As per reports, Logistics behemoth Rivigo is raising a round of ₹141.97 crore ($20 million) from existing investors SAIF Partners and Spring Canter Investment Ltd.
The current round seems to be at the same valuation as the previous one. The company was valued at $1.1 billion in September.
Rivigo was founded in 2014 and besides offering delivery services to across sectors also has a freight marketplace. It has been focusing on bringing efficiencies into the trucking sector that traditionally has been a highly unorganized sector in India. It tries to improvise the vehicle time on the road but at the same time tries to reduce individual driver’s on road time.
Company’s revenues are reported at Rs 1028.6 crore for FY 2019 up by 43% over previous year. However, like many other unicorns, the Company continue to report significant losses (Rs 602.3 crore for FY 19)!
My take
Logistics sector has really picked up investors’ interest in the last few years. Besides Rivigo, Delhivery is another unicorn logistics player that has gained significant traction over the last 4-5 years.
Logically, it makes complete sense to bet on logistics if one wants to play on Indian economy’s potential and growth. Rivigo surely seems to be working on addressing an underlying strong need.
However, the segment is highly operationally intensive and becomes more and more challenging with scale. Have personally seen this sector going through lots of ups and down over the last 15 years. The one who ably cracks these challenges takes the cake and builds natural barriers to entry and hence a strong competitive edge.
Whether Rivigo is the one… given it’s current financials… remains to be seen…