Exclusive: Ecom Express invests in Paperfly; adopts new ESOPs plan

E-commerce focused logistics company Ecom Express is investing Rs 34.3 crore in Bangladesh-based logistics firm Paperfly. This will be Ecom Express' second investment in Paperfly. 

Ecom Express will pump in Rs 34.3 crore (BDT 392 million) into Paperfly, the company’s regulatory filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) show.

Paperfly is a full-stack logistics company that offers warehousing, and packaging including first and last mile services across Bangladesh. Unlike logistics firms in India, the company also enables online stores, payments and builds apps for small and medium businesses.

Apart from the investment, Ecom Express has adopted a new employee stock option scheme ECOM ESOP SCHEME 2022, consolidating the old ESOP plan from 2017 into the new pool, separate regulatory filings show.

The new plan constitutes 126,000 stock options each convertible to one equity share. According to Fintrackr’s estimates, the new plan is now worth over Rs 115 crore.

The expansion of the ESOP pool has come at a time when Ecom Express is planning for a public listing this year. The company converted into a public entity in January and at the time its board had approved a fundraise of up to Rs 4,860 crore or $648 million through a public issue of shares.

According to a separate filing, Ecom Express’ co-founders TA Krishnan, Kotla Satyanarayanan and Manju Dhawan have invested Rs 3.63 crore each to increase their stake in the company.

The deadline for Ecom Express’ public listing isn’t certain and according to analysts tracking the company, it’s likely to delay the listing plan and may stretch it to the second half of 2022. While Ecom Express is yet to file an annual financial statement for FY21, it recorded a turnover of Rs 1,254 crore in FY20 with a net loss of Rs 313.52 crore.