According to a report, Shiprocket is India’s Most Valuable Gazelle and is set to become a unicorn in two years

According to a report, Shiprocket is India’s Most Valuable Gazelle and is set to become a unicorn in two years

The most valuable gazelle in India has been dubbed the tech-enabled logistics business Shiprocket. According to Hurun’s ASK Private Wealth Hurun India Future Unicorn Index 2022 report, it has the potential to become a unicorn in the next two years.

Gazelle is a firm that was created after 2000 and has the potential to become a unicorn in two years, according to the research.

A gazelle displays high growth, with annual revenue growth of at least 20% for at least four years. Its minimum annual base revenue is $1 million.

The firm from Delhi encountered its largest obstacle in 2020 due to Covid-19, which put the entire planet on lockdown. According to the Hurun research, shipments of the company, which was launched in 2017, dropped by a startling 95% in just a few days.

The firm managed to weather the losses and even found finance during the pandemic.

It has so far raised $355 million in investment. According to a report by the Economic Times, it closed a $185 million (1,380 crores) series E round of fundraising co-led by Zomato, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek, and Lightrock India.

For $200 million in cash, stock, and earn-outs, the logistics company purchased a controlling position in Pickrr, an e-commerce SaaS platform for direct-to-consumer brands and SME e-tailers.

Over 51 gazelles are likely to become unicorns in 2 years

51 gazelles were mentioned in the research, including Zepto, Turtlemint, Dunzo, and Rapido, which have a $500 million to $1 billion valuation range.

The report’s total valuation of the gazelles was $31 billion, up more than 54% from the last year. According to the study, the 51 businesses on the index have gotten $10.1 billion in capital altogether.

The index has received 13 gazelles from the finance industry, followed by five from SaaS, four each from e-commerce, edtech, and sharing economy, and 13 from the SaaS sector.

The number of unicorns has grown by 65 per cent in just one year, and the number of gazelles has expanded by 59 per cent to 51. Additionally, there are now 71 cheetahs, a 31 per cent increase. Most likely, the pandemic has sped up the disruption of established enterprises and encouraged the rise of startups. According to Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and main researcher of Hurun India, the ecosystem is increasingly achieving the necessary maturity and resilience.

About Shiprocket

Shiprocket is a technologically advanced logistic platform that offers MSMEs inexpensive plans so they can sell online and in any location they want. They provide warehousing, packaging, and other associated services and logistical support.

Additionally, their platform has a wide range of integrations that support sellers and merchants in managing the delivery. The company offers the most affordable shipping to 220 countries and more than 27,000 postcodes in India. Shiprocket relies on the software created by its own teams to guarantee the efficient operation of the business’ daily operations.

With its AI-powered post-order services like smart packaging, eCommerce fulfilment and warehousing, hyperlocal deliveries, shipping aggregation, free website development, and more, Shiprocket serves over 85,000 active Direct Consumer sellers and assists Small and Medium Businesses in smoothly completing end-to-end operations. With the aid of 17+ dependable courier partners, Shiprocket wants to assist its sellers in expanding their companies by offering the broadest pin-code serviceability to ensure effective and fast last-mile deliveries.

The company presently powers 4-5% of all Indian eCommerce. Developers can make use of the shipping functionality for their businesses with the help of the simple Shiprocket API integration.

Users only need to register a Shiprocket account and log in to it using their Google or Facebook account, phone number, and other necessary information. This service is completely free.

Shiprocket rates

Shiprocket offers 4 distinct programmes with various pricing. The blueprints and prices are listed below:

• LITE – The minimum enrollment time for the free shipping plan, LITE, is 0 months.

• BASIC – Basic plan has a monthly fee of Rs 1000. It’s a three-month minimum signup duration.

• ADVANCED – Advanced plan has a monthly cost of Rs 2000. It’s a three-month minimum signup duration.

• PRO – Pro plan has a monthly cost of Rs 3000. It’s a three-month minimum signup duration.

