New Delhi, June 24 -- Nexus Venture Partners, a venture capital firm that invests in early- and growth-stage startups in India and the US, has harvested more money from a company that it first backed more than a decade ago.
The VC firm, which closed its eighth fund at $700 million (around Rs 6,530 crore) last December, has further cut its stake in Mumbai-listed logistics company Delhivery Ltd. It sold 4.3 million shares, held via its third fund, in an open market transaction on Tuesday for nearly Rs 208 crore ($22 million), bringing down its shareholding to about 2.38%.
This is the third partial exit by Nexus from Delhivery in the current quarter. Previously, two Nexus entities sold 4 million shares in mid-April for Rs 186 crore (nearly $20 million). This involved Nexus Ventures III offloading 3.5 million shares and Nexus Opportunity Fund offloading 0.5 million shares.
A week prior to that, Nexus sold 12 million shares in an open market transaction, pocketing Rs 530 crore (nearly $57 million) in the process. This involved a sale of 10.4 million shares via Nexus Ventures III and 1.6 million shares via Nexus Opportunity Fund, according to exchange data.
Previously, in June last year, it had sold 12 million shares-about 10.2 million shares through Nexus Ventures III and 1.7 million through Nexus Opportunity Fund-for nearly Rs 461 crore ($53.8 million). In August 2024, the two Nexus funds sold some stake and pocketed a total of nearly Rs 391.3 crore ($46.6 million). This followed the VC firm's harvest between January and March 2024, when it sold shares worth around Rs 293 crore.
The VC firm stayed put and did not tender shares as part of the offer for sale in the logistics company's initial public offering in May 2022. Previously, it generated its first partial exit from Delhivery in 2019, when it sold some of its stake to Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) for Rs 278 crore ($39.2 million at the time).
Overall, with the latest tranche, Nexus has so far taken out over Rs 2,358 crore or about $274 million based on prevailing exchange rates. Of this, Nexus Ventures III has harvested Rs 2, 111 crore, while the opportunities vehicle has taken out Rs 247 crore, VCCircle estimates show.
The VC firm's remaining stake is currently worth around Rs 863 crore. This means it is on track to take out close to Rs 3,200 crore from Delhivery, or almost 14 times the amount it invested. This also means that Nexus has pulled out more money from Delhivery alone than what it had raised for its entire third fund, which closed in 2012 with a corpus of $270 million (about Rs 1,350-1,400 crore back then). Such investments are termed as 'fund returners' in VC parlance.
Nexus first invested in Delhivery in September 2013 as a part of the startup's Series B round, putting in Rs 29 crore. It came back a year later and committed Rs 59 crore in its Series C round. In 2015, it put in Rs 137 crore via the two investment vehicles, including the opportunity fund, in its Series D round. In 2016, it topped up its bet with an extension round where it put in another Rs 6.6 crore. In total, it invested Rs 231 crore in Delhivery.
Founded in 2011, Delhivery provides a full suite of logistics services including express parcel transportation, freight, cross-border among others. It had attracted several VC and PE investors including SoftBank, Carlyle, CPPIB, Multiples, Alpha Wave, Tiger Global, GIC and Steadview Capital, among others. Some of these have exited the firm that has come to be associated with the ecommerce sector in the country at large.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.