Xpressbees raises $40 mn from Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Berhad

Indian logistics player Xpressbees on Friday said that it has raised $40 million from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, Khazanah Nasional Berhad. This investment will be made through a secondary purchase from an early investor in the company, according to a statement by the Xpressbees. Avendus Capital was the exclusive financial advisor for this deal. 
 
This investment will be made through a secondary purchase from its early investor Elevation Capital. According to a report by ET, the venture capital fund, formerly known as SAIF Partners has part sold its shares to Khazanah and the logistics company has facilitated the funding round at a 25-35 per cent premium valuing it at around $1.3-1.4 billion.
 
“This is the second major liquidity event for Elevation from Xpressbees in the last one year... In August last year, they snagged about $25 million by selling part of their holding to Avendus Future Leaders Fund,” a person aware of the matter said. Over the past 12-18 months, Elevation has taken out about $120 million from its Xpressbees investment,” sources told ET.
 
Express is also backed by several other investors including Blackstone Growth, TPG Growth, ChrysCapital, Alibaba Group, Investcorp, Norwest Venture Partners and Gaja Capital.
 
Commenting on this development, Amitava Saha, Founder and CEO Xpressbees said, “We continue on our path to become a dominant end-to-end logistics player and look to leverage any strategic opportunities. Khazanah’s disciplined long-term investment approach makes the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund a perfect partner for us in this journey.”
 
The Pune-based end-to-end logistics company is present across 5,000 cities in India and serves over 20,000 pin codes, delivering about 2 million packages every day.
 
“We believe Xpressbees is well-poised to build one of the largest tech-led businesses as they ride on the massive ecommerce market opportunity,” added Karan Sharma, MD & Co-Head, Digital and Technology Investment Banking, Avendus Capital.
 
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