DTC Technologies Pvt Ltd, which operates on-demand warehousing startup BoxMySpace, has raised fresh funds in a pre-Series A round from a clutch of investors in the logistics and warehousing domain, a top executive of the company told VCCircle.
The funding was led by R Jayakumar, founder and managing director of Jayem Group, which offers warehousing and distribution management and logistics solutions, said Pratyush Jalan, founder, BoxMySpace. He, however, did not disclose the financial details of the deal.
New investors who participated in this round include Vaibhav Vohra, director at Continental Carriers; Aditya and Rhea Vazirani, from Robinsons Global; AVN Business Solutions; Dreamweaver Investments and Business Solutions; and other individual investors.
Existing investor Satveer Singh Thakral of Singapore Angel Network also participated in the current round.
The startup will use the fresh funds to boost operations, upgrade technology and strengthen the back end infrastructure for building a network of warehouses, and supporting logistics services across multiple cities.
"The partnership (with new and existing investors) will enable us to access new markets and build value for our client network and theirs,†Jalan said.
Boutique investment firm J R Laddha Financial Services acted as the exclusive financial advisor to BoxMySpace in the transaction.
“This is a one-of-its-kind transaction wherein multiple players from the industry and from different geographies of the country have invested in a new generation of businesses, creating a sort of healthy unification between the traditional and new generation businesses," said Vibhor Kedia, vice president-investment banking, J R Laddha.
The company had raised Rs 1.92 crore ($300,000) led by Farooq Oomerbhoy, one of the co-founders of early-stage investment firm Orios Venture Partners in 2015.
BoxMySpace, which was founded in January 2015, provides cost effective end-to-end logistics solutions to e-sellers and businesses. Consumers can avail of on-demand storage services for their household goods at their doorstep either through the firm’s web or mobile application.
BoxMySpace doesn’t own the warehousing space itself but leverages unused spaces in large warehouses and plugs the gap to provide a technology-backed solution to retail customers. It also provides the consumer with a storage dashboard to create a visual catalogue of all stored items and a code for each item/box to enable recall.
Jalan, who graduated from Cornell University, New York, was working with WebEngage as a lead engineer before founding this venture. He has also worked with the companies like Microsoft and Qualcomm, previously.
A bunch of tech startups have come up recently in the logistics space offering various services in the past years.
Early in March, Tiger Global-backed Zinka Logistics Solutions Pvt. Ltd, which operates business-to-business logistics startup BlackBuck, raised $70 million (Rs 476 crore) in a Series C funding round.
Last year, Zebroads, an online logistics and warehousing startup, raised $75,000 (around Rs 50 lakh) in seed funding from a group of unnamed investors.