Alibaba infuses $10 Mn in XpressBees; revenues double in FY19

E-commerce focused end-to-end supply chain solutions provider XpressBees has raised $10 million from existing investor Alibaba as part of its Series D round.

According to the company's regulatory filings with the MCA, XpressBees has passed a resolution to allot and issue 9,317 Series D1 Compulsorily Convertible Preference Shares (CCPS) with a face value of Rs 10 at a premium of Rs 76,409 aggregating to amount Rs 71.20 crore or $10 million to Alibaba.

Previously, the Chinese e-commerce giant had invested around Rs 224 crore in a Series D round in XpressBees run by Busybees Logistics Solutions. During the two-year gap, the Pune-based startup had also picked up Rs 35 crore in a debt funding round from InnoVen Capital.

XpressBees, which offers services including first and last-mile delivery and reverse logistics with facilities such as real-time tracking, multiple payment collection and processing options, is likely to deploy the fresh funds in expansion and enhancing technology.

The investment from Alibaba comes amidst news that it has paused fresh investments in India. One of the most active overseas investors in the Indian startup ecosystem, the Jack Ma-founded company had only invested in Paytm in November after a gap of leading $100 million round in UCWeb-owned VMate and a $150 million round in BigBasket.

XpressBees financial report reflects the hunger of expansion and growth

XpressBees’ annual financial statements for the fiscal year ending 2019 revealed that its revenue from business operations spiked by 99.7% amounting to Rs 540.95 crore from Rs 270.83 crore in FY18.

Rest of the company’s income, i.e. Rs 12.50 crore, was generated from interest on long term investments.

To earn the total revenue amounting to Rs 553.4 crore, the company had spent two times more this year to Rs 673.17 crore as compared to Rs 333.27 crore in the previous fiscal.

While XpressBees spent Rs 68.24 crore on employee benefit and Rs 30.71 crore on rent, the majority of its expenses amounting to Rs 525.32 crore were used on transportation. 

As a result, the company’s net losses jumped by around two times to Rs 119.71 crore from Rs 57.22 crore in FY18.

Founded by Amitava Saha and Supam Maheshwari, XpressBees has been backed by the likes of SAIF Partners, Paytm and Chiratae Ventures early on. The company was spun out of baby and maternity products retailer FirstCry in 2015.

XpressBees competes with Delhivery and Ecom Express, among others.

Starting its journey with 50,000 shipments a day in 2015, the company currently claims to deliver 600,000 shipments daily through its 100 hubs and more than 2,000 offices and service centers.