Alibaba-backed Xpressbees secures $80M led by Ontario Teachers'

Xpressbees, a leading Indian logistics firm, has successfully secured $80M in a recent round of funding. The round, led by Ontario Teachers’ late-stage venture growth fund, comes at a time when online shopping in India is experiencing a massive surge.

• Valuation and Cumulative Funding: The Canadian pension fund has bought a stake in Xpressbees at a valuation of around $1.4B. The latest funding round brings the total investment in Xpressbees to approximately $680M.

• Key Backers: The list of Xpressbees' backers includes industry bigwigs such as Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah, TPG, Alibaba, and Blackstone.

• Client Base: Xpressbees collaborates with over 1,000 clients, including key players like Paytm, Meesho, Lenskart, Xiaomi, and NetMeds, to deliver their goods across the country.

• Reach and Volume: The firm operates in over 2,000 cities and towns and processes in excess of 2.5 million orders daily.

• Financials: Despite running at a loss, Xpressbees posted a revenue of about $300M for the financial year ending in March.

• Looking Ahead: Ontario Teachers' involvement hints at Xpressbees' potential plans for an IPO within one to two years.

• Origin Story: Xpressbees originated within FirstCry, an e-commerce platform for baby products, in 2012 but became an independent company in 2015. Amitava Saha, co-founder and COO of FirstCry, took the reins as CEO of Xpressbees. Supam Maheshwari, CEO and co-founder of FirstCry, is also a co-founder of Xpressbees.

Ontario Teachers' has invested over $3B in India, recognizing it as one of its "key strategic" countries. Xpressbees faces competition from several established firms and startups, including Delhivery and Shadowfax, which is reportedly in advanced talks to raise about $60M in a round led by TPG NewQuest.