Logistics aggregator Shiprocket has signed definitive agreements for $185 million Series E funding round, led by Zomato Ltd, Temasek and Lightrock India. New investors, Moore Strategic Ventures and 9unicorns, are also participating in this round, along with existing investors, InfoEdge Ventures and March Capital.

Notable angel investors, Brijesh Agrawal (IndiaMART), Peyush Bansal (Lenskart), Sanil Sachar (Huddle Ventures), Varun Alagh (Mamaearth), Sameer Mehta & Aman Gupta (Boat Electronics), and Ashish Gupta (Helion Ventures) also participated in the round.

Shiprocket will deploy the freshly-infused capital towards core product expansion, research and development, talent acquisition, and developing a comprehensive suite of products targeted at retailers to deliver seamless, high-quality, post-order customer experience in line with large e-commerce platforms.

Also read: Evenflow partners with logistics start-up Shiprocket to solve supply chain issues

A part of the funds will also be directed towards new strategic initiatives, including hyperlocal delivery services with low turnaround times (TATs), through extensive courier partnerships and fulfillment networks; global expansion starting from the Middle East; and merger and acquisitions to expand its tech stack.

Conflict of interest

The investment by Zomato, however, raised concerns of a conflict of interest because Deepinder Goyal, founder of the food delivery platform, had earlier invested in Shiprocket in his personal capacity. Mohandas Pai, chairman of Manipal Global Education Services, tweeted, "Is there a conflict of interest if a listed company invests in a start-up where the founder of the listed company had invested? How will this be resolved."

In response, Goyal said there was no conflict of interest as he exited the personal investment of $100,000 at zero profit or loss before Zomato stepped in.

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