The city of Gurgaon is home to the Indian supply chain and logistics enterprise known as Delhivery. Sahil Barua, Mohit Tandon, Bhavesh Manglani, Suraj Saharan, and Kapil Bharati were the ones who initiated the venture in the year 2011. Delhivery opened on the Indian bourses on 24 May 2022. At the launch, the Delhivery Share Price was expected to start negative with Delhivery IPO GMP suggesting a minus Rs. 5 opening over the issue price. However, that was not to be so!
As of 2021, the corporation operated more than 85 fulfillment facilities, 24 autonomous sort centers, 70 hubs, 7,500+ partner centers, and more than 3,000 direct delivery centers. It is estimated that supplying third-party transportation and delivery solutions to e-commerce enterprises accounts for approximately two-thirds of their revenue. How did this startup become so big? We try to explore it in this article.
How Did Delhivery Come Into Existence?
SSN Logistics Ltd. was the initial name of the company. It gave birth to Delhivery in May of 2011. It was first conceived as a hyperlocal fast delivery company for offline stores. For the initial few months after its start, it delivered flowers and meals locally in the city of Gurgaon.
During that time period, the internet retailing and e-commerce sector was quickly expanding in India, drawing interest from major investors from all over the world in the industry.
The scale and possibilities of the market piqued the interest of the original founders, Barua and Tandon, who at the moment were employed as analysts for the management consulting company Bain & Company. As a consequence, they planned to employ their efforts in this sector.
Delhivery’s First Client
In June of 2011, Delhivery secured its first client in the e-commerce sector by partnering with Urban Touch, an e-commerce store that sells beauty and fashion products. After that day, the company has not looked back. However, by August of 2011, Delhivery had shifted its business model to focus on providing logistical services to a variety of online retailers.
Delhivery Became a Unicorn
In March of 2019, Delhivery completed its most successful round of funding by receiving an infusion of 413 million dollars from SoftBank. By this, it achieved unicorn status.
It was announced in May 2021 by Delhivery that it had raised an additional $277 million in capital during a financing round that Fidelity led. This brought the company’s market capitalization up to roughly $3 billion. (1)
Spoton Logistics was a business-to-business (B2B) logistics startup that Delhivery acquired in August 2021 for a purchase price of Rs. 1,600 crores (US$200 million).
In December of 2021, it completed the acquisition of Transition Robotics Inc., a California-based unmanned aerial system firm.
A total of 64 anchor investors contributed a combined Rs. 2,347 crores (US$290 million) to Delhivery’s investment round prior to the company’s initial public offering in May 2022.
Delhivery IPO
In May 2022, Delhivery held its initial public offering (IPO). The Delhivery IPO opened on May 11, 2022, and closed on May 13, 2022. The price range that the Delhivery IPO was offered at was Rs. 462 – Rs. 487 for a lot size of 30 shares. There was an employee discount of Rs. 25 offered by the IPO. (2)
At the time of the IPO, as a result of the company’s ongoing losses, the P/E ratio of its IPO was negative. Despite an increase in revenue, the company’s bottom had remained in the red throughout all of the previous years due to special accounting requirements.
Its initial public offering (IPO) price was set at a very aggressive level. However, the IPO was not very favorably received by Investors, receiving just 1.63 times its overall availability. Nevertheless, the IPO opened at Rs. 494, a slight premium to its offer price. The Delhivery share price reached a high of Rs. 708 within the next 45 days. At the time of the writing, the Delhivery share price was Rs. Rs. 568.50.
At the end of the Delhivery IPO, the company raised Rs. 5,235 crores (US$660 million) at a capitalization of Rs. 35,283 crores (US$4.4 billion). The company then went on to get listed on both the BSE and the NSE. (5)
About the People Who Run Delhivery
The company’s founder, Sahil Barua, serves as the company’s CEO, and co-founder Kapil Bharati is the company’s chief technology officer.
In December of 2018, Sandeep Barasia, who was already serving as Managing Director, was promoted to the position of Chief Business Officer. He is now responsible for the profit and loss for all of the divisions, including freight, warehouses, and parcels.
During the same period, Ajith Pai, who had been the CFO, transitioned into the job of Chief Operating Officer. In this role, he controls the company’s operations, engineering, human resources, and finances.
In the meantime, Amit Agarwal, a graduate of IIT-Kanpur who had been serving as vice president-finance at Delhivery, was promoted to the position of chief financial officer. On March 30, 2021, the company was rocked by the departure of two of its founders. (6)
Major StakeHolders of Delhivery
The SoftBank Group has 22.78% of the company, and Nexus Venture Partners holds 9.23% as of November 2021. Together, these two entities constitute the majority of the company’s owners. The Carlyle Group, CPP Investment Board, Tiger Global, & Times Internet are some examples of other investors who hold more than a 5 percent interest.
Conclusion
Delhivery is perfectly placed in the Indian e-commerce scene. It is estimated that the market for online shopping in India will grow by 21.5%, eventually reaching US$ 74.8 billion by 2022 end. The conduct of business in India has been revolutionized due to the rise of e-commerce.
From its current value of US$ 46.2 billion, the e-commerce market in India is anticipated to more than double by the year 2025, reaching a total of US$ 188 billion. This will benefit companies like Delhivery. All the investors are expected to gain handsomely in the future. (7)
