Logistics-technology startup Pickrr Technologies Pvt. Ltd has raised $4 million (Rs 29.3 crore) in fresh capital led by early-stage venture capital firm Guild Capital and impact investment firm Omidyar Network India.
Delhi-based Pickrr will use the funds to continue with its market expansion and product development plans, Omidyar said in a statement.
Pickrr was founded in August 2015 by Rhitiman Majumder, Gaurav Mangla, Ankit Kaushik and Ronak Agrawal. The company provides logistics services to e-commerce sellers and direct-to-consumer brands which want to ship goods anywhere in India. It says its smart algorithm CALCULA provides courier recommendations aimed at improving delivery performance.
Majumdar said the company’s aim is to create a brand that online sellers use for “anything and everything related to logistics”.
“Pickrr also plans to enhance services that decrease the cost and the inconvenience of logistics while also helping them to increase revenues,” he added.
Badri Pillapakkam, partner at Omidyar Network India, said Pickrr’s smart pricing structure, allows for healthy margins in an otherwise low-margin business.
Boutique investment bank Dexter Capital advised Pickrr on the transaction.
Prior to this funding round, Pickrr had raised an undisclosed amount in pre-Series A funding from Hong Kong-based investment firm Swastika Company Ltd with participation from high-net-worth investors in October 2016.
In November 2015, the company had raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from early- and mid-stage venture capital firm Palaash Ventures.
Pickrr is among the several firms in the logistics-technology segment that has received investor attention in the past couple of years. Some of the larger VC-funded firms in this space include Rivigo, BlackBuck and Delhivery.
There has been a string of funding deals in the logistics-tech sector in the past few months.
In November, Llama Logisol Pvt Ltd, which operates software-as-a-service logistics platform Shipsy, raised $6 million in a Series A round co-led by Sequoia's accelerator programme Surge.
In August, RoboticWares Pvt. Ltd, which runs logistics management startup FarEye, secured an additional $13 million in its extended Series D round. This came just months after FarEye raised around Rs 185 crore in its Series D round led by Microsoft’s corporate venture fund, M12.
In May, Shiprocket, a product of Bigfoot Retail Solution Pvt. Ltd, mobilised $13 million in its Series C funding round. In the same month, Loadshare Networks Pvt. Ltd raised around $13.3 million in its Series B round of funding.