Founders 

Saahil Goel, Akshay Ghulati, Gautam Kapoor, Gautam Kapoor and Vishesh Khurana are the co-founders of Shiprocket.

Business and Revenue Model

An asset-light business model is used by Shiprocket, a provider of logistics software services. As a platform for logistics aggregation, it connects many logistics service providers. It hopes to do this by assisting users (e-commerce sellers) in selecting the best courier service provider for their requirements.

Shiprocket provides an automated interface that assists in matching up online retailers with the best courier service provider. The courier service provider handles the actual pickup and delivery of the goods; thus, it is vital to highlight that Shiprocket has no involvement in any of those processes.

Every cargo that is enabled or moved using Shiprocket’s platform generates revenue for the company. Additionally, it expands fee-based membership options for medium-large businesses, giving them access to multiple e-commerce channel integrations, negotiated shipping costs, and urgent help.

Additionally, Shiprocket provides integration capabilities with online shop management systems like Shopify, opencart, and others and e-commerce platforms like Amazon, eBay, and others. In addition to these, it provides a wide range of other fee-based value-added services, such as:

Shiprocket Fulfilment: For the sellers, Shiprocket offers warehousing services and storage facilities, enabling them to transport packages more quickly to their customers.

Early COD: Shiprocket provides Early COD (cash on delivery), a paid (fee-based) service that helps a seller to receive payment as soon as two days after the date the item was delivered.

Along with the aforementioned services, Shiprocket runs an online store. The company sells packaging supplies in such a store.

Metrics, shipments, income, and active monthly merchants for Shiprocket have virtually tripled since last year. It is known for offering the lowest delivery costs, with domestic shipping starting at around INR 22 for 500 grammes.

Every shipment that passes via the company’s network generates revenue for it, as do the monthly licencing fees. The merchants can also take advantage of additional value-added technology services like packaging, fintech, warehousing and fulfilment to increase their revenue.

Shiprocket – Marketing

Shiprocket’s marketing initiatives are intended to benefit companies of all sizes, but especially Direct to Consumer brands. Instead of concentrating exclusively on promoting the goods, their brand marketing strategy is geared toward addressing the target market’s pain issues.

Additionally, they spend a lot of time creating vernacular material that fits naturally into the lives of their audiences to facilitate proper regional campaign diffusion. As a result, it assists them in facilitating the development and growth of their company. By doing this, they are better able to acquire and keep customers.

Revenue and Growth

Your obstacles in serving 100 to 10,000 consumers will be substantially different, and they will call for a different perspective and strategy. The best hack for Shiprocket has been to consistently employ the top talent who can aid in resolving these issues on a large scale. Additionally, they constantly motivate their staff members to get the best outcomes from their efforts.

Here are a few of the notable growth milestones that Shiprocket has conquered:

• It has established itself as India’s top eCommerce shipping service.
• One of the quickest logistics brands, according to Shiprocket, can achieve profitability in just 24 months.
• Over 1 lakh brands and business owners have confidence in Shiprocket.
• It boasts of having more than 14,000 happy sellers.
• Shiprocket delivers over two lakh daily shipments and serves over 29,000 pin codes.
• It presently serves over 220 nations.
• It works with 17 or more courier companies, including well-known names like Bluedart, Xpressbees, Delhivery, DTDC, Shadowfax, Ecom Express, and others.
• Shiprocket is expanding three times a year. Dr Vaidya’s, MamaEarth, Gillette, Boat, mCaffeine, Nappa Dori, Relaxo, Proline, The Beer Cafe, Bira, Bodycare, Da Milano, Cureveda, and other well-known companies are just a few of Shiprocket’s prominent clientele. The corporation was last documented on February 4, 2022, with a value of $930 million.

Financials

The company’s operating revenue increased by 122 per cent in FY21, from Rs 161.19 crore to Rs 358.01 crore (up from Rs 161.19 crore in FY20).

Challenge

Shiprocket’s most challenging operation in recent memory was during the epidemic. They have had a solid office-based work culture from the start. Additionally, because they only have one office in Delhi, the team was unprepared for a WFH culture with people all throughout the nation.

