Chinese giant Alibaba to invest in Delhivery and Xpressbees Logistaics: report

In a bid to increase its presence in India, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba plans to invest in Delhivery and Xpressbees Logistics.

Alibaba chief Jack Ma intends to cement its position in payments and logistics and outpace its rivals in India such as Flipkart and Snapdeal

"The Chinese company is also chalking out a plan to get Paytm to spin off its marketplace business and plans to top it up with more capital," ET quoted a source as saying.

Meanwhile, Alibaba told ET that it saw tremendous opportunities in India and was absolutely committed to developing in the market over the long term.

Major players such as Amazon, Alibaba, Flipkart take direct or indirect control of smaller players to ensure that their logistics capabilities evolve ahead of business growth.

Delhivery is estimated to be valued at Rs2,000 crore since its last funding round and Xpressbees' valuation is not known.

"They are putting their strategy in place. Fundamentally, they will buy and start with Paytm's online retail business, because a deal with Flipkart is not happening right now as they feel it is very expensive. They will get a logistics partner to build a network like Amazon, which is very critical," ET quoted a  source as saying about Alibaba's plan.

Alibaba is venturing in India at a strategic time as most of the startups are facing fund crunch.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, meanwhile, said it expects to nearly double its transaction volumes by 2020, signalling it still expects rampant growth as executive chairman Jack Ma pledged to intensify a crackdown on fake goods.

At an investor conference at its headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, Alibaba said it expects to record 6 trillion yuan ($912 billion) in gross merchandise volume (GMV) in fiscal 2020, nearly double 3.09 trillion yuan in fiscal 2016.

Ma said Alibaba expects to have 2 billion consumers on its books by 2036, up from 423 million active buyers in 2016.

Addressing concerns about the company's efforts to remove counterfeit products from its online platforms, Ma said Alibaba will do "anything to stop the fake products". The company has been dogged for years by accusations that its shopping platforms were conduits for counterfeiters.

"I promise you guys that counterfeits, fake products, and intellectual property theft - we are more and more confident than ever that we can solve the problem," Ma said