Walmart’s Flipkart has backed Shadowfax in a brand new $60 million financing spherical because the retail large works to strengthen its logistics community within the nation.
Flipkart led the Series D financing spherical for the four-year-old Bangalore-based startup, Shadowfax co-founder and chief govt Abhishek Bansal instructed TechCrunch in an interview.
Existing buyers Eight Roads Ventures, Nokia Growth Partners, Qualcomm Ventures, Mirae Asset Naver Fund and World Bank-backed IFC additionally participated within the spherical, which brings the startup’s whole increase up to now to $100 million.
The new spherical valued Shadowfax at about $250 million, two individuals aware of the matter instructed TechCrunch. Flipkart alone contributed about $30 million to the spherical, they mentioned. The startup declined to touch upon the valuation and particular person contribution of its buyers.
Shadowfax operates an unusually constructed business-to-business logistics community in over 300 cities in India. The startup works with neighbourhood shops to make use of their actual property to retailer stock, and a big community of freelancers who do the supply. “Anyone with a bicycle or a bike can join our platform and deliver items for us,” mentioned Shadowfax’s Bansal. The startup has additionally setup its personal warehouses and fulfilment hubs.
“So we have not built any assets on the ground. We are essentially bringing the inefficiency of the market on to the platform and catering large enterprises,” he mentioned.
This logistics community can deal with items in a variety of classes together with scorching meals, grocery and e-commerce. “It’s a very reliable logistics network. And each grocery store is only serving to users in a kilometre radius, so the delivery could be incredibly quick. These grocery stores, whose staff also often participate in delivery, only have to work with us for a few hours in a day, so it’s a quick way for them to make extra money,” he mentioned. The platform has amassed greater than 100,000 supply companions.
Flipkart, which is one among Shadowfax’s “hundreds” of purchasers, mentioned it can discover methods to strategically work extra carefully with the startup going ahead. Flipkart chief govt Kalyan Krishnamurthy mentioned Shadowfax will assist the corporate “significantly reduce delivery time and provide superior customer experiences across product categories. By leveraging kirana stores and the deep delivery capabilities of Shadowfax and other Flipkart-led innovations, we are building a strong foundation to make inroads into a dynamic hyperlocal consumer market.”
Fliopkart owns stakes in a variety of logistics corporations together with WS Retail.
Shadowfax’s Bansal mentioned the startup will use the contemporary capital to develop its community throughout India, particularly in smaller cities and cities. The startup additionally plans to develop its crew, tech infrastructure, and develop purchasers to deal with greater than 100 million shipments a month.
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