Ecom Express seeks $125-150 mn in private funding as IPO plans stall

Ecom Express, like multiple other top-tier startups, has put its Initial Public Offering (IPO) plan on hold for now.

The company is working with investment banks

and Barclays for the fundraising, according to people who know about its pitch to investors, and is looking to benchmark itself against Delhivery, the largest third-party logistics player which went public in May.

ET has been briefed on parts of its presentation to potential investors.

“IPO looks unlikely in a market now and they have pitched to investors for a round of up to $150 million. The conversations are early, and a valuation has not been finalised yet,” one person said.

The Warburg Pincus-backed firm is valued at around $760 million, as per startup data tracking platform Tracxn.

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It has raised $260 million so far since inception in 2012.

Ecom Express and JM Financial did not respond to ET’s queries. A spokesperson for Barclays declined to comment.

Ecom Express and SoftBank-backed Xpressbees have a narrow gap between them in terms of daily shipment volumes, while Delhivery is the market leader.

According to industry sources, Ecom Express is clocking about 1-1.1 million ecommerce shipments per day.

“They (Ecom Express) had a big boost from Singapore’s Shopee last year but then the e-tailer abruptly shut shop in March. This has impacted volumes in the new fiscal year,” another person said.

The company’s plans for a new funding round come at a time when deals of $100 million or more have slowed, both in India and abroad, due to macroeconomic changes and rising interest rates in the United States.

The company’s new fundraise estimates are lower than what it was considering through an IPO last year where its board approved a $600 million public share sale plan, although a significant chunk of this would have been through an offer for sale.

According to reports, the company clocked revenue of Rs 1,254 crore on a loss of over Rs 313 crore in the financial year 2019-20.

Its latest audited financials have not yet been filed with the Registrar of Companies.

Amid a global rout in tech stocks,
Delhivery’s IPO opened with gains over its issue price of Rs 487 per share. Its shares ended marginally higher at Rs 506.95 on the BSE Thursday.

Stocks of
startups such as Zomato and Paytm have seen significant erosion in their value this year.

Paytm shares, in fact, tanked immediately after listing and has not yet recovered to its issue price of Rs 2,150 per share.

It closed more than 4% lower at Rs 675.80 per share, on the BSE Thursday.

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

According to the company, it is present in 29 states and operates in over 2,650 towns across 27,000 pin codes. Last year, it invested in Bangladesh’s Paperfly in a bid to expand operations outside India.