Walmart-owned Flipkart has been making an array of investments in multiple ventures and initiatives.
In order to gain traction in the market against rival Amazon, Flipkart has made yet another investment in a logistics start-up, Shadowfax.
The company led a US $ 60 million round of financing for Shadowfax in an attempt to enable faster 2-hour delivery using a hyperlocal network and launch newer on-demand categories.
The e-tailer is expected to have infused US $ 35-US $37 million in Shadowfax, sources said.
Eight Roads Ventures, the venture capital arm of Fidelity, NGP Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, Mirae Asset-Naver Fund and World Bank-backed International Finance Corporation (IFC) also participated in the Series D round.
“This capability enables us to do on-demand categories from delivering smartphones, fashion to grocery in less than 120 minutes… It also opens up the potential to build newer categories like dairy, meat, fruits, vegetables and pharmacy using Shadowfax’s technology, as well as Kirana (corner store) network,” said a top executive at Flipkart.
Earlier, Flipkart had invested in two more start-ups in the logistics space-trucking platform BlackBuck and locker provider QikPod.
This investment is a move by Flipkart to gain access to technology and additional fleet to boost strategic initiatives like hyper-local grocery and pharma delivery while building capabilities for other on-demand logistics use cases in top cities.
Shadowfax runs a technology platform that connects delivery partners to e-commerce portals as well as small and medium businesses.
“We have seen strong synergies with Shadowfax through our existing engagement with them, and their investments in tech-enabled innovations will help us significantly reduce delivery time and provide superior customer experiences across product categories,” said Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO, Flipkart Group.
Shadowfax last raised Rs. 138 crore at a valuation of Rs. 573 crore, led by NGP Capital, IFC, Mirae Asset and Qualcomm Ventures.
