ECOM EXPRESS ON ROAD TO RAISE $150M IN FRESH FUNDING

Swaraj Singh Dhanjal swaraj.d@livemint.com

MUMBAI: E-commerce-focussed logistics firm Ecom Express has initiated the process of raising at least $75 million in a new round of funding, two people aware of the development said.

“They (Ecom Express) have recently launched the process to raise a new round of funding. The process is at an initial stage and the fund raise is expected to close only by the second half of the year,” said the first of the two people cited above, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Ecom Express’s existing private equity investor Warburg Pincus is likely to bring in another $75 million, which could take the fund-raising to a total of $150 million, he added.

A spokesperson for Ecom Express declined to comment. Emails sent to Warburg Pincus went unanswered.

Ecom Express and Delhivery, besides Flipkart-owned Ekart, are among the largest delivery firms focused on e-commerce in India. In June 2015, Warburg Pincus invested ₹850 crore in Ecom Express. A month earlier, Tiger Global Management had infused ₹542 crore in Delhivery.

Based in Delhi, Ecom Express was founded in 2012 by T.A. Krishnan, Manju Dhawan, K. Satyanarayana and Sanjeev Saxena.

According to the second of the two persons cited above, the money will be used mainly to expand into the fulfilment services business.