Elixia Inc, a SaaS-driven supply chain Tech company, catering all segments of logistics, across geographies
Elixia Tech aspires to revolutionize supply chain logistics by integrating cutting-edge technological innovations. The company offers a diversity of industry-agnostic, advanced technology solutions to bring in optimization and efficiency across supply chain processes. Mr. Mihir Ravani, CEO, Elixia Tech Solutions in a discussion with CXOToday share more insights on the same.
- How is the business for Elixia shaping up after receiving $1M in the pre-Series A round of investment?
The pre-series A round of investment for us has been a cornerstone in the development & launch of new industry-relevant products in the market. We recently launched India’s first end-to-end technology-driven logistics marketplace, Elixia Connect in India to get shippers & vendors on one platform and bridge the communication gap between these two important entities of logistics and supply chain. Looking at the unorganized logistics market in India ( ~70%), we also introduced a lighter version of the Logistics ERP solution for small-scale transporters and fleet owners. Our control tower solution has evolved now into an intelligent delivery orchestration solution that can be implemented now in all logistics segments from Import/export to line-haul and distribution to last-mile deliveries. We recorded a 73% growth in revenue in FY22 from the past year. We are in process of developing & introducing our end-to-end visibility solution for multi-modal logistics by the end of this year. Relying on the strength of our solutions, we foresee 3x year-on-year growth for Elixia.
- How were the previous two years of business managed given that they were a period of the pandemic, which had a significant negative impact on a lot of businesses?
The last 2 years of the global pandemic brought its own ups and downs for the logistics and supply chain industry. At one point in time, the demand for products from FMCG, Pharma & eCommerce industries shot up considerably, whereas, at the other point, the logistics industry faced challenges in transportation & manpower availability. In both of these situations, the industry realized the imminent need to digitalize the processes to gain more visibility and control over the entire supply chain. Our solutions had a competitive advantage here of being industry-agnostic, strong and robust, and yet customizable to meet the customer’s needs. We started getting thrice the number of leads as people were looking for technology solutions that can be readily implemented to manage their supply chains. If we just compare FY 21-22, we gained almost 50% more customers from across FMCG, Pharma & Logistics industries.
- How is the logistics industry faring in the wake of technology’s disruption?
Currently, only 10-15% of the logistics industry is organized, the rest needs to be structured and streamlined across all individual processes of the supply chain. They are three major areas in logistics where technology adoption can do wonders: Documentation, Transportation & Planning. Commercial invoices, bills, loads, fleet details, and order bookings are just some of the important documents that need to be saved for quick access during the entire supply chain. Digitally maintaining this paperwork is the first step toward supply chain transformation. The next phase begins with digitalizing the transportation process for the pickup and delivery of shipments. Telematics along with accurate analysis and information brings in increased visibility over the movement of shipments/vehicles in transit and brings in transparency in the supply chain. Technology then plays a key role in the planning aspect of logistics by automating the processes, collecting the data, and deriving intelligent insights to manage operations like route and load optimization, logistics cost calculation, vendor performance management, etc. In India, the majority of the logistics service providers have adopted the technology stage but they still need more push for implementation in the documentation and planning phase. With the increasing awareness of technological developments in the field of AI, ML, and Blockchain, professionals have now started exploring the solutions and gauging their benefits in the improvement of supply chain efficiency, today.
- By 2030, the need for last-mile deliveries is anticipated to increase globally by 78%, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF). What growth rate do you anticipate for India? Please also inform us about the primary factors influencing this exponential rise in India.
The growth in last-mile deliveries is majorly driven by the growth of e-commerce industries. Even before the pandemic had hit the world, consumers had become increasingly demanding in terms of receiving timely deliveries at their doorstep. Now, this situation has become more of a basic necessity for clients of e-commerce companies. Additionally, they also expect advanced benefits like same-day/next-day delivery, specific delivery time slots along with real-time tracking of orders. According to the consulting firm, RedSeer[3], India’s quick commerce market is expected to grow up to 15 times in the next three years to become a USD $5 billion market by 2025. Thus the complexity of last-mile deliveries is also expected to increase by the same value. Logistics of the future will require increased visibility, seamless communication with multiple stakeholders, real-time updates, and impeccable finance management. We expect this spurt in growth to open avenues for robotic, drone deliveries in India Market. Startups like Dunzo, and Swiggy are already testing the waters for the same. With the help of the adoption of advanced technology, last-mile deliveries across the logistics modes can be successfully digitalized and automated to bring process efficiency & optimization for deliveries.
- If you have any plans to expand geographically into India, do let us know. What proportion of revenue do you hope to achieve by the following fiscal year?
We are headquartered in Mumbai and have a strong presence with 450+ clients & 2 Million plus deliveries across the country. If we consider only the Maharashtra market, we gained 2.2x customers in FY 21-22 with a business growth of 175%. We have already started penetrating the MENA Region with UAE as a base and the US and LATAM region for scalability. So by the end of the year, we will be fully functional across all the specified markets and expect a hockey stick growth across geographies. Elixia foresees a 300% growth in the coming year with India driving in the majority, almost 60% of the revenue share.
