Gujarat-based venture fund, GVFL Ltd has invested Rs 40 crore in Mumbai based integrated cold chain operator Schedulers Logistics India Pvt Ltd. Schedulers operates a fleet of reefer vehicles and temperature controlled warehouses across India. The transaction marks the second round of growth financing for GVFL’s first exposure in the logistics sector.
Schedulers were founded in 2012 by industry veterans Akshay Sharma and Colonel Arvind Gangoly. In 2014, Schedulers raised Series A capital from Aspada Investment Company. The startup is planning to grow its current fleet of 200 vehicles to over 500 in next two years. It also plans to reach to 18 cold storage locations with 35,000 MT capacities by year 2020.
“The funding will help Schedulers to get on an exponential growth curve by getting aggressive in capacity additions and furthering pan India presence including Gujarat by augmenting reefer fleet as well as cold storage capacity” said Arvind Gangoly, Co-Founder & CEO, Schedulers.
Sanjay Randhar, MD, GVFL remarked, “The demand-supply gap is working in favour of the cold chain sector. There is a huge opportunity to build-up capacity and cater to the burgeoning demand which will have positive social implications too”. Schedulers started with a fleet of 33 refer vehicles, now operates 200 reefer trucks and manages 13,000 MT of temperature controlled warehousing space.
It is estimated that the cold chain industry, currently worth Rs 195-200 billion, is going to increase at a five-year CAGR of 16-17% to Rs 400-450 billion in 2019-20, driven by proliferation of organized retail, pharma, horticulture, rising demand for processed foods and quick-service restaurants.
As per National Centre for Cold-chain Development, there is a requirement of 62,000 reefer vehicles as compared to the existing capacity of 9,000 vehicles. The growth in temperature controlled warehouses is expected to be propelled by 15-17% five-year CAGR. Support from government policies and schemes in the form of capital subsidy, grant of infrastructure status to the industry and viability gap funding is expected to boost this industry’s growth.
Source: The Economic Times
