Delhi-based e-commerce logistics solutions provider Ecom Express Pvt Ltd has raised Rs 192 crore ($30 million) from existing investor Warburg Pincus, a report by a financial daily stated, quoting documents filed by company research firm Tofler.
The funding was made via Warburg Pincus’ Eaglebay Investment unit, The Economic Times reported.
This round is a part of a ‘Supplemental Agreement’ made on September 8 this year, where over six lakh compulsorily convertible preference shares, or Series III CCPS, were issued by way of preferential allotment to Eaglebay Investment at Rs 3,150 per share, the report added.
Email queries sent to Ecom Express, seeking confirmation went unanswered at the time of filing this report.
Warburg Pincus had committed to invest over Rs 850 crore ($133 million) in the logistics company in 2015. A year before that, the firm raised more than Rs 100 crore ($16.5 million) from Peepul Capital, and in 2013, it raised angel funding led by Oliphans Capital, which specialises in early-stage investments.
Ecom Express was founded in 2012 by a team of four entrepreneurs – T A Krishnan (CEO), K Satyanarayana, Manju Dhawan, and Sanjeev Saxena. Krishnan has over 25 years of experience in courier and express delivery services and has spent much of his working life at Blue Dart (now owned by DHL).
The company’s rival in the logistics segment, Delhivery Pvt. Ltd had raised Rs 200 crore from China’s Fosun International as part of a larger funding round in May this year.
In August this year, logistics services provider TrucksFirst Services Pvt. Ltd, which operates Rivigo, was in preliminary talks with Japanese investor and Internet giant Softbank for a fresh funding round and was seeking a valuation of over $1 billion. In November 2016, Warburg Pincus invested $75 million (Rs 500 crore) in Rivigo in its Series C round.
Another competitor, BlackBuck, had raised $70 million in a Series C funding round in March this year. The round was led by Sands Capital with participation from existing investors Accel Partners and Flipkart. The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation also invested in the round. Besides these, BlackBuck also counts Tiger Global and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner’s Apoletto Fund as its investors.
