A businesses’ blood flow is directly controlled by its consumers via revenue. Rapid delivery is a must-do for every store nowadays, but the early 2010s of India hadn’t yet adopted that method. With a population surpassing a billion, it was high time India witnessed lightning-speed delivery.

Although not fully adapted, the idea of e-commerce was expanding the gates of India, with global investors showing keen interest. Five management consultants Sahil, Mohit, Bhavesh, Suraj, and Kapil seized the increasing potential of online consumerism and transformed it into a delivery powerhouse.

Through Delhivery all Indian clients have access to warehousing, transportation, orders, and all the freedom an owner needs to focus on expanding their business. It was pronounced one of the first supply chain services, and logistics providers in India. Want to know how these 5 inventors managed to turn a flower delivery service into an e-commerce chain supplying a billion homes?

Early Start

Sahil Barua was born in Mirzapur, India in the early 1980s. Growing up, Sahil was surrounded by family members. This taught him to express emotions and feelings very easily, which made him a favorite of the family. Despite being very talkative, Sahil could draw into his world.

As a boy, Sahil Barua excelled in grades. His true devotion to creating his own business was fueled even more when he got his first-ever computer. This was when Sahil decided that he would devote his life to studying computer sciences, specifically engineering. In 2002, Sahil enrolled in the National Institute of Technology in Karnataka to study mechanical engineering.

A little earlier than that, a like-minded boy was born in Delhi, India named Mohit Tandom. Everyone in the family regarded Mohit as a fascinating child, filled with ideas and suggestions. Besides being charismatic, Mohit had big dreams for himself and his family. An entire family living in poverty in one of the greatest countries in the world was hard on Mohit, so he vowed that he will one day compensate for the lost times.

Like Sahil, Mohit experienced love at first sight with his computer. He fell in love with the world’s progress and wanted his entire country to feel it. In a similar fashion like Sahil, Mohit decided to devote his life to Technology, by enrolling at the Institute of Technology in Kanpur.

Skill Building

Bhavesh Manglani was born in Gurgaon, India in the late 1980s. He excelled in school, especially in chemistry and mathematics. Even though Bhaves was practically forced to enjoy math, he very much wanted to communicate with other people. That made him an awesome team member of almost any group.

Bhavesh did not recognize the potential of technology at first, but when he did he was instantly hooked. His keen interests were automation and technology, but later he developed more fascination with leadership and engineering. With this as his guide, Bhaves enrolled into the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta.

Suraj Saharan on the other hand was born not long after in Bombay, India. He grew up living the farm life, and working from a very young age on the fields. His childhood was filled with animals and people alike, who taught him true values. He grew up watching his family work for little on their farm and sell everything, so they can continue their livelihood. This paradox drove Suraj into dedication towards improving India’s supply chain.

Suraj wanted to grow out of the farm and into the real world. He would often hear things about the web and the possibilities of technology which is why he decided to focus on mechanical engineering. Later on in 2001, he continued his education at the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay.

Kapil Bharti was born in Southeast Delhi, India in the late 1980s. Growing up, like most of the specialized co-founders here, Kapil showed key interests in technology and logistics. He was fascinated with the rapid growth of India’s online consumerism and also decided to focus his career on technology. Not long after finishing high school, Kapil too joined the academic club by enrolling into the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi.

Crossing Paths

All of the co-founders have had the same education albeit in different institutes across the country, but their paths were bound to cross at one point. Sahil and Mohit were the first to meet - while working for Bain and Company. Prior to that, Sahil had enriched his resume with a post-graduate diploma in management from the Institute of Bangalore. Mohit on the other hand enjoyed a spot as a consultant in Bain and Company but did not regard the position as a long term one.

After leaving the Indian Institute of Management with a degree, Bhavesh scored jobs as a product manager in Idea Cellular. Working in telecommunications and engineering, meant he could connect his talents for communication and smarts of technology into everyday conversations at work. Suraj soon joined the likes of his other co-founder pals when he walked out with an IT degree from the Institute of Technology in Bombay in 2005.

