IPO-bound logistics unicorn Shiprocket may double down on acquisitions

MD and CEO says the firm will either acquire or develop in-house any capabilities it currently lacks

Saahil Goel, managing director and chief executive officer, Shiprocket

3 min read Last Updated : Feb 03 2025 | 10:53 PM IST

Temasek and Zomato-backed logistics unicorn Shiprocket is gearing up for an acquisition spree in 2025, even as the company prepares for its listing.

The Gurugram-headquartered company recently converted to a public company ahead of its initial public offering (IPO).

“We have been acquisitive in the past. We have been profitable for this financial year and we will end the year the same way, which means we have the capability to use cash to drive acceleration,” Saahil Goel, managing director and chief executive officer, told Business Standard in an interview.

“If you ask me if we will ramp up this year, the answer is yes,” he added. However, he did not share further details on the targets.

He added that Shiprocket will either acquire or develop in-house any capabilities it currently lacks.

"The four big pillars of our acquisition strategy are business in fulfilment and shipping, finance, payments, and marketing. As long as these exist, we are interested in looking at companies in different segments," Goel said.

Shiprocket acquired six companies, including Rocketbox, Pickrr, Wigzo Tech, Glaucus Logistics, Rocket, and Omuni in 2022 alone, according to data from Tracxn, a market intelligence platform.

"If we identify a sub-capability that we don't have, we will explore opportunities to either acquire it or build it internally. That’s the guiding framework of our strategy," Goel explained.

Speaking on the company’s past acquisitions, Goel said: “All our acquisitions were made to expand our tech-stack and to solve merchant pain points across different levels of transactions. We made significant investments in expanding our fulfilment services, international shipping, and techstack to establish ourselves as the first “SaaS for SMB” platform in India. Shiprocket's core business remains profitable with acquired businesses playing an important role.”

Citing the example of Shiprocket’s acquisition of e-commerce SaaS platform Pickrr, Goel said that the integration of the latter's domestic shipping has further solidified their core business performance. Before the acquisition, Pickrr was a direct competition of the firm.

When asked if the company plans to raise funds for acquisitions, Goel said there are no plans so far. Shiprocket recently raised $27 million in an extension of its Series E round in December 2024 and January 2025. The round witnessed participation from KDT Ventures, MUFG Bank, Tribe Capital, and SAI Global, and other individual investors, according to the company.

Goel added that the company's top priorities in 2025 will be adopting artificial intelligence to save time and optimising workflow, growing the current base of merchants, aggressive expansion of cross-border business, and bringing more offline merchants into the company’s fold.

“I think there is a very bright future for exports and we want to be at the centre stage of that. We don't look at businesses as what they will contribute to the total. It will continue to grow as a share of the business because we believe that this is an industry which is only two years old from a digitization lens. No work has gone into it,” he said.