supply chain solutions firm, for an undisclosed stake.
The funding will help Transpole to create further scale on both existing and new trade lanes and also to expand its operations in India and international locations.
As part of the investment, Everstone's Prateek Dhawan and Venkatesh Srinivasan will be joining the board of directors of Transpole Logistics.
In April 2011, Transpole Logistics received $13.5 million funding from Fidelity Growth Partners India.
Transpole Group, which follows an asset light and integrated model, was founded in 2004 by experienced logistics professionals Anant Kumar Choudhary, Vivek Shukla and Praveen Chand Rai. Phillip Ng, ex-managing director of Fedex Asia Pacific, later joined them to help drive the Asian expansion.
The firm has a presence across India, China, Hong Kong, Korea and South East Asia. It offers asset light, integrated logistics solutions with services such as freight forwarding, warehousing, distribution, project logistics, last mile operations and 3PL (third party logistics) advisory.
“Their knowledge and operational expertise in the industry will be critical for the successful execution of our business plans. We look to further strengthen our reach and hold a dominant market share in the Asia region. We are also excited at the prospect of collaborating and bringing in some value-add to the other investee companies of the Everstone Group,†said Anant Choudhary, CEO of Transpole Group.
Everstone, which has assets under management of over $1.8 billion, has been betting on the logistics and warehousing space. Earlier, it had invested in Sohanlal Commodities which is in the business of agri-warehousing and supply chain management. It had also floated IndoSpace Logistics Parks, a focused fund investing in development of industrial and logistics related real estate in India.
“The logistics sector in India has been an attractive market for private equity in the recent years and has shown great potential. Given our experience in this sector with our existing investments, we are committed to bring in our operational expertise and assist Transpole to execute its business plans to become a leading logistics player in the Asian continent,†said Dhanpal Jhaveri, partner and CEO, Everstone Capital.
Avendus Capital was the advisor to Transpole in the transaction.