Carlyle Group acquires minority stake in Delhivery

NEWDELHI: The Carlyle Group has acquired a minority stake in Indian logistics firm Delhivery, while existing investor hedge fund Tiger Global also raised its stake, for a combined investment of more than $100 million, the buyout fund said on Friday.

The investment comes amid expectations India’s logistics sector is set to expand strongly once the goods and services tax (GST) is implemented and through growing online retail.

Delhivery was founded in 2011 as a food delivery company but has since shifted to providing logistics services in more than 600 cities.

“We see significant potential for technology-enabled logistics in the country with the growth of e-commerce,” Neeraj Bharadwaj, managing director of the Carlyle Asia buyout team, said in the statement.

Carlyle has invested more than $1.4 billion of equity in more than 30 transactions in India across all its funds as of 31 December.

“We are excited to partner with Carlyle as we continue to grow our business to meet the surging demand from our e-commerce clients, small businesses and enterprises that are rapidly digitising their supply chain operations. We believe that Carlyle’s global network and industry expertise will enable us to expedite our growth strategy,” said Delhivery CEO Sahil Barua.