Wow Express raises pre-Series A funding

Mumbai-based e-commerce logistics solutions firm Wow Express, which is operated by JMS Logistics and Express Pvt. Ltd, said it has raised Rs 15 crore (around $2.2 million) in pre-Series A funding led by unnamed US-based investors as it tries to scale up operations.

Existing investor Tamarind Family Private Trust, the investment trust of the Mansukhani Family which is a co-promoter of consumer electronics maker Onida, also participated in the round.

The firm will use the funds for geographical expansion and technology enhancement.

"We target to be in 50 cities with 100 branches and process 10 lakh shipments by the end of this year. This round will help us achieve geographical expansion and enhance technology," Sandeep Padoshi, director, Wow Express, said in the statement.

The firm was founded in January 2015 by Padoshi, Jayesh Kamat and Mazhar Faruqi. The three co-founders have earlier worked for companies such as DHL, Reader's Digest, UPS, TNT and Singapore Post.

The firm aims to fill the gap within the e-commerce supply chain with the use of technology. It provides support in terms of warehousing, order fulfillment and last-mile delivery to e-commerce firms.

Its clients include Paytm, Rediff and Fashionandyou. Recently, the company had tied up with Amazon India for delivering bicycles.

Wow Express claims to processes around 350,000 shipments a month and has branches in Navi Mumbai, Thane, Delhi-NCR, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot and Jaipur.

In July last year, the firm had raised seed investment of $500,000 (Rs 3.17 crore) from Tamarind Family Private Trust.

The surge in e-commerce sales has opened up a fresh opportunity for logistics services firms. A bunch of startups has mushroomed in the logistics space over the last couple of years.

Earlier this month, logistics management platform Locus, run by Mara Labs Inc, had raised $2.75 million (around Rs 18.3 crore) in a Series A funding round led by Exfinity Venture Partners.

In April, courier company DTDC Express had invested over $1 million in logistics solutions startup Shipsy.

In February, Pune-based e-commerce logistics firm Xpressbees had raised about $12.5 million (around Rs 86 crore) in funding from existing investors SAIF Partners, IDG Ventures India, NEA, Vertex Ventures and Valiant Capital. In the same month, Mumbai-based Craftsvilla had acquired on-demand logistics enabler Sendd for $5 million, in a bid to strengthen its logistics capabilities.

In October last year, Bangalore-based hyperlocal delivery startup Opinio had had raised $7 million in a Series A funding round led by e-commerce logistics firm Delhivery.

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