OTPP invests $80m in India's Xpressbees
Teachers’ Venture Growth (TVG), the late-stage growth investment arm of Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP), has invested USD 80m in Indian logistics start-up Xpressbees.
It comes six months after a USD 40m commitment from Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional at a reported pre-money valuation of USD 1.2bn. That deal facilitated a partial exit for Elevation Capital.
Last year, The Blackstone Group, TPG Capital, ChrysCapital Partners, and Norwest Venture Partners participated in a USD 300m round at the same valuation. Total investment since the company’s inception in 2015 comes to more than USD 570m, according to AVCJ Research, with earlier backers including Gaja Capital, Investcorp, and Vertex Ventures.
This is OTPP’s first India investment under TVG, which targets technologies perceived as having long runway for innovation and development in attractive end markets. Supply chains and logistics are of significant interest, especially in terms of meeting the needs of diversified customer bases in industries such as Indian e-commerce.
“India is a critical market for our TVG Asia strategy, where we look to lead or co-lead rounds, and Xpressbees is a culmination of one such proprietary opportunity,” Kelvin Yu, a senior managing director at TVG, said in a statement. “We are excited to partner with [Xpressbees CEO Amitava Saha] and leverage our global network and playbook to drive long-term value creation for the business”
Xpressbees is billed as one of the fastest-growing end-to-end logistics companies in India. Operations span B2C and B2B segments, including third-party logistics services, cross-border operations, shipping aggregation, and small business courier services.
The company is active across some 5,000 cities and towns and claims to deliver more than 1.5m packages per day. This is executed via 100 hubs nationwide, including more than 3m square feet of warehouse capacity, and a presence at 52 airports.
More than 60,000 clients have been served to date, with focus verticals including pharma, healthcare, and manufacturing. “We believe the logistics sector is at the cusp of technological disruption and this is the right time to expand service offerings to address the growing needs of businesses and consumers,” Saha added.
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