CDC Group invests $36 million in Warburg Pincus-backed Ecom Express

The fund will work with Ecom Express to transit a proportion of its distribution fleet to electric vehicles

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CDC Group, the UK's development finance institution, on Tuesday said it has closed a $ 36 million (over Rs 255 crore) in equity investment in Ecom Express.

Warburg Pincus-backed Ecom Express is a tech-enabled Indian logistics company.

"In addition to network expansion and augmentation, CDC's equity injection enables Ecom Express to significantly accelerate job creation from about 32,000 employees to about 47,000 within the next 1-2 years," a statement said.

This will be complemented by a distinct focus on increasing the number of employed women in the workforce, bringing further diversity, it added.

The fund, as part of the initiatives, will work with Ecom Express to transit a proportion of its distribution fleet to electric vehicles and sponsor a road safety programme for its drivers and fleet operators, the statement said.

Srini Nagarajan, Managing Director and Head of Asia, CDC, said the company is "dedicated to responsibly investing our capital in India, with over $ 1.7 billion currently committed to local businesses".

"We have the same amount again to invest over the next few years and look forward to working with many more businesses that are as environmentally and socially conscious as Ecom Express," he added.

TA Krishnan, co-founder and CEO of Ecom Express, said the capital infusion will help the company further expand its delivery footprint in connecting towns and rural centres across the country.

"Besides expanding reach, the company plans to invest in technology, deploy advanced parcel sortation systems, strengthen network reliability and infrastructure, and finally, make development impact with job creation, environmentally responsible initiatives and gender diversity," he added.

Headquartered in Gurugram, Ecom Express was incorporated in 2012 by Krishnan, Manju Dhawan, K Satyanarayana and Sanjeev Saxena. It operates in over 2,400 towns across more than 25,000 PIN-codes in India.