Speaking to PTI in an interview, Goel said the IPO will be a significant milestone as it “institutionalizes” the company that has evolved from a shipping partner to an end-to-end e-commerce platform for Indian merchants.According to Goel, it brings discipline and aligns stakeholders for long-term productive returns, but is by no means an end in itself.
“The IPO moment is an interesting milestone. It is obviously a good validation of the discipline and scale we have built, and of the governance,” says Goel, who, in addition to the company’s management, actively leads the company’s product strategy, user experience and growth initiatives.
Goel emphasized that the IPO does not mark the end of the journey, but rather the beginning of a new phase, likening the company to an adolescent ready for the long term. “I think of the company as a child, 13 years old. So this is adolescence, and we still have a long way to grow and mature. I think this is that point in the life of the company,” he said. On the expected timelines for the stock exchange listing, Goel said: “I don’t want to comment, but that will happen next year.”
With its technology stack, Shiprocket integrates shipping, fulfillment, customer communications, marketing tools and commerce infrastructure for MSMEs, D2C brands and social commerce retailers across India. The logistics data platform connects retailers, carriers and consumers at national and foreign locations.
“Shiprocket essentially enables small businesses to go online and grow their business successfully. We provide the right tools, everything from marketing to payments to shipping, so that anyone can easily connect them together and start or scale their business,” Goel said, adding that the company is ready for the next phase, which he believes will bring challenges and opportunities unlike those in the early years.
“E-commerce is growing at a certain percentage, between an estimated 20 and 30 percent. Within that, you see that fast trade, direct trade, the segment in which we operate, is growing faster than traditional trade in the market. So there is already a tailwind because this is a newer emerging form of commerce that we are enabling,” Goel said.
At the same time, factors such as rising urban expenditure and a wave of new buyers from tier 2 and tier 3 cities are driving demand, he noted.
Goel said this versatile capability allows Shiprocket to participate in multiple growth vectors. According to him, Shiprocket will focus on three growth drivers: the ‘marketing stack’ to help its 1.75 lakh sellers optimize order generation on marketing platforms; in expanding omni-channel logistics and fulfillment supported by demand; and strengthening cross-border services, which despite “geopolitics” and “macro changes” remains a “promising area” given India’s export and manufacturing pressures.
“Cross-border services remains a promising area. As manufacturing grows and the drive for exports increases, there will be a lot of plans, a lot of things that the government will do, traders will want to capture higher AOVs (average order value), and there will be more premium products built for us in India, which will have markets abroad.
“So if you look at it over a five to seven year period, I think exports will generally do very well,” he said.
At the same time, Shiprocket continues to seek higher operating leverage and focus on expanding contribution margins across its core businesses, he said.
AI remains a core area for innovation to create scalable, profitable solutions. The company focuses on developing and testing AI-driven solutions to achieve product-market fit, and then scaling them through marketing and incentives, he added.
Shiprocket will consider right-fit acquisitions, but only if it has the potential to deliver stronger returns than building it yourself.
“I think we take a very, very level-headed look at M&A because we know our strategy. We’re not going to change our direction because something has come about and we’re doing it largely because something can help us get higher returns faster,” he said.
Shiprocket’s revenue grew 24 percent year-on-year to Rs 1,632 crore in FY25, with revenue from core businesses (domestic shipping platform and value-added technology offerings) rising over 20 percent to Rs 1,306 crore.
Emerging companies grew 41 percent, driven by greater adoption of cross-border platform, marketing and omnichannel offerings.
The company trimmed losses to Rs 74 crore in FY25 from Rs 595 crore in FY24, saying the current losses were largely due to ESOP expenses of Rs 91 crore. It reported a positive cash EBITDA for FY25 of Rs 7 crore, against a burn of Rs 128 crore in FY24.
“From a profitability perspective, I think we’re well positioned to be able to do this the way we want to. Right now we think we need to optimize where we’re not unreasonably burning cash, but at the same time we’re able to deliver the maximum growth… because this business is still in its infancy,” he said.
He noted that e-commerce penetration in India is only about eight percent and far from saturation.
“It’s being built… We are positive about the ‘unit economy’… but we will invest in people, we will put engineers behind it (technology), and that will come at some cost,” he said.
Simply put, “unit economics” refers to measuring a company’s profitability on a per-unit basis
#Major #Milestone #Marks #Chapter #Growth #Online #QComm #Boom #Shiprocket #CEO #Upcoming #IPO