If you’ve ever ordered from any small online store in India — perhaps skincare products or clothes from local stores, or even a small seller from Jaipur — your package was likely delivered through Shiprocket.
What started as a small idea to help merchants sell online has grown into India’s leading logistics technology platform, connecting 250,000+ merchants, 29,000+ pin codes, and 220 countries.
At its heart lies one mission — to democratize e-commerce logistics and make digital selling accessible to every business, no matter how big or small they are or where they are located.
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The Origin: From KartRocket to Shiprocket
Back in 2012, Saahil Goel, Gautam Kapoor, and Vishesh Khurana noticed something missing in India’s emerging e-commerce story.
While big companies like Flipkart and Amazon were thriving, small and medium businesses (SMBs) found it nearly impossible to build, manage, and deliver their own online orders.
So the three people launched KartRocket, a platform that allowed local businesses to create online stores — the Indian answer to Shopify.
But the founders soon realized that the real problem wasn’t building online stores. It was shipping.
Customers wanted faster deliveries. Merchants struggled to find reliable courier partners. Returns and cash-on-delivery (COD) payments were complete nightmares to handle.
Saahil Goel summarized the frustration in simple words:
“In India, e-commerce wasn’t broken because of bad products. It was broken because of bad logistics.”
That insight led to one of the most impactful pivots in India’s startup ecosystem.
The Pivot: Turning Shipping Chaos into Opportunity
In 2017, KartRocket evolved into Shiprocket, a tech-driven logistics platform that made shipping as simple as sending an email.
The idea was bold: build a unified logistics network that connects multiple courier partners, automates delivery choices, and brings data-driven decision-making to small merchants.
Using algorithms and AI, Shiprocket’s system analysed parameters like delivery time, price, and reliability to automatically choose the best courier for each order.
This Courier Recommendation Engine became the company’s secret weapon — making logistics predictable and cost-efficient for merchants who had never had access to such technology before.
Shiprocket uses AI technology to make e-commerce shipping simple for Indian businesses. The platform helps online sellers by connecting them with multiple courier services through one system.
Solving India’s Unique Challenge: Cash on Delivery
India’s e-commerce landscape comes with its own quirks — the biggest being cash-on-delivery. This challenge requires specific solutions tailored to local conditions.
Even as digital payments grew, a majority of online shoppers preferred to pay when they received their package. That created massive operational friction for merchants like delayed cash flow, return frauds, and high RTO (return-to-origin) rates. These issues made business operations very difficult to manage.
Shiprocket built specialized systems for COD reconciliation, fraud detection, and return management, helping merchants recover time and money that would otherwise be lost.
It wasn’t just a logistics fix — it was a trust fix with customers.
By ensuring transparent delivery process, faster settlements, and accurate tracking system, Shiprocket became synonymous with reliability in Indian e-commerce fulfillment.
From Shipping to Enabling Commerce
As the merchant base grew, Shiprocket’s leadership realized something profound — logistics was just the starting point.
Merchants needed assistance before and after shipping too. So the company expanded its platform to cover the entire commerce enablement lifecycle:
- Shiprocket Fulfilment: Offering tech-enabled warehouses for faster, cheaper delivery.
- Shiprocket Checkout: Simplifying the purchase process for D2C brands.
- Shiprocket X: Helping sellers ship internationally to over 220 countries around the world. This service makes international shipping easy for business owners who want to reach customers globally.
- Shiprocket Engage: Offering marketing and post-purchase engagement tools.
This transformation turned Shiprocket from a logistics player into a full-stack e-commerce enablement platform, empowering Indian entrepreneurs to compete with big global brands.
The Data Advantage: Building Smart Logistics
By 2024, Shiprocket wasn’t just delivering parcels — it was delivering insights to businesses.
Each shipment generated valuable data on customer behaviour, delivery performance, and route efficiency. Using AI and machine learning, Shiprocket started offering predictive analytics, enabling merchants to plan their stock properly, improve fulfilment rates, and reduce costs.
At the ET Soonicorns Summit 2025, CEO Saahil Goel captured the company’s evolving ideas. Moreover, he captured how their philosophy was developing over time.
“India has a large amount of data itself, and this can be developed further for better use. The question is — what return are we getting on that data investment as per our analysis regarding the outcomes?”
This focus on data-driven logistics has positioned Shiprocket as India’s first AI-first logistics infrastructure company, one that’s building smarter supply chains, not just faster ones.
Scaling the Business: Growth, Acquisitions, and IPO Plans
Shiprocket’s growth numbers mirror its ambition.
By FY 2024, the company’s revenue crossed ₹1,300 crores, growing over 20% year-on-year. The number of shipments handled surpassed 250 million annually, making Shiprocket one of the largest logistics aggregators in India.
But growth hasn’t come at the expense of vision. The company has made a series of strategic acquisitions in fulfilment, SaaS, and warehousing technology to deepen its service stack.
Every acquisition has been tied to one principle: solving a real merchant pain point.
Now, with its ecosystem fully built and a merchant-first reputation, Shiprocket is preparing for the next frontier — an IPO that could make it one of India’s first tech-driven logistics unicorns to go public with the same unicorn status.
Culture of Innovation: Building Fast, Learning Faster
Behind every successful brand is a culture that sustains it. Every successful brand has a strong culture regarding its growth and support.
At Shiprocket, innovation is not a department — it’s a reflex. The company’s leadership, led by Saahil Goel (CEO) and Gautam Kapoor (COO), has built a workplace driven by agility, ownership, and experimentation.
Team members are encouraged to solve problems autonomously and innovate at speed — whether it’s improving last-mile delivery or developing a new warehouse automation system.
Saahil often compares Shiprocket’s team to a band:
“Everyone plays their part, but the magic happens when they play in sync.” This synchronized effort creates results that are much greater than individual contributions.
This creative yet disciplined culture has enabled Shiprocket to grow without losing its startup spirit.
Beyond Business: Democratizing Digital Commerce
Numbers show one picture, but the real impact tells a different story altogether. Moreover, what we measure and what actually happens can be quite different things.
Shiprocket’s real legacy lies in its role as an equalizer in the market. By giving small merchants the same tools and delivery infrastructure as big brands, it has democratized access to digital commerce to everyone.
From a soap maker in Surat to a D2C skincare brand in Delhi — Shiprocket has become the silent force enabling their reach.
Saahil Goel says:
“We don’t just move parcels,”. “We move dreams, one shipment at a time.”
That human touch has made Shiprocket not just a logistics company, but a movement for small business empowerment.
The Road Ahead: Smarter, Greener, and More Connected
Looking forward, Shiprocket aims to go beyond speed and cost. Its next big focus areas include:
- Offline-to-online (O2O) commerce: Helping traditional retailers join the digital ecosystem.
- Sustainability: Reducing carbon footprints through optimized routes and eco-friendly packaging. Which is the same approach for sustainable operations.
- AI-driven infrastructure: Enhancing automation in warehouses and last-mile delivery.
In doing so, Shiprocket is not just building logistics system — it’s building the infrastructure of the future of Indian commerce.
Conclusion: The Brand That Built the Backbone of Indian E-Commerce
From a small startup called KartRocket to becoming a billion-dollar e-commerce logistics powerhouse, Shiprocket has travelled a remarkable journey. This transformation shows how companies can grow into major industry leaders.
The initiative started with a simple goal to help merchants sell online. It gradualy transformed into a mission aimed to empower every entrepreneur in India to their services with complete confidence.
In the process, Shiprocket didn’t just change how parcels move around; it changed how India’s ambitions move.
Shiprocket is more than a logistics company — it’s the heartbeat of Indian e-commerce.
