Exclusive: Zomato-backed Shiprocket turns unicorn

Shiprocket is the newest company to join the unicorn club as the logistics aggregator platform recently picked up fresh funds at a valuation of more than $1 billion.

The company has passed a special resolution to allot 59,793 preference shares in its ongoing Series E round at an issue price of Rs 43,394.13 per share to raise Rs 260 crore or $33 million. This appears to be a part of Series E2 round.

Light Rock India and MacRitchie Investments Pte. Ltd. (Temasek Holding) led this round with Rs 78 crore and Rs 75 crore respectively. Other investors including Bertelsmann Nederland BV, Moore Strategic, Paypal Inc. and MCP3 SPV LLC collectively participated with Rs 107 crore in this ongoing series E round.

As per Fintrackr’s estimates, the company has raised fresh funds at a valuation of $1.23 billion. In December, it was valued at around $930 million when Shiprocket ​​ raised $185 million in a Series E round co-led by Zomato, Temasek and Lightrock India. Since then, it has made three back-to-back acquisitions including Arvind Internet Limited’s Omuni, Rocketbox and Pickrr.

Shiprocket provides technology solutions to help retailers integrate their shopping websites across enablers such as Shopify, Magenta and others. According to the company, around 250K sellers use its product and services and it enables delivery of 70 million shipments each year.

While Shiprocket is yet to file its financial statements for FY22, according to Fintrackr, its scale soared 2.2X to Rs 358 crore in FY21 and posted a profit of Rs 12 crore.

Till date, there have been 106 unicorns in the Indian startup ecosystem. Of these, 43 startups achieved the feat last year, whereas 21 startups have managed to go past the $1 billion valuation mark in 2022 so far. Given the current pace, it looks like India won’t see as many unicorns this year as it did in 2021.

The funding environment has turned tough for startups due to global market uncertainty. According to experts tracking the private investment space, the funding winter will directly impact the number of unicorns in 2022 and 2023 and the valuation of growth and late-stage companies will also correct to a large extent.