BII Announces Follow-On Investment In Shiprocket
Bertelsmann India Investments has participated in a new financing round for Shiprocket that raised $41.3 million. Shiprocket has supported Indian companies with the logistics of their e-commerce business since 2017 and has been able to greatly expand its business during the coronavirus pandemic. Shiprocket currently processes five million shipments a month.
Bertelsmann India Investments (BII), Bertelsmann’s Indian investment fund, has once again invested in one of its most successful holdings: the “Software as a Service” (SaaS) service provider Shiprocket. The startup is one of the e-commerce service providers whose business has grown rapidly during the coronavirus pandemic. BII led the new $41.3 million Series D1 funding round together with PayPal Ventures and Info Edge Ventures. Other investors include March Capital and Tribe Capital, as well as the entrepreneurs Deepinder Goyal (Zomato) and Kunal Shah (Cred). The latest infusion of capital brings Shiprocket’s total funding for business development to $94.3 million. The fresh capital will be used to further expand the business and develop new products. Shiprocket also announced the internationalization of its business, starting with Middle Eastern countries.
Shiprocket has supported Indian companies with the logistics of their e-commerce business since 2017. The startup helps retailers organize the entire shipping process for their online orders, e.g. in choosing between different logistics companies for the delivery of goods, sharing tracking updates with customers, and using machine-learning algorithms to predict delivery dates as accurately as possible. The company says it became profitable in the 2018/19 financial year and now has annual revenues of around $100 million. Shiprocket currently processes over five million shipments a month, enabling more than 100,000 retailers across the country to sell directly to their consumers.
“Shiprocket’s mission, ever since its inception, has been to help merchants focus on what they do best and ease their burden by taking on the heavy lifting of supply chain automation to us,” says Saahil Goel, CEO and co-founder of Shiprocket, adding that direct-to-consumer (D2C) commerce forms roughly 15 percent of the overall e-commerce market in India and that this is projected to grow to 30 to 35 percent in the next five years. “We are thrilled with the abundant potential and opportunities available for technology enablers like us in this vast, untapped market.”
Bertelsmann India Investments Managing Director Pankaj Makkar says: “We are thrilled to continue our partnership with Shiprocket which is strengthening India’s D2C’s supply chain.” He notes that the company has developed highly advanced technology and artificial intelligence products, which could take the user experience, on the merchant as well as end-user side, to the next level and drive India’s supply chain and logistics growth.
