Ahead of its initial public offering (IPO), logistics company Delhivery has announced the appointment of three new independent board members including Kalpana Morparia, former chairman of JP Morgan, South and Southeast Asia, and Romesh Sobti, former CEO and MD of Indusind Bank.
Current CEO and MD of Marico Saugata Gupta is the third director on the board, a company statement said.
With the appointments, Delhivery now has five independent directors, including Bain & Co partner Sri Rajan and former PwC India head Deepak Kapoor, who has been elevated to the independent chairman of the board.
Delhivery is also in discussions to add another woman independent director to the board, the company added.
The Gurugram-based firm became a unicorn in 2019 when it raised $413 million in a Series F round led by SoftBank Vision Fund. Delhivery is likely to sell a 10-15% stake for $500-600 million through the planned IPO, Mint reported on 9 June. This would value the startup at around $4 billion. It aims to list before the end of FY22.
Backed by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, US-based Carlyle Group and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, Delhivery last month raised $75 million and an additional funding of $125 million (Rs 922 crore) from Addition, a fund floated by former Tiger Global executive Lee Fixel.
In May, Delhivery got nearly $277 million (Rs 2,008.6 crore) from a group led by US investment firm Fidelity and participation from GIC, Abu Dhabi-based Chimera Investment LLC and UK’s Baillie Gifford in the round.
In August this year, it also acquired Spoton Logistics Ltd for a total of Rs 1,750 crore.
About directors
Morparia has been a longstanding independent board member of companies including Hindustan Unilever, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories and Philip Morris International while Gupta is an independent director on the board of Ashok Leyland and is a member of the audit committee, nomination and remuneration Committee, and ESG committee.
Sobti is a career banker who last served as MD and CEO of Indusind Bank from 2008 to 2020 and previously country head at ABN AMRO Bank NV. He also serves as a director on boards including Aditya Birla Capital and Adani Green Energy.
Delhivery
Delhivery competes with Alibaba-backed ecommerce-focused logistics company Xpressbees which raised $110 million in November 2020, as well as Partners Group and Warburg Pincus-backed Ecom Express.
Delhivery was founded in 2011 by Sahil Barua, Mohit Tandon, Bhavesh Manglani, Suraj Saharan, and Kapil Bharati as a hyperlocal express logistics services firm in Delhi. It also counts Abu Dhabi-based Chimera Investment LLC and UK’s Baillie Gifford and Steadview Capital as its investors.
Delhivery is now among leading end-to-end logistics and supply chain services companies in India having fulfilled over one billion shipments since inception and today works with over 17,000 customers, including large & small e-commerce participants, SMEs, and other enterprises and brands.
