(PRWEB) June 29, 2006 -- Direct Logistics India Pvt Ltd, a global Freight Forwarding & Logistics company has announced that it has received Rs 10 Crores as first round of funding from SIDBI Venture Capital Limited, the venture capital arm of Small Industries Development Bank of India.
“ We have signed a substantial number of new contracts and expect our business to grow at over 100% year-on-year. ”
Speaking on the investment, Captain Sunil Devrani, Managing Director, Direct logistics India Pvt Ltd said, “It is a matter of great pride for us that SIDBI Venture Capital Ltd (SVCL) has invested a sum of Rs 10 Crores in our company. This is a rare feat and makes Direct Logistics the second Indian freight forwarding company in recent history to receive venture capital funding in India. This investment will help us to attain our objective of achieving leadership position by innovative logistics, distribution and procurement solutions. We plan to apportion the investment amount in expanding our existing operations in Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Taiwan. We also plan to foray into unventured territories like expansion in Central Asia- Afghanistan, Kazakhstan & Uzbekistan. SVCL has been a very active investor in the SME sector in India and the firm brings a wealth of knowledge through its investments in various
companies in India. Their national network and extensive contacts will help Direct Logistics to continue its growth in an emerging market.”
Captain Sunil averred, “Direct Logistics is one of the few Indian freight forwarding companies which is looking beyond India and has already set up offices in few Far East locations. We have aggressive plans for surging economies like China where we already have a foothold and over 60% of our investments will go to Mainland China and Hong Kong. We will have over 150 employees in China with over 6 offices covering whole eastern & southern coast of China.”
“As part of our future roadmap for India, we plan to ramp up our presence to 15 offices spread across all major sea ports, airports and dry ports. With this, we would integrate the freight forwarding services with Warehousing & Distribution in India. We have signed a substantial number of new contracts and expect our
business to grow at over 100% year-on-year. We are also expanding multi-fold in our talent and plan to increase our headcount from 150 to 250 in India and 25 to175 overseas,” Captain Sunil added.
Speaking about the reasons for investing in Direct Logistics, Ajay Kumar Kapur, CEO, SIDBI Venture Capital Limited, said, “We firmly believe in the growth of the freight forwarding and logistics sector in India and are eager to invest behind strong management teams and emerging corporates in this sector. Direct Logistics’ management team is one of the strong players in the sector and has showed a high growth and momentum since inception. Direct Logistics has been growing over 100 % for last three years. With such a steady growth we are sure that Direct Logistics will become one of major players in Logistics and Freight Industry not only in India but also in the other Asian markets. We are keen to work with the management of Direct logistics to catapult the company as a leader in global logistics solutions.”
Direct Logistics began operations in India in 1997 with focus on freight forwarding in ocean and air transport. In the last few years, the company has grown into an organization that offers Freight management, logistics and supply chain offerings worldwide. The
shipping and logistics market in India at roughly 6 % value of International Trade will be over Rs. 64000 crores. Out of this 50% of cargo will be by ocean containers and airfreight mode. This presents a huge opportunity for all logistics and freight forwarding companies. Asia leads the growth in manufacturing, which will have a major impact on growth of logistics and freight forwarding companies which operate with a focus on Intra Asia trade.
Kalozal Consultants Bangalore was the sole advisors to Direct Logistics for this investment.
About Direct logistics:
Direct Logistics is an international freight forwarding, logistics and mutimodal transportation company providing international transportation solutions to companies engaged in global trade. The company has own offices in China, Singapore, Hong Kong and India with associates spread across 80 countries and 150 locations worldwide. As a global freight forwarding company Direct Logistics is engaged in all aspects of shipping and international transportation. For more information please visit: www.direct-logistics.com.
About SIDBI Venture Capital Limited
SIDBI Venture Capital Limited (SVCL) is a wholly owned subsidiary of SIDBI, incorporated in July 1999 to act as an umbrella organisation to oversee the Venture Capital operation of SIDBI. It is currently managing two venture capital funds sponsored by SIDBI - Rs.500 crore SME Growth Fund (SGF) and Rs.100 crore National Venture Fund for Software & IT Industry (NFSIT). The investment in Direct Logistics is out of the SME Growth Fund, a Small & Medium Enterprises (SME) focused fund to cater to growth sectors including life sciences, retailing, light engineering, food processing, information technology, construction, infrastructure related to services such as health care, logistics and distributions etc. The fund’s corpus has been committed by various leading banks, such as SBI, PNB, BoB, OBC etc., in addition to SIDBI. The fund is investing in SME companies which have proven technologies/ business models and have potential for achieving high growth in the aforesaid sectors. For coverage under the SME Growth Fund, the project should have sustainable competitive advantage and should have potential to generate long term capital appreciation.
