GreenDust owner eyes Rs 600 crore for expansion

NEW DELHI & MUMBAI: Refurbished goods retailer Reverse Logistics Corp is seeking a new round of funding as it looks to expand sales in other emerging markets.

The Gurgaon-based company, which owns and operates online portal GreenDust.com, is in talks with both financial and strategic investors for a funding round that could go up to $100 million (Rs 600 crore) according to two people with knowledge of the negotiations.

“The deal will close in the next three months,” said one person privy to the developments.

The company’s existing investors, including Vertex Venture Holdings–the venture capital arm of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek–and Lightbox Ventures, will not exit the company in this proposed investment round, which is expected to range between $50 million (Rs 300 crore) and $100 million (Rs 600 crore), said the person.

So far, Reverse Logistics has raised about Rs 180 crore of venture funding. In a recent transaction, Lightbox acquired the stake held by Silicon Valley investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as well as Sherpalo Ventures in the six-year-old company.

Lightbox Ventures partner and GreenDust board member Sandeep Murthy confirmed the company is in talks for fresh funding but declined to share further details.

“This is a parallel universe of refurbished products as compared to the traditional world of e-commerce of Amazon and Flipkart, this model is scaling and profitable in India, “he said.

The latest round of funding could also be a prelude to the company listing itself on the public exchanges by the next fiscal, according to the sources.

GreenDust founder Hitendra Chaturvedi did not reply to email queries on the ongoing developments.

The company's decision to tap overseas markets is led by the size and scope of the market for refurbished electronic goods, estimated to be worth $350 billion (Rs 21 lakh crore) in the US, compared to $12 billion (Rs 72,000 crore) in India.

GreenDust has already executed pilots in Africa and West Asia with other target markets including Central Asia and South-east Asia.

The company counts a number of the country’s largest consumer electronics companies and e-commerce majors among its clientèle, including, Samsung, Amazon.com, LG and Philips, to source defective or returned products.

A graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology in Roorkee, Chaturvedi quit a senior executive role at Microsoft to set up Reverse Logistics in 2008 with seed capital of Rs 40 lakh.

The company refurbishes damaged or defective electronic products that are sold on both the online portal and through a network of offline stores. The company is expected to earn revenue of Rs 1,200 crore in fiscal 2015.