Shiprocket to raise $185 million in Series E round co-led by Zomato, Temasek

Logistics aggregator Shiprocket is set to raise $185 million in a Series E round co-led by online food delivery firm Zomato and Singapore's sovereign wealth fund Temasek.

The company will use the funding to expand the stack for merchants, focus on faster deliveries through warehousing network, acquisitions besides inorganic expansions, Saahil Goel - Co-Founder and CEO of Shiprocket - told Moneycontrol in an interaction.

The company also plans to globally expand with the launch in the Middle East, he added.

Moneycontrol was the first to report that Shiprocket was in talks to raise $75 million from Zomato in a large round last month.

The move comes at a time when quick commerce expansion is prompting companies to bolster their logistics ambitions.

In India, quick commerce, which is defined as the delivery of items under 45 minutes at a nominal charge, is expected to grow by 10-15 times over the next five years to become a $5 billion market by 2025, consulting firm RedSeer has said.

Zomato tried its hand in the grocery space earlier this year but exited following gaps in order fulfillment, poor customer experience and increasing competition from rivals.

Shiprocket works with courier companies in India and connects merchants, consumers and supply-chain partners across thousands of pin codes in the country and around the world.

Apart from shipping services, Shiprocket also offers a technology stack to assist retailers in integrating their online stores such as Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce and Zoho for workflow, inventory, and order management.

Before this round, the company had raised around $94 million, with the last funding coming in July when it raised $41.3 million. It was a Series-D1 funding led by PayPal Ventures and existing investor Bertelsmann India Investments.

Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal is also an angel investor in the company. He invested in Shiprocket in the July funding round.