01 January 2018, India:
According to reports, China’s e-Commerce giant Alibaba is in advanced talks to invest up to $100 million in Pune based logistics startup XpressBees. The e-commerce giant will take a minority stake in XpressBees.
According to ET report, the deal is likely to close in the next two-three weeks. This will be sixth investment of Alibaba in the Indian Market. The e-commerce giant has invested in Digital Payments platform Paytm and online grocery seller BigBasket.
We reported in 2016 that Alibaba is planning to invest in Delhivery and XpressBees Logistics. Alibaba is building a string of assets to take on Flipkart and Amazon.
An unknown source told ET, “Alibaba wants to make XpressBees the Cainiao of India, and over time logistics operations like Paytm Mall and BigBasket may get consolidated under it giving it a larger captive customer base.”
Xpressbees was founded by Amitava Saha and Supam Maheshwari in 2015. It is an e-commerce logistics company, it offers reliable logistics services and solutions & on-time delivery through its extensive network across India.
XpressBees had raised $8 million in Series A funding from SAIF Partners and Vertex Ventures.
XpressBees claims to deliver over 60,000 shipments every day. The company offers last mile delivery, reverse logistics, payment collection, drop shipping, vendor management. cross border services, fulfilment services and tailored software solutions. Delhivery and Ecom Express are its nearest competitors.
(Image Source – BigCommerce)
