India logistics player Xpressbees raises $300m
The Blackstone Group, TPG Capital, and ChrysCapital Partners have participated in a USD 300m round for Xpressbees, an Indian logistics start-up established by the team behind mother-and-baby retailer FirstCry.
The round comprises USD 100m in primary capital and a USD 200m secondary piece that was used to facilitate partial exits for Alibaba Group and Elevation Capital and a full exit for an unnamed Chinese investor. Existing investors such as Investcorp and Norwest Venture Partners also contributed to the round.
Xpressbees is now valued at USD 1.2bn, making it the latest addition to India’s fast-expanding unicorn club. GlobalBees, a brand agglomeration platform that also emerged from FirstCry, achieved this milestone last month, closing a USD 111.5m Series B round at a valuation of USD 1.1bn.
Spun out from FirstCry in 2015 – with Amitava Saha, a co-founder of FirstCry, taking on the role of CEO – Xpressbees claims to have raised more than USD 500m to date. This includes an INR 8bn (USD 110m) commitment in 2020 from Investcorp, Norwest, and Gaja Capital. Among its other backers are InnoVen Capital, Chiratae Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Valiant Capital, and Vertex Ventures.
The company is an end-to-end logistics provider, covering B2B and B2C express services, cross-border, and third-party logistics. Its network comprises 3,000 offices and service centres, 52 airport connections, and 35,000 personnel covering 2,500 cities. More than 3m shipments are handled every day. Customers include 450 e-commerce companies.
“Amitava Saha has done a phenomenal job of transforming Xpressbees from an up-and-coming start-up into one of the top logistics businesses in India today. 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,” said Mukesh Mehta, a senior managing director with Blackstone’s private equity unit in India, in a statement.
The Xpressbees commitment represents Blackstone’s first in India under its growth strategy. The firm closed its inaugural growth fund at USD 4.5bn last year.
Other private equity-backed players in India’s logistics space include BlackBuck and Delhivery. BlackBuck became a unicorn last year on closing a USD 67m Series E, while Delhivery filed for an INR 74.6bn IPO last year.
Full or partial exits by Chinese investors have become a feature of India’s technology sector in the past couple of years as relations between the two countries have deteriorated. Examples include KreditBee – which offered secondary exit opportunities to several Chinese VCs as part of its Series C last year – PolicyBazaar, and Koo.
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