Xpressbees becomes a unicorn, raises $300 million in funding

Xpressbees has raised USD 300 million (about Rs 2,250 crore) in a Series-F funding.

New Delhi: Logistics firm Xpressbees on Wednesday said it has raised USD 300 million (about Rs 2,250 crore) in a Series-F funding round led by Blackstone Growth, TPG Growth and ChrysCapital.

The capital raised will be used for product development, talent acquisition and the next phase of growth, it added.

With this round, the total amount of funds raised by Xpressbees exceeds USD 500-million, the company said in a statement.

Existing investors Investcorp and Norwest Venture Partners also participated in the fresh round of capital raising.

“We are excited to welcome our new partners Blackstone Growth, TPG Growth, and ChrysCapital in our growth journey. With their vast network and operational expertise, we believe that they will further fuel our efforts in pursuing new opportunities and will help expand our footprint,” said Amitava Saha, founder-CEO, Xpressbees.

The freshly raised capital will be used to achieve the Xpressbees vision to evolve into a full-service logistics company, support the business in its next phase of growth, product development and hiring talent, the statement said.

Stating that it has logged a near 100 per cent growth in revenue on a year-to-year basis, the company said it has progressively built technology platforms, an extensive network reach and a seamless last mile management system.

Founded in 2015, Xpressbees has its presence across 3,000 cities, serving over 20,000 pin codes, and delivers over 1.5 million packages per day.

Besides, it has over 100 hubs pan-India with over a million square feet of warehousing capacity and operates across 52 airports in the country.

“Xpressbees is playing an important role in India's booming e-commerce sector, which is still at an early stage and has a long runway of development. We look forward to leveraging Blackstone's deep expertise and global network in logistics and e-commerce to accelerate its growth,” said Mukesh Mehta, Senior Managing Director at Blackstone Private Equity.

As the Indian e-commerce market continues to grow, the need for end-to-end supply chain solutions that can meet the needs of diversified customers across industries has never been more pronounced, said Akshay Tanna, Partner at TPG Growth.

“Xpressbees has developed a differentiated, highly scalable, and asset-light operating model that is fully integrated through a customisable tech platform. We look forward to leveraging our deep capabilities in India to support Amitava and his team as they grow the business and build on their leadership position,” he added.

“XpressBees is an exciting way to back the booming e-commerce sector in India, which continues to be a strong focus for ChrysCapital,” Kshitij Sheth, Director at ChrysCapital, said.

Avendus Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Xpressbees on this transaction, according to the statement.

An official of Blackstone, the world's largest alternative investment firm, told PTI that together with investors, it will hold a significant minority stake in the investee company and the funding will be carried out through its arm Blackstone Growth (BGX), for which this is the first investment in Asia.

Of its USD 60 billion assets under management across 30 investments since 2006 in India, a third (USD 20 billion) is in real estate and logistics across 41 assets, making it the largest realty player in terms of asset value and operational space in the country.

Mehta said Xpressbees has transformed from an up-and-coming startup into one of the top logistics businesses today and has since its inception been playing an important role in the booming e-commerce sector that is worth USD 56 billion now and is clipping at 32 per cent annually since the past five years and is projected to grow at 29 per cent to a gross merchandise volume of USD 200 billion over the next five years.

Blackstone already owns one of the largest logistics portfolios in the country and has made marquee investments such as online learning platform Simplilearn; electric vehicle components maker Sona Comstar; and VFS Global, which is the global market leader in visa outsourcing services. Also Read: Samsung unveils Galaxy S22 Ultra, S22 Plus and S22: New camera, faster chip, and more

Last month, Blackstone India combined its logistics portfolio under Horizon Industrial Parks with a portfolio of logistics parks owned and managed by Blackstone Real Estate Fund. Also Read: Vivo T1 5G smartphone with 6.58- inch FHD+ launched in India: Price, specs, features