From Startups to Unicorns: India's Top 8 Retail & E-Commerce Logistics Companies in 2022
Recent years have witnessed a growing interest towards startup ecosystems from governments and investors alike, even in less developed countries. A good case in point would be India, a nation that is now home to the third-largest startup ecosystem, just behind the two global superpowers – China and the United States.
India is known for its vast and varied landscape, and its startup ecosystem is no different. From retail and e-commerce to logistics and more, Indian startups are making their mark on the world stage. According to Inc42’s ecosystem report, annual venture capital (VC) funding to Indian startups has grown eightfold from $5 billion in 2014 to $42 billion in 2021. Similarly, India’s unicorn population has also increased around eighteenfold from 6 in 2014 to 107 as of 7th September 2022, with a total valuation of $340.79 billion.
As we approach the end of the year, we would like to take this opportunity to highlight some of these rising retail and e-commerce logistics startups that have entered the unicorn club in 2022. Check out who made our list below!
1) Xpressbees
First on the list is Xpressbees, the Prune-based logistics startup that raised a $300M Series F in February to become the 8th company in India to become a unicorn. Led by Blackstone Growth, TPG Growth and ChrysCapital, the funding round took the startup’s all-time rise to a whopping $575.8 million.
Founded in 2015, Xpressbees claims to be the fastest-growing express logistics service provider in India, catering to end-to-end supply chain solutions in over 2000 towns and cities across the country. Today, Xpressbees has successfully established itself as one of the trusted logistics partners for the biggest names in e-commerce, healthcare, automotive among others.
2) Shiprocket
One of the latest entrants to the country's unicorn club, Shiprocket is a SaaS-based logistics startup that is backed by Zomato – a leading multinational restaurant aggregator in India. The company bagged $33.5M in a Lightrock-led bridging round in August 2022, with participation from Paypal, Moore Strategic Ventures, Singapore’s sovereign fund Temasek Bertelsmann and a few others.
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