Shadowfax CEO on navigating the gig work efficiency puzzle ahead of IPO
Shadowfax is betting on its unique unified app that lets riders toggle between delivery formats to maximise hourly earnings. As the company's Rs 1,907 crore IPO opens today, its logistics play is built on the back of India's largest crowdsourced last-mile delivery fleet.
Abhishek Bansal, Co-founder and CEO Shadowfax, isn’t too worried about the central government’s recent directive to ecommerce companies to stop 10-minute delivery promise.
In fact, he believes that rather than stifling growth, these regulations will legitimise the gig worker sector, raise benefits and expand the talent pool. The logistics provider says it allows delivery partner to operate across multiple delivery formats, from ecommerce delivery agents to food delivery or quick commerce riders, all inside one app, making it unique in India’s logistics ecosystem.
Now, Shadowfax is set to test the capital markets’ appetite for this model. The Bengaluru-based company, which offers logistics support to a host of consumer marketplaces—from food delivery to beauty and general goods—is set to open its Rs 1,907 crore IPO today.
The conversation around the gig economy has intensified in recent months, following the implementation of the Code on Social Security and a series of state-specific legislations. These regulations aim to formalise the sector by introducing a social security welfare fund, financed through a 1-2% levy on aggregator turnover, and mandating greater transparency in algorithmic management and "minimum pay floor" standards.
"We have been very, very supportive of the government in the recent changes. We are quite welcoming those sort of changes now as well. We have already made provisions in our P&L. We don't expect any meaningful numbers from a margin standpoint,” Bansal tells YourStory.
In terms of average monthly transacting riders, Shadowfax had the largest crowdsourced last-mile delivery fleet among 3PL ecommerce players in FY2025 and first half of FY26. It saw as much as 2.05 lakh average unique transacting delivery partners in the first six months of the current financial year, according to the company's latest IPO documents.
The startup primarily offers pan-India express parcel delivery services as well as city-level hyperlocal delivery operations. Its clients include Meesho, Zepto, Swiggy, Licious, and Flipkart, among others.
Gig workers form the backbone of these companies’ operations, especially those that provide the last five to ten kilometres or as it is called in industry parlance, last-mile delivery.
According to Bansal, Shadowfax’s platform helps gig workers better manage their time and earnings.
"People optimise for their earnings per hour. Now they can potentially do ecommerce orders in the morning hours and food delivery in the evening hours to optimise their earnings per hour. This is the unique value proposition of our app, which nobody else actually in the country has been able to do," said Bansal in a conversation with YourStory .
The integration has worked in the platform's favour in areas beyond gig work convenience. From a logistics point of view, not all deliveries are the same as express parcel volumes are generally scheduled and predictable while hyperlocal demand fluctuates sharply by the hour. By running both on a single platform, Shadowfax allows riders to stabilise their earnings and reduce idle time. This, in turn, limits employee churn and lowers recruitment costs for the company.
Beyond hyperlocal, about 40% of Shadowfax's business comes from express parcels, where it has focused on premium services like open box delivery (especially for electronics) and reverse logistics (prominent in lifestyle). Bansal described these value-added services as one of their "biggest moats," citing a consistent 46-48% market share in reverse logistics.
"It's not a capital game or an infrastructure game. It's a lot of technology game," Bansal stated, emphasisng that such deep integration with marketplaces creates a barrier to entry for other players, that is difficult to solve solely with capital.
Shadowfax’s IPO comprises a total offer size of Rs 1,907.2 crore, including a fresh issue of shares worth Rs 1,000 crore and an offer-for-sale of Rs 907.3 crore being offloaded by investors. The company has set a price band of Rs 118–124 per equity share, with the book-building process expected to close on Thursday, January 22.
Ahead of the issue opening, the company finalised its anchor book, allotting 6.90 crore equity shares to 39 anchor investors at the upper price band of Rs 124 per equity share. The round saw participation from marquee global investors such as Government Pension Fund Global, Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) PTE, and BoFA Securities Europe SA.
Domestic institutions also participated heavily, with mutual funds like ICICI Prudential MF, Nippon India MF, Motilal Oswal MF, and Edelweiss MF securing significant stakes. In total, 53.24% of the anchor book was allotted to nine domestic mutual funds across 20 schemes.
Shadowfax was founded in 2015 by IIT-Delhi Alumni Abhishek Bansal, Vaibhav Khandelwal, Praharsh Chandra, and Gaurav Jaithliya.
Edited by Affirunisa Kankudti