Category Archives: Supply Chain

Xpressbees raises $300mn in Series F funding led by Blackstone, TPG & ChrysCapital

Xpressbees, a third-party end-to-end logistics service provider, has raised $300 million in a Series F funding round. Led by private equity funds Blackstone Growth, TPG Growth and ChrysCapital, existing investors, Investcorp and Norwest Venture Partners, also participated in the Series F round. With this round, the total amount of funds raised by Xpressbees exceeds $500 million. Avendus Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Xpressbees on this transaction. “We are excited to welcome our new partners Blackstone Growth, TPG Growth, and ChrysCapital in our growth journey. With their vast network and operational expertise, we believe that they will further fuel our efforts in pursuing newer opportunities and will help expand our footprint.” said, Amitava Saha, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Xpressbees. Xpressbees will to use the capital to fulfil its vision to evolve into a full-service logistics organization, support the business in its next phase of growth, product development, and hiring talent. The brand has progressively built best-in-class technology platforms, an extensive network reach, a seamless last mile management system, and has experienced a near 100% growth in revenue on a year-to-year basis.

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Safexpress launches an ultra-modern logistics park in Hyderabad

Safexpress, India’s largest supply chain & logistics company, has launched its ultra-modern Logistics Park in Hyderabad, Telangana. This state-of-the-art facility is strategically located on Nagpur Hyderabad NH – 44. On this occasion, senior dignitaries from Safexpress were present to launch the Safexpress Logistics Park at Hyderabad, Telangana. The facility is spread over a land area of 3 Lakh square feet, enabled with ultra-modern transshipment and 3PL facilities, which will boost storage & warehousing needs of this region while providing for faster connectivity. The new Logistics Park is cross-dock, equipped with loading and unloading of over 50 vehicles simultaneously. It has a column-less span of over 80 feet, which facilitates uninterrupted movement of goods within the facility. To enable all-weather loading & unloading of goods, the facility is equipped with 16 feet wide Cantilever Shed. The facility is equipped with an integrated rainwater harvesting system, has a dedicated green zone and will be using sunlight during the daytime to conserve energy. Operations at the Logistics facility is highly streamlined, which ensures the country’s fastest transit-time from Telangana to all destinations across India. The physical infrastructure will be backed by a robust IT infrastructure and a very efficient warehouse management system.

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PM Gati Shakti Master Plan to be implemented from April ’22

The implementation framework for PM GatiShakti national master plan is taking its final shape at a faster pace and after April 1 this year, every infrastructure project is expected to route through the network planning group (NPG) constituted under this initiative, a top government official said. The PM GatiShakti plan was announced last year with an aim to break departmental silos and bring in more holistic and integrated planning and execution of projects with a view to address the issues of multi-modal and last-mile connectivities. This will help in bringing down the logistics cost, Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Anurag Jain said. “Things are in readiness. the empowered Group of Secretaries (EGOS) and NPG are constituted and the TSU (Technical Support Unit) is more or less in place. So the structure is there,” he said. The secretary added that the department has conducted one round of training with the departments of the government of India and hold regional conferences across the states, barring the North-East, where it would happen soon. “So we are on track. We have asked states to put in their layers (on the PM GatiShakti national master plan portal). So we are targeting to get all the layers (like land records) of the states also on the portal by March 31…What we intend to do is that after April 1, 2022, every project which is more than ₹ 500 crore and is an infrastructure project will be routed through this (NPG),” Jain said.

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Govt. proposes new SEZ legislation to ehance exports

Presenting the Budget in Parliament, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, “The Special Economic Zones Act will be replaced with a new legislation that will enable the states to become partners in ‘Development of Enterprise and Service Hubs’. This will cover all large existing and new industrial enclaves to optimally utilise available infrastructure and enhance competitiveness of exports.” “Alongside, we will also undertake reforms in Customs Administration of SEZs and it shall henceforth be fully IT driven and function on the Customs National Portal with a focus on higher facilitation and with only risk-based checks. This will ease doing business by SEZ units considerably. This reform shall be implemented by 30th September 2022,” the minister said during the speech. IT industry body NASSCOM said in a tweet, “SEZs have tremendously contributed to India’s exports & created additional employment opportunities. We look forward to the new legislation on SEZ Act as this will lead to holistic development of enterprises and enhance competitive exports.”

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Blume Global incorporates LiveSource to enhance supply chain visibility

Blume Global, a leading provider of true end-to-end supply chain visibility technology solutions, has experienced exponential growth in India in less than two years. Blume India will also be making a continued investment in the region as part of Blume’s acquisition of LiveSource, a leading multi-enterprise supply chain business network for complex manufacturers. With LiveSource, Blume now provides complete, end-to-end supply chain visibility, extending the standard definition of visibility beyond the transportation of goods. Blume is the only worldwide supply chain technology provider that can support customers with real-time visibility from sourcing and procurement all the way through order delivery. “Blume India is proud to serve our customers with the only neutral, single-source visibility solution that covers the entire supply chain, giving our users unique and unrivaled transparency and insight at a time when congestion and capacity constraints are still common,” said Sudhir Unnikrishnan, senior vice president and managing director of India at Blume Global. “Though we were presented with the challenges of navigating through the pandemic, our ultimate successes were testament to the hard work and resiliency of Blume Global India, and we look forward to the bright spots ahead of us as we continue growing.”

