Warburg, SAIF lead $65 mn growth round in logistics platform Rivigo

Logistics-technology firm Rivigo Services Pvt. Ltd has raised $65 million (Rs 444 crore at current exchange rate) funding led by existing investors Warburg Pincus and SAIF Partners.

The fresh funding, raised as part of its ongoing Series E round, will be used to further strengthen its technology and network coverage, the company said in a statement.

TechCircle had reported, in February this year, that the company raised $35.6 million (around Rs 255 crore then) from Warburg Pincus and SAIF Partners.

A company spokesperson confirmed to TechCircle that the infusion was part of this $65 million round.

According to TechCircle estimates, the current round has been raised at a valuation of $980-$990 million, about $10-$20 million shy of the coveted $1 billion unicorn status.

Rivigo claims it has significantly improved its financial metrics across all businesses and aims to be profitable by the end of this financial year.

Rivigo recently launched National Freight Index, which will provide live freight rates for different lanes and vehicles across the country. It operates on a relay trucking model that ensures drivers are behind the wheel for a maximum of four to five hours at a stretch and reach home the same day.

“We continue on our mission to make logistics human and digital. Relay trucking is now very well-established where relay truck pilots lead a better life and customers get exceptional service. With technology and freight marketplace, we now want to bring relay to every truck in the country,” Deepak Garg, founder and chief executive of Rivigo, said,

Rivigo claims to have the largest network coverage in the country, with more than 29,000 pincodes in India.

Operating in the inter-city freight trucking space, Rivigo was founded in 2014 by Garg and Gazal Kalra. Garg is a graduate of Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur and was with McKinsey & Company before he co-founded the venture. Kalra, who studied at Stanford Graduate School of Business, also had a stint at McKinsey.

One of the best-funded startups in the logistics-tech space, Rivigo offers pan-India delivery services to e-commerce, pharmaceutical, automobile, cold-chain and fast-moving consumer goods companies. Besides offering tech-enabled logistics services, Rivigo also owns a fleet of trucks.

The company has suffered a couple of setbacks in terms of personnel over the past year.

In October, TechCircle had reported that Kalra had resigned from the company’s board of directors. Likewise, TechCircle had reported last February that some top- and mid-level executives had left Rivigo.

Rivigo posted operating revenues of Rs 692.6 crore for the financial year 2017-18, up from Rs 388.4 crore the previous year.

However, net losses more than doubled to Rs 270.2 crore from Rs 123.4 crore during the period. The significant rise in losses was on account of higher total expenses, which stood at Rs 990 crore for 2017-18, up 86% from Rs 531.5 crore for 2016-17.

Recent deals in the logistics-tech segment

The larger online logistics sector, which includes service providers and tech solutions companies, has been one of the most prominent attractions for venture capital funds. Some of the recent deals in the space are:

July 2019: Freight Tiger, a business-to-business (B2B) logistics-tech platform, raised $8 million funding led by existing investor Lightspeed Venture Partners.

June 2019: TechCircle was the first to report that supply chain and logistics solutions provider LEAP India had raised Rs 100 crore from private equity firm TVS Capital.

May 2019: Fleet management and vehicle tracking company LocoNav secured Rs 28 crore from existing investor Sequoia Capital.

May 2019: Logistics management company Locus raised $22 million in a round led by Tiger Global Management and Falcon Edge.

May 2019: Logistics-tech startup Transport Hub raised Rs 3.5 crore (around $500,000) in seed funding from a clutch of high-net-worth individuals.

May 2019: BlackBuck bulked up its war chest with a $150 million funding led by Goldman Sachs and venture capital firm Accel, and joined by US-based asset management firm Wellington Management Company, Sequoia, B Capital and Light Street Capital.