Zomato is an online food platform that is now considering the acquisition of Shiprocket, which is a homegrown logistics solution provider. The acquisition is estimated to be around $2 billion, which is Rs. 16,600 plus crore, according to the sources cited by Bloomberg.
Zomato has made an offer, but there has been no concrete decision made on the particular deal. Shiprocket is backed up by Temasek, Lightrock, Zomato, etc. Last year, in August, it secured around $33.5 million, which elevated the valuation to around $1.2 billion.
In a move made last year, Zomato completed the acquisition of Blinkit. Blinkit is a quick-commerce company. It is about warehousing and auxiliary services. The transaction was valued at around Rs. 4,447 to acquire Blinkit. Whereas the ancillary segment was known to be acquired at Rs. 61 crore in value.
The current status of Shiprocket
This homegrown logistics solution provider is engaged in various discussions with many VC firms to get funding raises of around $75–100 million. However, with the US-based investment firm Tribe Capital, it is an active participant. As per TechCrunch reports, ‘the funding talks are still going on. The terms help bring about change.’ But Tribe Capital, along with Shiprocket, declined to make any comments on the following developments.
About Shiprocket
Shiprocket has its headquarters in Bengaluru. It is planning on preparing for an IPO within the upcoming 12–18 months. It is aiming to allocate around Rs. 100 crore to small and medium-sized businesses in the upcoming year.
The Shiprocket Company was founded in 2017. The company was started by Saahil Goel, Akshay Gulati, Gautam Kapoor, and Vishesh Khurana. It works with around 17 courier partners, like Delhivery, Xpressbees, DTDC, Shadowfax, etc.
The company has raised around $270 billion in funding from PayPal, Bertelsmann, Temasek, etc. It is about offering a technology suite that helps retailers integrate online shopping platforms with various online platforms such as Magento, Zoho, WooCommerce, etc. Also, it offers sophisticated fulfillment solutions. It leverages more than 45 warehouses, which are located all over the country.
Conversely, Zomato has been able to have sustainable share offloading. It is mainly orchestrated by massive investors like SoftBank, Tiger Global Management, etc. This happened in August, and we divested around 1.44% of Zomato. This deal allowed Tiger Global to earn around Rs. 1,123.85 crore via the transaction.
However, there is no concrete statement offered by either Zomato or Shiprocket related to the acquisition. Possibly, in the future, the business world will get to know.