The primary capital infusion comes after the decade-old company was valued at around $2 billion after Steadview Capital invested $25 million to acquire shares in the company last December through a secondary transaction. In a secondary transaction, the company does not receive any money, as existing investors sell their stake to new players.
In 2019, Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) bought an 8% stake in the SoftBank-backed company for $115 million from an existing investor. The fresh round of funds has taken the total capital raised by the company to around $1 billion. While a Delhivery spokesperson did not comment on the matter, sources confirmed that the company is set to go for a listing in 2022.
The development signals a growing interest of foreign investors in a slew of Indian companies that are readying themselves for public listings, including Zomato, Flipkart and Lenskart.
“The proposed IPO will be an inflexion point for the company and for the logistics sector as such, as there is growing interest from global investors in large Indian startups and the company is deepening their digital capabilities and looking at a larger B2B play across consumer sectors as well as sectors such as pharma and auto,” said Siddhartha Nigam, partner, Grant Thornton Bharat.
Delhivery, which has narrowed down its losses significantly to around Rs 270 crore in FY20 and boosted its revenues, was aiming to finish the 2021 financial year with revenues of around Rs 4,000 crore which will pit it directly against the likes of traditional logistics giants such as Blue Dart and Fedex, a senior Delhivery executive had earlier told TOI.
