Delhivery becomes India’s first unicorn in 2019, thanks to SoftBank

• The logistics tech startup has raised $395 million with a renewed valuation of $1.6 billion.
  
• SoftBank has reportedly picked up a stake of 22.4% in the company.
  
• Other investors include Carlyle Group and Fosun International.
  

After months of speculation, logistics tech startup Delhivery has finally joined the unicorn club after raising $395 million from SoftBank. The latest round of funding takes Delhivery’s valuation to $1.6 billion.

Last week, the company and its investors made headlines after SoftBank received the approval from Competition Commission of India to take hold of 22.4% stake in Delhivery. Other investors in the round include US-based private equity firm Carlyle Group and Chinese conglomerate Fosun International. Delhivery also has Tiger Global, Nexus Venture Partners and and Times Internet as its investors.

SoftBank-Delhivery talks had been going on since last year, with a lot of back-and-forth between the duo regarding the stakes in the company. Delhivery had also been contemplating an Initial Public Offering, which will now be put on hold with the new investment.

The logistics solutions company founded by Sahil Barua, Mohit Tandon, Suraj Saharan, Kapil Bharti and Bhavesh Manglani, had managed to create a stronghold in India with its partnership with e-commerce unicorns like Flipkart and Paytm among others.

Japan-based SoftBank has a strong presence in India with investments in multiple unicorns and startups in the country. The SoftBank Vision Fund concentrates on Indian startups, with the firm having earlier said they had missed the bus on many Indian startups because of not having an India office.

“Investors like Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital and DST Global spotted these companies at the right time. We were a tourist investor. So opening an office lets us handhold our companies closely. We missed them before they became unicorns, which we did not with Oyo and Policybazaar. We want to put $100 million when these companies are valued at $500 million,” SoftBank executive VP Rajeev Misra had told ET.

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