E-commerce logistics provider Xpressbees, operated by BusyBees Logistics Solutions Pvt Ltd, on Wednesday said it has bagged a Series F funding of $300 million led by Blackstone Growth, TPG Growth and ChrysCapital at unicorn valuation.
Unicorns are private companies with a valuation of $1 billion or more. The latest round has valued Xpressbees at $1.2 billion, said a person aware of the matter on anonymity.
VCCircle in October reported that Xpressbees was in the process of raising funds at unicorn valuation.
The company, backed by Investcorp, is also looking for an initial public offering (IPO), by as early as this year, VCCircle had reported, quoting Gaurav Sharma, Head of Private Equity (PE) at Investcorp India.
The logistics company’s Series F round also saw participation from existing investors, Investcorp and Norwest Venture Partners.
With this, the platform has racked up over $500 million. It plans to use the fundriase for product development, hire talents and scale to a full-service logistics organization.
An Xpressbees’ spokesperson said the company's revenue jumped 95% in 2018-19 (FY19) and it eyes to clock 75% revenue growth in 2021-22 (FY22).
Set up in 2015 by serial entrepreneurs Amitava Saha and Supam Maheshwari, the platform claims that currently it is spread across 3,000 cities and caters to sectors such as e-commerce, pharmaceuticals, fast-moving consumer goods, retail, manufacturing, electronics and consumer durables.
The company also aims to to use the fresh funds for inorganic expansion, said Amitava Saha, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Xpressbees.
“From bankers, we get at least three-four opportunities every month (for acquisitions). These opportunities come in various shapes and sizes and in various logistics-related verticals, so if we find anything interesting, which is of our strategic advantage, we will go for it,” Saha added.
The company also claims to be delivering in over 20,000 pin codes, and said that it delivers over 1.5 million packages per day.
Xpressbees said it has over 100 hubs across India and claims to operate across 52 airports in the country.
“Xpressbees is playing an important role in India’s booming e-commerce sector, which is still at an early stage and has a long runway of development. We look forward to leveraging Blackstone’s deep expertise and global network in logistics and ecommerce to accelerate Xpressbees’s growth,” said Mukesh Mehta, Senior Managing Director in Blackstone Private Equity.
The company started as the logistics arm of Pune-based baby products retailer FirstCry about 10 years ago. The business was spun out from FirstCry and the platform commenced independent operations in September 2015.
It raised its first round of funding the same year, from venture capital investors such as SAIF Partners and Chiratae Ventures.
“As the Indian e-commerce market continues to grow, the need for end-to-end supply chain solutions that can meet the needs of diversified customers across industries has never been more pronounced.
Xpressbees has developed a differentiated, highly scalable, and asset-light operating model that is fully integrated through a customizable tech platform,” said Akshay Tanna, Partner at TPG Growth.
Avendus Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Xpressbees on this transaction.
