Snapdeal has invested $23.7 million in its logistics arm Vulcan Express. This is the second round of internal funding for the supply chain solution firm. The company had earlier received $5.68 million from the e-commerce parent entity Jasper Infotech in June.
As per ROC filings with MCA, the company raised the sum by allocating 15.24 crore equity shares at Rs 10 apiece to Jasper Infotech Pvt. Ltd, which operates Snapdeal, on 7 August, reports VCCircle.
The investment comes amidst news of selling off Vulcan Express in more than $15 million, but it didn’t work-out.
Earlier, logistics arm Vulcan Express had got some interested buyers – express distribution and supply-chain companies Gati, mid-market private equity firm Peepul and supply-chain player TVS Logistics are a few of them.
Snapdeal recently sold its digital payment platform FreeCharge to Axis bank for $60 million. And with the latest infusion in Vulcan, experts feel that the sale may not happen anytime soon. It also indicates Snapdeal’s intent to reconsider its original objective of building a profitable business in Vulcan.
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The company, which offers end-to-end logistics and supply chain solutions for merchants, is currently operational in more than 100 cities. It also offers a range of services including pickup, consolidation and fulfilment operations, warehousing solutions, intercity movement and last-mile delivery.
In the fiscal year 2016, Vulcan Express clocked a net revenue of Rs 184 crore, up from Rs 26.7 crore in FY15. However, the jump in revenue also gathered some losses, which increased six-fold to Rs 20 crore from Rs 3.2 crore in FY15.
After the failing of merger talks with Flipkart and boycott by SoftBank, the three co-founders of Unicommerce, Snapdeal’s technology solution arm, had quit the venture.
Vulcan Express: Website
