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[Funding Alert] Logistics Aggregator Shiprocket Raises $13 Mln In Series C Round Apart from being used to fuel the company's product development by hiring top talent across data science and engineering domains, the fresh funds will also be utilized for new initiatives including international expansion.

By Debroop Roy

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Shiprocket

Logistics aggregator Shiprocket has raised $13 million in a Series C round led by Silicon Valley-based Tribe Capital, Innoven Capital and existing investor Bertelsmann India Investments.

Launched in 2017, the Shiprocket platform connects online retailers with multiple logistics providers. The Delhi-based company claims that its services are today used by 1.5 lakh sellers.

Apart from being used to fuel the company's product development by hiring top talent across data science and engineering domains, the fresh funds will also be utilized for new initiatives including international expansion.

Growth and Profitability

Shiprocket said it currently processes more than 2 million shipments on a monthly basis, enabling over 35,000 sellers to sell directly to consumers across India.

"As a truly disruptive platform, Shiprocket has offered numerous SMEs (small- and medium- enterprises) a cost-effective and world-class solution for e-commerce shipping. The boom in D2C brands and social selling across India has been facilitated by companies like ours who are committed to providing advanced technology and fulfillment solutions to online sellers enabling them to compete with larger brands and marketplaces" said co-founder and chief executive officer Saahil Goel.

The stupendous growth has also been followed by profitability for the company. It turned profitable in fiscal 2019 with an annualized revenue run rate of $25-30 million.

"Shiprocket is a company with strong value to consumers and great growth trajectory. It is one of the leaders in the booming Indian SME technology space and is already the backbone of direct e-commerce market," said Pankaj Makkar of Bertelsmann India Investments.

The company said the latest funding gave nearly 30x returns to its angel investors who exited in this round.

Explaining the thesis behind their investment, Arjun Sethi, co-founder of Tribe Capital said, "Today, the SME segment lacks capital finance and credit, infrastructure, technology, and marketing strategies. Shiprocket has enabled these businesses to grow at a time of emerging competition enabled by mobile internet and corporations."

Debroop Roy

Former Correspondent

Covering the start-up ecosystem in and around Bangalore. Formerly an energy reporter at Reuters. A film, cricket buff who also writes fiction on weekends.
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