Sahil Barua founded Delhivery in May 2011 with Mohit Tandon, Bhavesh Manglani, Suraj Saharan, and Kapil Bharati. The company quickly gained traction and expanded its services to include warehousing, order management, and transportation.
AASHISH KUMAR JHA | May 4, 2023 |
Meet Sahil Barua: Man Who Revolutionized Indian Logistics Industry, Founded a Unicorn Start-Up worth 35000+ Crores
Sahil Barua: Sahil Barua is a name that is synonymous with India’s logistics industry. He is the co-founder and CEO of Delhivery, one of India’s largest supply chain and logistics companies. He started Delhivery in 2011 with the vision of transforming the logistics industry in India. What started as a food delivery service company in the beginning, quickly transformed into a logistics and supply chain giant, riding on the wave of rapid digitization and e-commerce industry expansion. Sahil’s vision to streamline the fragmented logistics sector of India, especially in the Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities has helped the company to reach greater heights.
Delhivery is a logistics and supply chain company. The company provides parcel transportation, warehouse deliveries, and truckload deliveries through various portals such as Delivery Express, Delhivery Fulfilment, Delhivery Freight, and Delhivery Cross-Border. For the first few months after its inception, it was conceived as a hyperlocal express delivery service provider for offline stores, delivering flowers and food locally in the city of Gurugram. The startup was established as SSN Logistics Private Limited, the parent company of Delhivery.
Sahil Barua was born and brought up in India. Sahil obtained his school education from St. Xavier High School. He then earned a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Karnataka. He studied at the NIT Karnataka from the year 2002 to 2006. After that, he went on to pursue a PGDM (Post Graduate Degree in Management) in finance at the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore. He completed his postgraduate degree in 2008. At the IIM Bangalore, he was an all-round Gold Medalist on the institute’s Director’s Merit List.
Sahil started his professional career with internships during his BTech period at NIT Karnataka. In 2005, he went to the University of Maryland in the United States to work as a Research Intern on electronics packaging at the CALCE Labs for four months (May 2005 to August 2005). He also worked for a short period at Stayglad, a fashion company based in Bangalore that provides beauty services everywhere and at any time.
During his education at IIM Bangalore, In 2007, he began working as a Summer Associate at Bain & Company for roughly three months. These internships provided him with significant knowledge and numerous experiences in the corporate world. After finishing his postgraduate studies, he returned to Bain & Company in 2008, this time as a full-time Associate Consultant. In June 2009, he was elevated to Senior Associate Consultant after one year. He then concentrated on sectors such as private equity, telecommunications, and healthcare. After a year, he was elevated again in June 2010 as a Consultant with a defined portfolio and increased duties.
During his job at Bain & Company, Sahil Barua noticed the rapid expansion of online retail and e-commerce companies in India. He noticed that the logistics industry in India was highly fragmented and lacked modern technology and infrastructure. Sahil realized that there was a massive opportunity to create a modern logistics company that could leverage technology to provide efficient and cost-effective supply chain solutions. He was amazed by the size and potential of the logistics industry and decided to focus on this segment. So Sahil Barua founded Delhivery in 2011 with Mohit Tandon, Bhavesh Manglani, Suraj Saharan, and Kapil Bharati. Delhivery was founded in May 2011 as SSN Logistics Private Limited.
The first corporate office was opened in Gurgaon with a team of ten individuals, including four delivery men. Initially, they began connecting with local restaurants and fulfilling orders within half an hour. The model worked quite well, and the firm took off immediately. They quickly began receiving bids from other e-commerce sites, and the company thrived as a result. Within four years of its inception, the company had grown 400% and raised a significant amount of money in various rounds of seed funding. Despite competition from various competitors, Delhivery continues to dominate the sector. Some major milestones in the growth story of Delhivery are listed below:
Delhivery’s unique selling proposition of its ability to leverage technology to provide real-time visibility into the supply chain, enabling e-commerce companies to track their shipments from start to end proved to be a major reason for its success. The company quickly gained traction and expanded its services to include warehousing, order management, and transportation. Delhivery now provides warehousing for Xiaomi Corp. and Lenovo Group Ltd., shipment tracking for Inditex SA’s Zara and Hennes & Mauritz AB, delivery for Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc.-owned Flipkart, and logistics for India’s major automobile, appliance, and consumer goods manufacturers.
The startup is currently based in Gurugram. The startup has over 85 fulfillment centers, 24 automated sort centers, 70 hubs, 7,500+ partner centers, and 3,000+ direct delivery centers, as of 2021. The Delhivery services over 18500 pin codes in India. Delhivery generates almost two-thirds of its revenue by offering third-party logistics and delivery services to e-commerce enterprises. The company is valued at around 4.4 Billion Dollars (more than 35000 crores) as of May 2022.
Sahil Barua’s journey from a mechanical engineer to a logistics trailblazer is an inspiration to many aspiring entrepreneurs. He has demonstrated that with passion, perseverance, and the right team, one can create a successful business that can transform an industry. Delhivery’s success is a testament to Sahil’s vision and leadership and is a shining example of what can be achieved with innovation, technology, and a customer-first approach.
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