After leaving the Indian Institute of Delhi with a BA in Mechanics, Kapil did not rest easy, Every move he made after then was very well calculated and predicted. From 2000 to 2010, Kapil became a technological manager at Sapient, a co-founder of 11 Rupees, a technical lead in livemint.com, and a co-founder once more with Confity.com.

The Birth of Delhivery

In late 2010, India was just witnessing its first wave of online retailing and e-commerce. The online commerce segment had a huge growth potential, especially in retail and online shopping.

Seeing the potential that this segment had, Sahil and Mohit established SSN Logistics Limited - a company that would provide express delivery for online stores.

Sahil and Mohit went into this venture without any trust or loyalty from the citizens. India hadn’t experienced online delivery before, and it was a true moment where the founders overcame obstacles, by staying devoted and inspired.

Joined in by the multi-talented Mohit, Kapil and Bhavesh who worked in the same field, renamed SSL Logistics into Delhivery in August 2011. Soon Delhivery was delivering flowers and food to every local store in Gurgaon. This brought about a pivotal moment for the founders, when they signed their first online client, Urban Touch. Because their first major client required logistics equipment, and was bringing a lot of income, Delhivery decided to focus their services solely on delivering logistic equipment.

Once the full team of tech specialists was formed, the five founders launched Delhivery in 2011. More specifically, Kapil Bharti as the CTO, Sahil as the CEO.

Bright Opportunities

The founders chose the name Delhivery to pay homage to Kapil’s native Delhi. The company offered logistic services to e-commerce clients for the first time in India.

It was their mission to provide a safe, flexible, and reliable supply chain operation. Delhivery offers supply chain solutions for e-tailers, online enterprises, and e-commerce marketplaces at low prices.

A few years later, Delhivery got its first sign of recognition when it raised $85M in a Series D funding round from Tiger Global Management. This meant that the company was getting the recognition it deserved throughout the country. A huge milestone was hit not too long after when Delhivery raised a whopping $6.6B from Carlyle Group in series A funding.

In the year 2019, Delhivery reached king status of businesses, when it got 3 different funding rounds throughout the year. The first was from Softvision Bank with $415M, the second and third from Canada Pension Plan with $150M and $115M respectively.

In December of 2020, Delhivery achieved even more successes. It seemed that the pandemic had increased the popularity of online shopping and Delhivery was at its height. During the year, Delhivery gathered a few more other investors including FedEx, Steadview Capital, and Fidelity. In august of 2021, Delhivery made its very first investment by purchasing Spoton Logistics and expanding its capabilities. The company’s last funding round was in September 2021 when it raised 5.6B in a series I funding from Addition.

Overall, Delhivery enjoyed great popularity and recognition, because it was the first time India was experiencing a smooth supply chain delivery. In October 2021, the company transformed itself into a public company, a couple of months before announcing its IPOs. After its initial public offering, the company is expected to raise close to $1B before the end of the next year. The IPO is scheduled between December 2021 and March 2022.

Delhivery, Today

Delhivery, today has more than 66000+ employees who work tirelessly on providing impeccable delivery. The headquarters are still in Gurgaon, India with offices expected to expand across the world. Over the years Delhivery has garnered 15 investors, with the most notable being Addition, SoftBank Vision Fund, and FedEx.

In total, since its launch, Delhivery has made $1.4B in funding rounds. The company itself made 5 investments during its lifetime, with the most recent being with Qikpod. Its market valuation ranks up closely to $3 billion. Until now, Delhivery has made billions of deliveries across the country.

How five gentlemen went from living on farms to being the number one supplier in India is astonishing to say the least. With immense trust in the domestic market, Delhivery became India’s first representative of global supply chain delivery! Thanks to the appropriately named Delhivery, Indian citizens enjoy products delivered promptly and safely to their door.