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    Shiprocket turns unicorn with $32 million funding

    Synopsis

    This takes its valuation to around $1.3 billion, making it the latest entrant to the unicorn club this year. Startups valued at $1 billion or more are termed unicorns.

    Shiprocket
    Logistics aggregator Shiprocket has approved a Rs 259 crore ($32 million) fundraising round from existing investors Singapore’s Temasek and Lightrock India, the latest regulatory documents sourced from business intelligence platform Tofler showed.

    This takes its valuation to around $1.3 billion, making it the latest entrant to the unicorn club this year. Startups valued at $1 billion or more are termed unicorns.

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    Shiprocket was valued at $900-$950 million afterraising $185 million in a round led by food delivery company Zomato, Temasek and Lightrock in December.
    Following the latest investment, Temasek’s shareholding will increase to 5.75%, while Lightrock’s stake will touch 4.79%, the documents showed.

    Other investors in the current round include Bertelsmann India, March Capital Partners, Moore Strategic Ventures, Huddle Collective and Paypal.

    The fresh funding comes at a time when the company has been on an acquisition spree.

    ET reported on June 15 that Shiprocket had acquired a majority stake in rival Pickrr for about $200 million and was closing a deal with Shiplyte.

    It also acquired Omuni, the omni-channel technology business of apparel manufacturer and retailer Arvind Ltd, in a Rs 200 crore cash-and-stock deal in July.

    Logistics players are increasingly focussing on delivering in one to two days. Typically, direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands struggle to deliver goods quickly on their own.

    Shiprocket said the Omuni deal would ensure better inventory utilisation, faster delivery and optimisation of operational costs.

    “Internal investors were keen to double down on the firm, especially following the M&As Shiprocket has done and its plan to scale up its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings,” a person briefed on the new funding round said.

    Shiprocket has been in a tussle with new-age logistics firms such as Delhivery, Ecom Express, and Xpressbees over deep discounting.



    ET reported in April that the logistics companies had hiked shipment rates for aggregators in response to the discounting.

    Shiprocket’s emergence as a unicorn comes at a time of a slowdown in big-ticket funding deals.

    India has over 100 unicorns, and 44 of them were added in 2021 when the markets were flush with funds.

    Shiprocket is the 20th unicorn to emerge in 2022.

    ET reported on July 5 that venture funding into Indian startups dipped 37% in the second quarter of this year to $6.9 billion.

    Japan’s SoftBank reported its largest ever quarterly loss of $23.5 billion between April and June as tech investments around the world plummeted. Its founder Masayoshi Son said the funding ‘winter’ will last longer for unicorn founders who are not willing to accept a lower valuation to raise funds and continue to believe in their previous valuation.

    Shiprocket is also playing a critical role in the government’s Open Network for Digital Commerce, as its integration with the network will enable inter-city transportation of goods.
    The Economic Times

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