Saahil Goel, MD and CEO of Shiprocket, began exploring coding while still in high school. He even built his first website and managed to monetise it. The passion for tech continued during further studies in the US. His friend from undergrad days, Gautam Kapoor, now the COO and co-founder of Shiprocket, and he were constantly brainstorming startup ideas through those years.
Finally, the idea of Shiprocket crystallsed when a family friend wanted a “Shopify of India” to set up a shoe brand online. Kapoor and Goel realised no one was doing it in a simple, connected way. That was the moment. Six months later, Goel moved back to India, and launched Shiprocket with Kapoor in 2012.
“The idea had actually started germinating around 2011–2012, as I observed the rise of e-commerce in India and abroad. Many small businesses struggled with access to affordable technology, shipping, and payments,” Goel said. Initially, the co-founders launched KartRocket in 2012 to help merchants build an online presence, and later experimented with Kraftly, a C2C marketplace. The real eureka moment came when they realised shipping and fulfilment were the biggest bottlenecks. Solving that pain point led to Shiprocket.
Within 6-9 months since the launch of their first startup, they met Vishesh Khurana, an e-commerce consultant, who started sending them clients and later joined them as a cofounder. Four years later, in 2016, Akshay Ghulati joined with a reference from Series B investor Bertelsmann to lead consumer initiatives like Kraftly. Together, the team had complementary skills that allowed them to scale from KartRocket and Kraftly into Shiprocket.
As part of their research before launching their startups, the founders studied courier and shipping options, payments, SEO, paid ads, merchant awareness, and the future of e-commerce. This was before Amazon launched in India, and Flipkart was still small. “Honestly, we didn’t overthink; we just had a few customer calls and then jumped in with conviction,” Goel said. They also observed small and medium businesses, artisans, and homepreneurs to see where they struggled online. Their first practical step was testing tools through KartRocket, giving merchants a way to spin up stores with shipping, payments, and operational support built in, even in small-town India. “Even today, we continuously roll out new features and logistics solutions to empower MSMEs in a digital-first world,” Goel said.
The founders’ first office was a 300 sq ft space, which was actually Goel’s father’s shop in Jasola Mall in Delhi. Rent was subsidised by Goel’s father at Rs 5,000 a month. Luckily, early customers like Da Milano, Globalite Sport, and Tiekart trusted the team to manage their online stores and fulfil orders. “That was incredibly validating,” Goel said.
Goel and Kapoor’s families came from SME backgrounds, Goel’s in steel manufacturing, Kapoor’s in precision automobile. But, when the co-founders wanted to enter the business world, the families thought they were taking a huge risk. “My wife was expecting at that time. Both of us had quit our jobs in the US and moved back. It was a big leap of faith. But, my wife backed me, and till today, she’s the reason I can do what I do,” Goel said.
“Today, when a small shop owner from Shimla comes up to my father, saying they are fulfilling orders and sending products through Shiprocket, not just across India but abroad, he feels proud. For me, moments like this are the real wins,” Goel said.
Looking back, Goel believes many milestones helped them keep going. One such milestone was their first investor meeting in 2013. They met Pearl Uppal, ex-CEO of Fashionandyou and pitched KartRocket. Three hours later, instead of
just a client, they walked out with an investment from her fund, 5ideas. “Total serendipity,” he said. Today, the firm is backed by investors such as Temasek, Zomato, March Capital, Bertelsmann, Lightrock India, among others and has raised around `26 crore ($260 million) so far.
Other key milestones are scaling over 100,000 profitable small businesses, powering Rs 25,000 crore in GMV and reaching more than 100 million Indian online shoppers. “We are proud to have built a large commerce operating system that connects over 250 partners across shipping, payments, warehousing, carts, and marketing. It lets small merchants sell like the big marketplaces while keeping full control of their brand, customer relationships, and profits.”
The logistics and supply chain unicorn posted Rs 1,316 crore revenue in FY24. Its emerging verticals including Checkout, Cargo, Cross Border and Quick are witnessing robust year-on-year growth, Goel said. These businesses collectively strengthen their full-stack platform, extending from frictionless checkout and intelligent fulfilment to cross-border enablement.
But this success was not devoid of mistakes in the early days. One of the biggest early mistakes, according to Goel, was trying to do everything on day one. “Entrepreneurs dream big, but reality requires focus. Better to serve one segment deeply than half-serve everyone.” Their turning point came when they put all their energy into solving shipping.
Today, as the firm heads towards an IPO, Goel and his co-founders aim to create one million profitable businesses in India by making e-commerce seamless, scalable, accessible, and reliable.