Logistics sector (private)

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The title ‘Logistics sector (private)’ indicates that this page is not about the much bigger defence logistics sector.

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Investments in the sector

2018-19

SINDHU HARIHARAN, June 17, 2019: The Times of India

Investments and M&As in the logistics sector, 2018-19
From: SINDHU HARIHARAN, June 17, 2019: The Times of India

PEs, VCs bet big on logistics biz

Chennai:

Rising e-commerce transactions and GST implementation have triggered a wave of activity in the conventional and under-the-radar logistics sector, which has emerged as a darling of private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) investors this year.

While the world’s largest PE firm Blackstone recently called logistics their “highest conviction” sector, PE-VC funding in Indian logistics sector in 2019 (YTD) is already at thrice the value of 2018. Data from research firm Venture Intelligence shows around $620-million investment in logistics across 12 deals this year, compared to $265 million in 2018.

Fundraising by new-age logistics players Delhivery ($413 million, which also achieved unicorn status this year), BlackBuck ($132 million), Rivigo ($36 million), Locus ($26 million) and others, are a few top deals that have helped 2019 reach record highs for the past five-year period. The merger and acquisition (M&A) action in the sector has clocked $603 million across 10 deals, with a bulk of them being strategic deals in warehousing. Global ports operator DP World’s acquisition of KRIBCHO Infrastructure for $145 million and Logos’ entry into the Indian warehousing market with the Casagrand Distripark buy are a few top deals. Kushal Nahata, co-founder and CEO of logistics tech provider FarEye, calls it the Amazon and Alibaba effect. “Large enterprises today seek to achieve the same experience that customers have come to expect from Amazon or Flipkart,” he said.

Starting off as a B2C wave, B2B logistics startups engaged in last-mile delivery, warehousing, freight, supply chain optimisation, etc are now enjoying investor patronage.

Supil Chachan, director of trucking platform BlackBuck, says a large total addressable market (logistics spends in India are at almost $300 billion) and huge inefficiencies requiring tech, has attracted investors. BlackBuck raised close to $230 million in equity till date since 2015 and is on track to reach the unicorn status — a milestone Chachan feels is small given the size of the sector.

“BlackBuck, through its asset-light marketplace model, has already proven to be a game changer and has successfully solved legacy problems like fleet under-utilisation and price opaqueness,” said Accel partner Sameer Gandhi, while investing in the startup.

Nishith Rastogi, co-founder and CEO of logistics optimisation platform Locus, says logistics and supply chain have long been unstructured and chaotic in India — both aspects that can be best solved using emerging tech such as AI and machine learning.