Snapdeal invests $20 million in Gojavas
Online retailer Snapdeal put in $20 million (almost Rs 130 crore) in Gurgaon-based Gojavas. This is Snapdeal's second round of investment in this logistics start-up. Snapdeal described Gojivas as its" best performing last mile logistics partners". Snapdeal's investment comes in the wake of it trying to enhance its delivery timelines and has invested almost $100 million in the last 6 months.
Gojavas was founded in 2013 as the logistics arm of e-tailer Jabong, to provide "reliable, time-bound logistics and supply-chain" solutions to its business associates. Gojavas was started by Vijay Ghadge with a team of 20 people. The company became a separate entity in late 2013; however, Jabong still accounted for as many as half of its 1 lakh shipments per day.
Gojavas caters to around 30,000 consumers in 85 cities everyday.
Gojavas, the logistics company, clinched Flipkart and Snapdeal as its newest clients. According to sources, Gojavas started delivering for Flipkart 3 months and Snapdeal 1 month ago. Prior to this, Gojavas was serving online fashion retailer Jabong (former parent) exclusively. Sources also revealed that presently, 30-40% of the company's business was coming from outside of Jabong.
Gojavas started a 'try-before-you-buy' programme in the e-retail business. Under this scheme, the customers are allowed to try out their product before "accepting or returning it" and the delivery boys wait till they do that. However, this service came with a 30-40% premium price and hence the response had been mixed. Lenskart was the first to make use of this with Gojavas.
A similar version of the try-before-you-buy service called Go Open was adopted by Jabong and DonebyNone, which allowed buyers to "open the packets before making payments".
Gojavas has been allegedly in talks with private equity investors in order to raise approximately $40 million (almost Rs.250 crore) in return for a minority stake. The company also claimed to be looking to expand its geographical foothold to 200-250 cities in the coming months. Moreover, with clients like Fabfurnish, Yepme and Lenskart, the company hopes "to post revenue of Rs.80 crore- Rs.200 crore."
Gojavas rolled out its pilot program that would allow "local delivery services for businesses" such as supermarkets, drug stores, and grocers, enabling customers to give back goods ordered online. The new program was termed as 'local commerce' by Gojavas and was doled out in 15 cities to begin with and employed as many as 1500 people.
Snapdeal, the online marketplace obtained a 20% stake for Rs.120 crore in Gojavas. Gojavas was valued at close to Rs.600 crore post the deal. This deal is expected to help Snapdeal rope in a long-term comrade for last-mile delivery. Snapdeal also divulged plans to invest another $150-200 million but ruled out any buyout in the future.
