Gurugram-based tech-enabled logistics services provider Rivigo Services Pvt. Ltd has raised Rs 25 crore (approximately $3.46 million at current exchange rates) in debt funding from venture debt firm Trifecta Capital.
Rivigo has issued non-convertible debentures to Trifecta, Entrackr reported, citing filings with the ministry of corporate affairs. The NCDs have a tenor of 24 months and carry a fixed rate of 14.25%, to be paid monthly, according to the report.
The firm is also in talks to raise its Series F round. In December, it inked an agreement with at least two key investors – the US-based Warburg Pincus and multi-stage investment firm SAIF Partners – for Rs 142 crore (around $20 million) in fresh funding.
VCCircle has reached out to Rivigo and Trifecta on the details of the investment and will update this report accordingly.
Founded in 2014 by Deepak Garg and Gazal Kalra, Rivigo offers pan-India delivery services to e-commerce, pharmaceuticals, automobiles, cold-chain, and FMCG companies. An IIT Kanpur graduate, Garg was working with McKinsey & Company before co-founding the venture. Kalra, an alumnus of Stanford Graduate School of Business, also worked at McKinsey.
The company operates with a ‘relay trucking’ model, wherein truck drivers do not operate their vehicles for more than five hours at a stretch and return to their home the same day.
In July last year, the company raised $65 million (around Rs 444.66 crore) in its Series E funding round led by Warburg and SAIF. In April 2015, SAIF Partners pumped in $9.6 million in Rivigo in its Series A round. In December 2015, Rivigo mobilised $30 million in its Series B round.
This is the second logistics-technology firm that Trifecta has reportedly issued funding. In November, the Gurugram-based venture firm committed Rs 56 crore (around $7.83 million) in mixed equity and debt funding to Blackbuck.
The startup’s board had approved allotting Trifecta 322 Series D compulsorily convertible preference shares and 500 Series A non-convertible debentures.
The venture debt provider was set up in 2014 by Nilesh Kothari and Rahul Khanna and manages a corpus of Rs 500 crore. RBL Bank and Azim Premji Trust are the anchor investors in its first fund, from which Trifecta provides early-stage debt capital to technology companies. It also looks to acquire stakes in companies through cashless warrants or partly paid-up shares.
It has invested over 40 companies, including NoBroker, Bigbasket, Paper Boat, Rivigo Nephroplus, Urban Ladder, Industrybuying, OneAssist, UrbanClap, and IdeaForge.
Deals in the logistics-technology segment
Investor interest in the logistics-technology segment has increased in recent months as startups seek to provide new-age services at scale and affordable prices. Apart from Rivigo, a number of logistics-tech ventures have raised a large amount of capital. This includes SoftBank- and Carlyle-backed Delhivery, Warburg-backed Ecom Express, and Goldman Sachs-backed BlackBuck.
In November last year, Info Edge (India) Ltd, which owns and operates portals such as job site Naukri.com, led a pre-Series A funding round in digital logistics platform Shipsy. Gurugram-based Shipsy said it would use the funds for its sales and marketing efforts, and broadening the product offerings under its exporter-importer platform.
In May, logistics management startup Locus raised $22 million (around Rs 196 crore) in its Series B funding round led by Falcon Edge Capital and Tiger Global Management LLC.
