New Delhi-based e-commerce logistics aggregator that enables fast and cost-effective shipping for direct to consumer (D2C) retailers has raised US$27 million in Series C3 funding.
The fundraising includes a mix of primary and secondary share transactions from US-based venture capitalists- Tribe Capital, a leading Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm and March Capital, a Santa Monica-based venture growth firm. With this, the total capital raised by the eight-year-old company now reaches US$53 mn. Rahul Mehta of DST Global also participated in the round along with existing investor Bertelsmann India Investments.
The company’s last raised funds in May 2020 in its Series C round was worth US$13 Mn. The round was also led by Tribe Capital.
The new funds will fuel Shiprocket’s aggressive product development roadmap, which includes hiring top talent across product, data, and engineering functions. The funds will also focus on the company’s new strategic initiatives, including expanding globally.
“We already power shipping for over 100,000 merchants and have recently launched Shiprocket Fulfilment for extending the existing platform include storage, pick, pack and dispatch,” said Saahil Goel, CEO and Co-founder, Shiprocket. “Further, we want to invest in building world-class consumer experiences, as well as helping merchants, grow their business with allied services in the coming years.”
“E-commerce growth is being led by D2C brands, and Shiprocket’s solutions help enable their growth,” said Rajan Mehra, Partner, March Capital. “Shiprocket has simplified the post-purchase experience for thousands of sellers and millions of buyers, and we are excited by their plans for the future of e-commerce.”
“The fundraising will help Shiprocket build an exceptional post-purchase experience for the company’s 100,000 merchants,” said Pankaj Makkar, Managing Director, Bertelsmann India Investments. “We continue to support the company to build world-class technology platform for India and eventually the world.”
The Series C financing caps an extraordinary year for Shiprocket where it saw rapid business growth, key executive appointments, and numerous product launches. Partnering with over 17 logistics providers, Shiprocket’s tech-enabled logistics platform connects merchants, consumers, and supply chain partners across 26,000 pin codes in the country.
“With the growth in D2C as a share of overall e-commerce, there is a growing opportunity to enable the full stack of services in the post-purchase journey of the D2C consumer,” Goel said, adding, “We were able to get a lot more long tail and younger merchants during Covid and our seller acquisition just went through the roof. We found all kinds of merchants getting online, whether it was small shops, D2C brands or larger brands exploring their hands at going D2C.”
Apart from shipping and logistics automation, Shiprocket offers negotiated freight rates with its shipping partners like FedEx, Bluedart, Aramex, FirstFlight and Ecom Express. It can also be integrated with ecommerce platforms such as Amazon, eBay, Magento, Opencart and Shiprocket 360. It currently works with brands such as D2C and ecommerce brands such as Koovs, boAt, Mamaearth and XYXX.
Shiprocket said it turned profitable in FY18-19 and has an annualised revenue run rate between US$50-60 million.
Shiprocket claims its merchant base grew by over 5% in the past one year to reach 100K merchants, while shipment volumes grew by 2.6 – 2.7% between January 2020 and 2021 to reach 4 mn monthly shipments.
