23 February 2018, India:
Smartshift by Mahindra announced an intent to merge with Resfeber Labs’ Porter. The Mahindra group will invest $10 million (₹65 crore) in the new company. The merger is subject to regulatory approvals.
As a part of deal, Porter’s co-founder Pranav Goel will be appointed as the chief executive of the merged entity. And Kausalya Nandakumar will work as interim co-CEO to ensure smooth transition and integration of both the companies.
“Since its inception, SmartShift has become the preferred choice for transporters and customers alike by consistently delivering on its customer value proposition of enhancing the spirit of entrepreneurship amongst transporters and enabling an improved business productivity amongst its customers,” said Anish Shah, Chairman, SmartShift by Mahindra.
Anish added, “Being part of our diversified group while working on a young entrepreneurship culture has been our mantra for SmartShift. Our new association with Porter will be a win-win for both companies and will definitely cement our position in the ever-growing shared mobility space.”
“Porter is the largest tech-logistics marketplace in the country, having serviced more than 200,000 customers and more than 10,000+ partner-drivers on the platform. This is a strong testament of the platform’s seamless customer and partner-driver experience and our association with Mahindra will take it to the next level. The synergies between our business modules are evident and this association with Mahindra will further build on the trust of our stakeholders. With this Porter has now done a cumulative fund raise of more than USD 20 million,” said Pranav Goel, Co-Founder, Porter.
Under the aegis of the merged identity, both market brands ‘Porter’ and ‘SmartShift’ will continue to service their respective customers and partner-drivers.
Porter was founded by Pranav Goel, Uttam Digga and Vikas Chaudhary in 2014. It is tech-enabled logistic solutions provider in the good transportation space. The company has 10000+ vehicles on its platform and has done 15,00,000 deliveries in the last 3 years.
SmartShift was launched in 2015. It is on-demand logistics provider. It specialises in providing small commercial vehicles for intra-city first and last-mile requirements. It was the first digital mobility startup to be incubated under the aegis of the Mahindra Group.
(Image – Auto Tech Review)
