After Paytm, TicketNew, Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba’s next big bet in India’s ecommerce companies is logistics startup Xpressbees. The startup has received fresh funding from Alibaba. The amount invested is Rs 227 crore and in return, Busibees Logistics Solutions, the company that owns Xpressbees, has allotted 70563 series D shares to Alibaba.

These details have been obtained from the papers filed by the company with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

Xpressbees, as a logistics firm, specializes in handling the entire gamut of services for the online retail sector. These include last-mile delivery, reverse logistics, payment collection, drop shipping, vendor management, cross-border services, fulfillment services and tailored software solutions.

From Alibaba’s perspective, this investment in Xpressbees has created a triangular hold on the ecommerce space in India with the Chinese company having already taken strong positions in the digital payments sector (Paytm), online retailing (Paytm Mall) and now in logistics (Xpressbees). Besides these ventures, Alibaba has also made an investment in online grocery startup BigBasket.

It is estimated that Alibaba has so far invested over $1.7 billion in Indian ventures.   

Xpressbess’ existing investors include SAIF Partners, IDG Ventures, Paytm, Vertex Ventures and Pratithi Trust (owned by Kris Gopalakrishnan). Together, these VCs have an exposure of Rs 360 crore in Xpressbees.

It is reported that this investment by Alibaba in Xpressbees has materialized after protracted negotiations and Alibaba has been scouting for suitable investment options in Indian logistics ventures for over a year. This investment by the Chinese company is also seen as synergistic from the expectation that Alibaba will eventually enter the Indian online retail vertical and mount a challenge to the current leaders Amazon and Flipkart and having a hold on an entrenched logistics firm specialized in the sphere will be a big boost.