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Govt. proposes for new logistics park in Kochi

A new Logistics center is proposed in Kochi. To be completed by June this year, the proposed project was discussed by industry minister P Rajeeve in Thiruvananthapuram with a private group. The meeting was held as part of the ‘Meet the Investor’ initiative, a series of meetings between the industry minister and investors to promote new ventures in the state. The course was introduced last year. A decision to accelerate the process of establishing the park for which a private corporation has already acquired the property had been made in the meeting, the minister informed while emphasizing that the group will disclose the exact location as the project is in the initial stages of construction. The upcoming park can be expected to extend its area in the second phase of the project, as per the minister. To be completed in a six-month time frame, the park will be looking into the possibility of a single-window clearing system, provide employment for at least 2,000 people, and will likely attract an investment of Rs 500 crore in the initial phase. The park’s alliance with several well-known brands would have a huge effect on the industry and economy. The park is projected to feature more companies.

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Snowman Logistics reports increase in revenue and EBITDA in Dec. 2021

During the quarter ended December 31, 2021, Snowman Logistics Ltd recorded a Revenue of INR 73.40 Crores against INR 60.18 Crores in Q3 FY20-21. EBITDA increased by 11% to INR 19.40 Crores from INR 17.45 Crores in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. PBT decreased to INR. 1.05 Crores from INR. 1.42 Crores in the corresponding quarter of the previous year and PAT decreased to INR 0.83 Crore in the current quarter from INR 1.42 Crores in the same period in the previous year. Speaking about the quarter performance, Sunil Nair, CEO, Snowman Logistics Ltd said, “Our new tech platform, SnowLink, for aggregation of transportation capacity in cold chain space has started delivering numbers, and in addition we have been able to retain business and garner additional volumes during the recent COVID wave by supporting our customers with solutions to manage their supply chain. In addition, we have received increased demand from our Pharma and e-commerce customers.” Prem Kishan Dass Gupta, Chairman, Snowman Logistics Ltd commented, “Our new e-commerce dedicated SnowServe facilities have become operational in Mumbai and Pune. The construction of our new facilities, under SnowPreserve, at Siliguri and Coimbatore were unfortunately delayed by about six months due to lack of labour as well as delays in supply of building materials because of COVID related restrictions. However, both facilities are now ready, and are expected to be fully utilised in the next financial year. Going ahead we are focusing on expanding towards dedicated warehouses for catering to specialised cargo that required temperature control apart from growing in our regular SnowPreserve vertical for handling multi temperature cargo.”

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FarEye recognised for Vehicle Routing & Scheduling & Last Mile Technologies

FarEye, a global SaaS platform transforming last-mile logistics, has been recognised as a Representative Vendor in Gartner ® Market Guide for Vehicle Routing and Scheduling and Last-Mile Technologies, 2021. This is the fourth consecutive mention for FarEye in the reputed Market Guide, published on 13 December 2021. Per Gartner, “The market for vehicle routing and scheduling and last-mile applications continues to grow as organizations are seeking ways to optimize fleet operations. The evolution of applications due to new business needs has made vendors expand their capabilities in certain areas or even specialize their products in a specific area like last-mile operations”. FarEye has been recognized as a Representative Vendor in the report. “At FarEye, we are dedicatedly working to make deliveries better for everyone. Our aim is to redefine the last-mile home-delivery landscape, making it customer-centric and efficient. We feel honoured to receive the fourth consecutive recognition in the Gartner Market Guide for Vehicle Routing & Scheduling and Last-mile technologies. With constant innovation we empower our clients to handle the growing volume of shipments, ensuring timely deliveries, optimum utilization of fleet and delivering superior experiences.” said Kushal Nahata, CEO & Co-founder, FarEye.

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Indian EV Startup EVage raises $28mn from RedBlue Capital

Indian startup EVage has raised $28 million from a US-based venture capital firm RedBlue Capital. The startup which develops electric delivery vans for e-commerce and logistics companies including Amazon is the first startup to create an electric van in India from the ground up. The Indian EV market has been on a shooting stage, Amazon aims to have 10,000 electric vehicles for deliveries by 2025 while Walmart’s Flipkart aims to have 25,000 EVs by 2030. “The electric vehicle market in India will boom with this shift in the movement of goods, and electrifying this segment will be a big opportunity. Compared with the West, India, and markets like Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America have unique demands in terms of the price and capacity of the vehicle, road conditions and weather.” said Olaf Sakkers, General Partner, RedBlue Capital. Sakkers also added that one can see EVage as more of Rivian and Arrival for developing markets.

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Jeena & Co. to expand its 3PL warehousing facilities in 2022

Jeena & Co., is geared towards enhancing its 3PL and warehousing offerings in 2022, with the focus on building efficient supply chains. Leveraging their legacy positioning and the access to 7 key warehouses across metros like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangaluru, Chennai and Kolkata, Jeena & Co. aim to expand their 3PL service offerings to a plethora of sectors, including healthcare, FMCG, E-commerce, and Automobile manufacturing, among others. The pandemic threw a series of challenges at the logistic and supply chain sectors, forcing the rapid, tech enabled transformation that has led to smarter, more efficient supply chains. Speaking about the vision for their 3PL offerings and the need for modern warehousing, Mr Hector Patel, Board Member, Jeena & Co. said, “Since the advent of the global pandemic, a lot has changed across sectors, including the way logistics and supply chains function. Our new strategy towards 3PL is designed to align with the dynamic need of businesses across the world, starting with our current clients. We are looking forward to enhancing our ability to meet the long term growth plans, and evolving customer needs, while striving to promote greater transparency and seamless operations across the supply chain networks, by leveraging both technology innovations and our deep domain expertise that stems from over 120 years of experience in the business.”

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