Trifecta infused Rs 25 Cr in Rivigo's third debt round

Just months after achieving the $1 billion valuation, logistics start-up Rivigo has picked up another round of funding. The Gurugram-based firm has raised Rs 25 crore in debt funding from venture debt firm Trifecta Capital, marking the company's third debt financing since  its inception in 2014.

Prior to this, Rivigo had raised debt from Trifecta in 2015, and private sector lenders, including HDFC Bank, YES Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and ICICI Bank had invested Rs 100 crore in it.

According to regulatory filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Rivigo has issued Series B NCD (non-convertible debentures) to Trifecta worth Rs 10,00,00 each to raise Rs 25 crore. The NCD shall have a tenure of 24 months and will carry a fixed rate of 14.25% paid monthly.

The debt round comes at a time when Rivigo is negotiating  a Series F round of $20 million from existing investors SAIF Partners and Spring Canter Investment.

Media reports also suggested that Rivigo is likely to get the fresh equity round at the same valuation as the previous one, i.e. $1.1 billion.

Rivigo, which offers delivery services across India to retail, e-commerce, pharmaceutical, automobile and FMCG companies, claims to cover 4,000 cities and has a network coverage of close to 30,000 pin codes.

With over 200,000 verified fleet owners, Rivigo operates via more than 70 pit stops and completed half-million trips till date.

Launched by Gazal Kalra and Deepak Garg, Rivigo had also launched RaaS (Relay-as-a-Service) to offer the benefits of relay trucking to millions of fleet owners in India to address challenges of truck driver shortage in this space.

Last year, Rivigo had also launched the National Freight Index (NFI) based on the study of truck rentals in the previous three years. The index shows the truck rentals from 1,500 origin and destination locations.

For the financial year ending on March 31, 2019, Rivigo's revenue rose 42% to Rs 1,028 crore. According to the company, its non-operating expenses rose to Rs 813 crore as it had been focusing on technology development and building infrastructure capacity.

As a result of growing expenses, Rivigo reported a loss of Rs 600 crore in FY19 as compared to a loss of Rs 270 crore in FY18.

Last year, the firm also has a rejig which led to 70-80 employees being asked to leave and some employment offers being withdrawn.