During the epidemic, Shiprocket substantially increased the size of its crew. But, it has turned out to be a major burden for them to hire and integrate so many new personnel.

It’s also more difficult for new personnel to get to know their coworkers and understand the corporate culture because they don’t have a physical office. However, they have worked hard to create an environment that enables staff members to communicate digitally.

When Shiprocket was first released, the Indian MSME market was the target market for their shopping cart solution. The corporation was prepared for that because it was well-liked in the west. Later, it was discovered that the market was very different and that people in this region wanted things that only provided ease.

The business experimented with many features and marketing strategies during the first two years. But eventually, it discovered the path to take Shiprocket on.

Funding and Investors

Over the course of nine investment rounds, Shiprocket has collected a total of $354.1 mn. Zomato, Lightrock, and Temsek Holdings contributed to the most recent round of funding for Shiprocket.

There are presently ten lead investors in Shiprocket India, including Lightrock, Zomato, Moore, and others. 

Investments

Shiprocket has made three prominent investments to date, which are in Bold Care, Logibricks, and Evenflow. 

Acquisitions

Shiprocket has so far purchased 4 businesses. On June 15, 2022, it made its most recent acquisition of Pickrr when it paid $200 million for an 80 per cent ownership in the company. Additionally, it intends to fully acquire Pickrr, assisting the investors in exiting the startup and absorbing the Pickrr staff. Additionally, the creators of Pickrr would receive undisclosed stakes in Shiprocket.

On February 14, 2022, it previously bought Glaucus Supply Chain Solutions. As of June 15, 2022, Shiprocket will purchase Shyplite and is already in the closing stages of the transaction.

Awards & Recognitions

Shiprocket was recently awarded the BW Businessworld Techtors Award for being the ‘Top Tech Companies to Watch Out for’ Under the “Aggregator/Listing” category.

Competitors

There are many companies in the same industry as Shiprocket, and one of them, Pickrr, was already bought by the corporation. Other competitors of Shiprocket include:

• ClickPost
• ShipKaro
• ShypLite

Future Plans

The headquarters of Shiprocket is located in New Delhi. Their project, Shiprocket Fulfillment, provides small and medium-sized businesses with an eCommerce fulfilment and warehousing solution. Its storage hubs are currently operational in Delhi, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Mumbai, and Kolkata.

In 2020, it will have already diversified into related fulfilment fields like hyperlocal delivery, warehousing, and packaging. The business intends to offer its merchants more services in 2022, including lending, customer service, and hyperlocal delivery. These are part of a comprehensive plan to turn Shiprocket into a one-stop-shop for eCommerce fulfilment.

Additionally, they want to start growing worldwide in 2022 while initially concentrating on regional expansion. Shiprocket expects its overseas business to significantly contribute to the brand’s growth in the upcoming years and is hiring specialised teams for it. They presently work with more than 85,000 sellers, and in the next two to three years, they hope to reach 250,000.

Saahil Goel, the CEO and co-founder of Shiprocket, provided a statement on the company’s future plans, saying, “We are on track to launch hyperlocal delivery options that will guarantee quick turnaround times (TATs) and top-notch SLAs, further solidifying our position as the go-to partner for shipping and enablement. We have begun the process of extending our footprint into new geographies with the debut of our services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in November 2021.”

Shiprocket is now developing new strategic plans for its global expansion, which will begin in West Asia, and for its hyperlocal delivery services, expanding courier partnerships, and fulfilment networks. Additionally, it has been funding the same.

Conclusion

Through its eCommerce shipping solutions, Shiprocket is a tech-enabled logistics platform that links retailers, customers, and supply chain partners. Their entire product line aims to make internet selling for merchants as straightforward as possible. Shiprocket helps to give the highest cost efficiency per shipment by making the most use of AI and data. It aids the businesses of its vendor businesses to continue to be successful and expand.

Edited by Prakriti Arora