Business Desk :
Indian logistics firm Ecom Express Ltd will invest Tk100 crore in a Bangladeshi home delivery platform Paperfly.
Ecom Express will buy major shares of Paperly and work to deliver e-commerce services to remote areas of Bangladesh, said a press release.
Paperfly now provides services to 4,456 unions through its more than 100 service points across the country. The investment agreement was signed between the two companies in Dhaka on Tuesday. The Indian company will expand its business by adding new investment equity to the existing networks of the Bangladeshi company.
Ecom Express delivers goods to 1 million people daily through 2,900 service points in 2,650 cities under more than 20 states in India. This is the first overseas investment of the company.
Speaking on the investment and partnership, Shahriar Hasan, Founder & CEO of Paperfly, said the Bangladesh’s logistics industry must evolve in many folds to keep up with the modern purchase behaviour from an increasingly digitised society.
“The partnership with Ecom Express will enhance our credibility and we look forward to consolidating Bangladesh’s logistics landscape further and for the better.” In Bangladesh, the number of investments in local e-commerce companies from their foreign counterparts has increased.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is in talks with HungryNaki to buy the local food delivery firm, industry officials said.
The talks are still at the primary stage.
It would be the third investment in Bangladesh by Alibaba after acquiring Daraz and buying 20% share of bKash Limited in 2018 by Alipay, Chinese mobile payment giant owned by Alibaba Group.
