On-demand shipping services startup Parcelled.in has raised $5 million (about Rs 32 crore) in a fresh round of funding led by logistics services company Delhivery with participation from data analytics firm Tracxn.
The funds will be utilised to strengthen Parcelled’s core technology platform, build a stronger team and expand services into 50 more cities across the country over the six months, the company said in a press statement.
“There is a lot of untapped potential in this space…with the inflow of funds, we are looking to build a transparent, reliable and trusted logistics platform in India,” Xitij Kothi, CEO and co-founder of Parcelled, said.
Parcelled provides courier services by letting users to schedule a pick-up within 30 minutes for delivery in any part of the world. The startup also takes care of packaging and paperwork. E-commerce returns, gifting and small marketplace sellers generate maximum sales for Parcelled.
In July this year, Parcelled had secured an undisclosed amount of funding from Delhivery and Tracxn Labs.
After that round, Parcelled expanded into eight new cities. Currently, it offers services in Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Jaipur, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Surat, Indore, Gurgaon/Noida and Ahmedabad.
“They are innovating on pickup models, on-site packaging and quality control to simplify the first mile process down to a single button,” said Sahil Barua, CEO of Delhivery.
Parcelled was founded in January this year by Kothi, Abhishek Srivastava, Nikhil Bansal, Prateek Bhandari and Rikin Kachhia.
Other startups in the on-demand courier delivery space are Townrush, GoJavas, Sendd, ShipEasy and Pigen.
Townrush, a hyperlocal B2B logistics startup, had raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners in July. Jasper Infotech Pvt Ltd, which runs online marketplace Snapdeal, recently invested $20 million (Rs 131 crore) more in gojavas.
SSN Logistics Pvt. Ltd, which operates under the brand Delhivery, recently led a $7 million Series A funding round in Bangalore-based hyperlocal delivery startup Opinio along with Sands Capital and Accel Partners.
Delhivery had itself raised $85 million in Series D funding led by Tiger Global with participation from existing investors Multiples Alternate Asset Management, Nexus Venture Partners and Times Internet Ltd.
Data analytics firm Tracxn, which had recently raised $10 million from Flipkart founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, claims to have 7,000 startups and close to 21,000 companies in its database.
Tracxn recently put money in Bengaluru-based marketplace for beauty services Glow Prime Technologies Pvt Ltd, which operates under the brand name StayGlad.
Full service logistics providers are also attracting investors. Private equity firm Warburg Pincus committed to invest over Rs 850 crore ($133 million) in Delhi-based e-commerce focused logistics solutions provider Ecom Express Pvt Ltd. This is the biggest ever PE funding in rupee terms in India in the logistics sector and the second-largest in dollar terms. In 2011, a fund under Franklin Park Management bought Bangalore-based Vikram Logistic and Maritime Services Pvt Ltd for $152.57 million, according to VCCEdge, the data research platform of VCCircle.
According to market research firm Research and Markets, the Indian logistics industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.17 per cent by 2020, driven by growth in the manufacturing, retail, FMCG and e-commerce sectors. India’s third-party logistics sector is expected to be worth $301.89 billion by 2020.