The Aureos India Fund and ePlanet Ventures have invested USD16m in Continental Warehousing, an Indian container logistics and warehouse management services company and part of the NDR G
The Aureos India Fund and ePlanet Ventures have invested USD16m in Continental Warehousing, an Indian container logistics and warehouse management services company and part of the NDR Group.
The Aureos India Fund, an initiative of Aureos Capital, a private equity fund management company specialising in investing in small to mid-sized businesses in emerging markets, has invested USD10m in Continental Warehousing. ePlanet Ventures, a global venture capital and private equity firm headquartered in Silicon Valley, has invested USD6m.
Continental Warehousing commenced its operations in 2005 and in the last year reported consolidated revenues of USD31.5m. The company manages container freight stations across India in Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, Chennai, Tuticorin and Indore, with a total annual capacity of 170,000 20-foot equivalent units, or standard containers.
In addition, Continental Warehousing also offers warehouse management solutions to retailers, telecom service providers and consumer durables industries through its wholly owned subsidiary Kaveri Warehousing Private. The company also provides 3PL services to many fertilizer and cement companies.
Continental Warehousing intends to use this investment to increase the number of container freight stations it operates and to extend its warehouse management solutions business to offer a ‘port to store’ service, including extensive transportation and cargo services.
Balaji Srinivas, Aureos managing partner for India, says: ‘The rapid growth of the organised Indian retail sector means that there is now a growing demand for logistics services that can get goods from port to the shelves quickly and securely.’
Asad Jamal of ePlanet Ventures says: ‘We are very excited to invest in Continental Warehousing as we believe in the company’s growth prospects. The investment further widened the breadth of ePlanet Venture’s substantial experience in the technology and the traditional sector, and we intend to leverage on our global expertise to help Continental Warehousing grow significantly’.
As part of the investment, Balaji Srinivas of Aureos and Chandrasekar Kandasamy of ePlanet will join Continental Warehousing’s board of directors.
