The Two-Unicorn Playbook: How Amitava Saha Built FirstCry & Spun-Off the Logistics Giant, Xpressbees
Meet Amitava Saha, the founder of two unicorns: FirstCry & Xpressbees. Discover how an internal crisis at one startup led to the birth of a second.
“We have said that we want to be efficient first, and then we scale. A lot of businesses think of scale first and efficiency later. We come from the other side of the table.”
This single quote captures the counter-intuitive and powerful philosophy of Amitava Saha, the co-founder of two of India’s most iconic unicorns, FirstCry and Xpressbees. In a startup ecosystem often defined by a “growth at all costs” mantra, Amitava built his empire on a foundation of operational excellence, capital efficiency, and a relentless focus on solving real-world problems. His journey from a young graduate needing a bank loan for his MBA to the helm of a multi-billion-dollar logistics giant is a masterclass in pragmatic and sustainable entrepreneurship.
This dossier breaks down the journey of the man and his ventures, incorporating exclusive insights from his candid conversation on the Founder Thesis podcast.
Check out the video of the conversation here or read on for insights.
🎓 The Formative Years: Forging Discipline in the Crucible of Responsibility
Amitava Saha’s story doesn't begin in a garage, but with the values of hard work instilled by his government-employee father and homemaker mother. His academic path was formidable: a Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering from the prestigious IIT (BHU), Varanasi, followed by a PGDM from IIM Lucknow.
But his time at IIM was marked by a pivotal challenge. As he shared on the podcast, his father retired during his final year, placing the financial burden of his education squarely on his own shoulders.
“I had to get into a job... When I quit my job to do my MBA, I pretty much took a bank loan, because my father was also not working... My intention was very clear. I had to go back to a job.”
This experience of managing his own finances with loans and scholarships moved fiscal discipline from a theoretical concept to a real-world necessity. While his peers dreamt of dot-com glory, Amitava’s priority was a stable job to support his family. This early lesson in prudent financial stewardship became the foundational principle in his approach to building businesses.
💼 The Corporate Ascent: A Deliberate Path to the Business of Tech
Amitava’s corporate career was a calculated journey. He started at Tata Steel but harbored an "unwavering desire to be part of the technology sector," believing firmly that the future belonged to tech, even though he couldn’t write a single line of code.
This ambition led him to roles at NIIT Technologies and Aricent, where he cut his teeth selling complex telecom R&D products in the hyper-competitive markets of Japan and Korea. He recalls the challenge and his success in cracking major accounts that had been pursued for years.
“I cracked into accounts, which they have been trying to crack into for years. Like Samsung, you know, they have been trying to get into Samsung for last seven, eight years... I got them into Samsung.”
His most significant pre-entrepreneurial role was at the e-learning company
Brainvisa, where he rose to Sr. Vice President. It was here that he first partnered with Supam Maheshwari, with whom he would go on to co-found two unicorns. At Brainvisa, he was instrumental in scaling the company’s revenue more than tenfold, helping to transform it into a global leader in its space before it was successfully sold.
👶 Building the First Unicorn: The FirstCry Story
After exiting Brainvisa, Amitava and Supam were ready for their next venture. The idea for FirstCry in 2010 was born from a problem they experienced firsthand as fathers: the sheer lack of variety in quality baby care products in India.
“For both of us, for our daughters, we brought in a humongous amount of stuff from overseas... We realized that, no. This is one one area, and and and, we knew, obviously, India was a country which produced the maximum number of babies.”
They launched FirstCry out of a rented bungalow in Pune, with an obsessive focus on one thing:
assortment. They created their own small photo studio to ensure high-quality product listings and stocked inventory from day one, refusing to adopt the dropshipping model popular at the time. This commitment to customer experience paid off, and FirstCry quickly became the go-to platform for parents across India.
🐝 The Genesis of a Logistics Giant: How Xpressbees Was Born From FirstCry
As FirstCry scaled, it hit a massive roadblock: logistics. The existing delivery infrastructure in India was simply not built for the unique demands of e-commerce, especially for their customer base of young mothers who required reliable and timely service.
“We understood that logistics wasn't just a back-end function—it was a core component of customer satisfaction.”
This was the epiphany. Instead of waiting for the market to catch up, they took matters into their own hands. In 2012, they built an in-house logistics division, initially called FirstCry Express. Amitava set a strict mandate for himself: run this entire operation with
zero CapEx and ensure the cost per delivery was the same as what they paid third-party providers. This forced extreme innovation and efficiency from the very beginning. The model was so successful that other e-commerce founders, who were also FirstCry customers, began asking if Xpressbees could handle their deliveries too.
“They had a firsthand experience of what we called ourselves in FirstCry Express... They approached me and said, you know, would you mind doing it for us as well? We really like the service.”
This external validation was the final proof point: the powerful engine they had built to solve their own problem was a valuable asset that could serve the entire Indian e-commerce ecosystem. In 2015, they made the strategic move to spin off the logistics arm into an independent company:
Xpressbees.
🚀 Explosive Growth & The Path to a Second Unicorn
The growth of Xpressbees since its spin-off has been staggering. From an initial base of around fifty thousand daily shipments, the operation rapidly expanded into a massive enterprise handling millions of packages every day across a sprawling network covering the vast majority of India's PIN codes.
This impressive operational scale attracted a slate of blue-chip investors. The journey began with early backing from venture capital firms like Elevation Capital and Chiratae Ventures. As the company proved its model, global giants like Alibaba Group, Blackstone, TPG Growth, and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan joined its cap table in subsequent funding rounds. This consistent flow of capital from respected investors fueled its expansion and technological development, cementing its place as a market leader and pushing its valuation well past the coveted $1 billion "unicorn" mark.
🛠️ The Xpressbees Business Model: A Full-Stack Architecture
Xpressbees has evolved into a comprehensive, tech-first logistics platform built on four key pillars:
B2C Express: The core last-mile delivery service for e-commerce companies.
B2B Express: Express cargo and transportation solutions for business-to-business clients.
Third-Party Logistics (3PL): End-to-end supply chain solutions, including warehousing, inventory management, and order fulfillment.
Cross-Border Logistics: Managing international shipments to and from India, bridging the global commerce gap.
Underpinning this entire model is a proprietary technology stack built from the ground up to solve unique Indian challenges, including an
Address Fix Engine to handle unstructured addresses and fully automated sorting machines designed in-house.
💡 The Pragmatic Technologist: A Leadership Philosophy
At the heart of Amitava’s leadership is a compelling duality. His team describes him as "a person who never forgets his numbers," but also as "a good friend or a human being." He is a firm believer in technology, but with a crucial caveat.
“I always believe that you know your basic value proposition has to be... technology has to work towards enhancing the basic value proposition. You cannot put the card before the horse.”
For Amitava Saha, every technological innovation is judged against its ability to improve one of two metrics:
cost and quality of service. This clear, pragmatic, and disciplined approach has allowed him to build two enduring, market-leading companies that are set to power the next phase of India’s growth.
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