Delhivery co-founder and CEO Sahil Barua declared on 18 May 2026 that “there is no reason for XpressBees to exist,” asserting that India’s B2C logistics burn cycle has ended, according to medianama.com.
Barua made the remarks during a post-earnings interaction after Delhivery reported its first full-year consolidated profit of ₹142 crore for FY26. He argued that XpressBees, backed by Alibaba and Investcorp, had survived only on subsidised pricing that is no longer sustainable. Delhivery’s own network, he claimed, now covers 19,000 pin codes with 94% next-day delivery capability, making niche parcel players redundant. The comments follow Delhivery’s ₹550 crore acquisition of Spoton Logistics in January 2026 and the integration of its 2.2 million sq ft warehousing footprint, medianama.com reported.
The statement intensifies consolidation pressure in India’s $22 billion e-commerce logistics market, where Delhivery competes with IPO-bound Ecom Express and Amazon-backed ATS. XpressBees, last valued at $1.2 billion in a 2022 Series F round led by Blackstone, handled 600 million parcels in FY25 but saw its EBITDA margin slip to –8.3%, data from Venture Intelligence show. With investors now prioritising unit economics over growth, smaller-stage parcel firms face either merger talks or shutdown, mirroring the 2024 shuttering of 4Tigo and LetsTransport after funding dried up.
Barua told analysts Delhivery will “evaluate inorganic opportunities” only if they add density at operating-profit parity, setting a 30 June deadline for any new bids. XpressBees has not responded publicly, but two investors told medianama.com that a sale process led by Morgan Stanley could open as early as July if Q1 losses exceed ₹90 crore. Watch for Delhivery’s Q1FY27 results in late July and any SEBI filing from XpressBees for the first market signal on whether the company will fight or fold.