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Xpressbees, an Indian logistics firm that works with several e-commerce firms in the country, has raised $80 million in a new funding round led by Ontario Teachers\u2019 late-stage venture growth fund amid a surge in the country\u2019s online shopping activity.<\/p>\n
The Canadian pension fund has acquired a stake in the Pune-headquartered startup at about $1.4 billion valuation, same value at which the startup raised a Series F tranche earlier. With the latest investment round, Xpressbees\u2019 cumulative funding has reached approximately $680 million<\/a>. It didn\u2019t share a name for the round, and also didn\u2019t disclose how much of the new raise came via secondary transactions.<\/p>\n Xpressbees, which also counts Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah, TPG, Alibaba and Blackstone among backers, works with more than 1,000 clients \u2014 including financial and e-commerce services giant Paytm, social commerce startup Meesho, eyewear seller Lenskart, phone maker Xiaomi, and online pharmacy NetMeds \u2014 deliver their products across the country.<\/p>\n It has presence in over 2,000 cities and towns and it processes more than 2.5 million orders a day. The loss-making startup posted a revenue of about $300 million in the financial year ending March. The arrival of the Canadian pension fund is indicative that Xpressbees is readying itself for an initial public offering within a year to two.<\/p>\n Xpressbees started its journey within FirstCry, an e-commerce for baby products, in 2012. But in 2015, it became an independent company with Amitava Saha, co-founder and chief operating officer of FirstCry, moving out of FirstCry to become chief executive of Xpressbees. Supam Maheshwari, who co-founded FirstCry and serves as its chief executive, is the other co-founder of Xpressbees.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are excited about the market opportunity for end-to-end logistics and supply chain solutions that can meet the needs of a diversified customer base across industries, including e-commerce in India,\u201d said Deepak Dara of Ontario Teachers, in a statement. \u201cLed by a strong team, Xpressbees has established a highly scalable and efficient asset-light model with proven execution capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n Ontario Teachers\u2019 has invested over $3 billion in India, and identifies it as one its \u201ckey strategic\u201d countries.<\/p>\n Xpressbees competes with a handful of established firms and startups, including publicly listed firm Delhivery and Shadowfax, which is in advanced stages of talks to raise about $60 million<\/a> in a round led by TPG NewQuest, TechCrunch earlier reported.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n