Shipwaves Online Limited IPO Analysis

Shipwaves is hitting the public markets with an IPO of ₹56.35 crore, and it’s not your usual logistics story — this is a freight-forwarder trying to reinvent itself as a tech-first, asset-light logistics platform.

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Before the Deep Dive: What’s Working — and What Isn’t

Now that you’ve seen the snapshot, let’s unpack the full story behind these numbers and understand the business in context.

India’s Logistics Upgrade: Where Freight Meets the Future

India’s logistics space is finally getting its long-overdue glow-up. What used to be a messy, road-heavy system is now a US$435 billion market on track to hit US$591 billion by FY27, thanks to rising trade and a serious push toward digitisation. Government initiatives, e-way bills, dedicated freight corridors, and those massive multimodal parks are basically changing the way of how goods move across the country.

On the tech side, the momentum’s even stronger. India’s SaaS scene is racing toward a US$50 billion market by 2030, with AI and cloud tools becoming the new default for supply-chain teams that want real visibility instead of spreadsheets and guesswork.

What this really means is India is shifting from old-school, fragmented freight operations to smarter, connected logistics. And honestly, companies playing at the intersection of freight + software are stepping into one of the best tailwinds the sector has seen in years.

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Shipwaves started in 2015 with a pretty simple frustration: global shipping was still running on calls, emails, and chaos. So the founders decided to build a single digital platform that could cut through all that noise and make ocean, air, and road freight work like one smooth system. 

What began as a small freight-forwarding company quickly evolved into a tech-driven logistics player — one that doesn’t own any ships or trucks, but books space, manages documents, tracks cargo, and coordinates the entire shipment journey for businesses. Over time, it layered software on top of this, offering real-time tracking, automated paperwork, rate management, and eventually full-scale SaaS tools that companies use to plan and monitor shipments end-to-end.

As the business grew, Shipwaves expanded into the Middle East, added multimodal capabilities, and built a product stack that tries to give businesses what traditional logistics never managed — speed, transparency, and control. Today, it’s positioning itself less as a freight forwarder and more as a digital logistics ecosystem built for scale.

Key Services Offered by the Firm

1. Freight Forwarding

• Ocean FCL: Full-container shipping for businesses that need dedicated space, faster transit, and tighter security.

• Ocean LCL: Shared container space for smaller shipments, cutting costs while keeping global reach.

• NVOCC: Shipwaves issues its own bills of lading and manages cargo flow using partner vessels, giving clients more flexibility.

• Air Cargo: For time-critical shipments, offering faster global delivery with real-time visibility.

• Road Transport: Domestic and cross-border trucking for both full-truckload and partial loads.
  
  

2. Digital Platform 

• Quick Quotes: Instant price discovery without back-and-forth emails.

• Online Booking: End-to-end digital booking—no paperwork, no manual chasing.

• Digital Documentation: Automated, compliant documentation for customs and ports.

• Bank Regularization: Manages payment workflows tied to freight, reducing financial mismatches.

• User Dashboard: A single window to track shipments, documents, statuses, and costs in real time.
  
  

3. Enterprise SaaS Solutions 

• Order Management: Controls the full shipment lifecycle from booking to final delivery.

• Rate Procurement: Pulls carrier rates across modes so companies can choose the best option for each shipment.

• Shipment Planner: Helps businesses schedule and optimise routes, loads, and timelines.

• Real-Time Visibility: Live tracking across ocean, air, and road with automated alerts.

• Data Analytics: Performance dashboards to spot inefficiencies, reduce costs, and improve decision-making.
  
  

4. Value-Added Logistics Services 

• Trade Finance: Supports clients with credit and payment solutions for international trade.

• Insurance: Cargo protection against loss, damage, and transit risks.

• Warehousing: Storage and inventory management before distribution.

• Customs Clearance: Handles compliance, documentation, and port processes to avoid delays.

• Relocation Services: Movement of goods, equipment, or entire setups with end-to-end coordination.

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Revenue Segmentation by Segment 

• Freight forwarding still dominates the business, but its share is falling from 99% to 70%, showing the company is finally diversifying away from pure cargo movement.

• Ocean shipments remain the backbone, though their contribution is steadily shrinking as the mix broadens.

• Road and air revenues swing around year to year, hinting at volume volatility and customer-specific dependence.

• The real story here is SaaS which is growing from a near zero to almost 30% in H1 FY26, signalling a serious pivot toward higher-margin, recurring tech revenue.
  
  

Revenue Segmentation by Geography 

State-wise, Shipwaves is still heavily concentrated in the South and West—Karnataka alone brings in ~36%, with Maharashtra at ~16%, while every other state contributes in low single digits. The domestic mix hasn’t fully diversified yet.

Country-wise, India remains the anchor at ~56%, but the UAE has become a strong second market at ~23%, and the U.S. surprisingly jumped to ~17% in Sept-25, showing the company’s reach is finally going global. Smaller markets like Chile, Oman, and Saudi add early signals of wider expansion.

Subsidiary Snapshot: Shipwaves Online LLC (UAE)

Shipwaves operates its international arm through Shipwaves Online LLC, a Dubai-based digital freight forwarder that mirrors the core logistics business but doesn’t build or sell SaaS products. 

Shipwaves’ Dubai subsidiary looks strategic on paper, but the financials tell a more uneven story. Revenue has been swinging hard, going from ₹5,187.89 lakh in FY23 down to ₹3,892.07 lakh in FY24, then up again in FY25, and now collapsing to ₹1,319.49 lakh in H1 FY26, a 69% drop year-on-year. Profitability looks better, but even there, PAT fell sharply from ₹805.35 lakh in FY25 to just ₹172.22 lakh in the latest period.

The margin profile also isn’t stable. EBITDA margins jumped from 2.5% in FY23 to 20.8% in FY25, but have already cooled to 17.08%. This volatility suggests the business is sensitive to demand cycles and pricing, and not yet running on a predictable model. 

So while the UAE subsidiary expands Shipwaves’ global footprint, the financials show a choppy, inconsistent business that still needs stabilisation before it can be called a real growth engine.

Management & Promoters 

Most of Shipwaves’ promoters come from the family’s fishmeal and marine products ecosystem, not logistics — Mukka Proteins, Ocean Proteins, Haris Marine Products and similar entities remain their primary operational playground. That’s where their decades of experience lie, and honestly, maybe that’s still where most of their mindshare goes.

The only promoter with meaningful logistics exposure is Bibi Hajira, who holds 5.23% pre-IPO and 3.50% post-IPO stake, which is a noticeably small economic stake for the person with the closest domain fit.

Meanwhile, Kalandan Mohammed Haris, the flagship promoter with 31.58% pre-IPO holding, has been conferred the role of Trade Commissioner – UAE by the Asian Arab Chambers of Commerce—signaling strong global networks, especially in Middle Eastern trade corridors. 

In short, Shipwaves is trying to scale but the one promoter who does understand logistics holds the least power at the table.

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• Revenue swings are high: from +40% in FY24 to –62% in H1 FY26. That’s not “normal seasonality”; that’s volatility that comes from a cyclical freight business.
  
  

• Profit growth is just as jumpy: PAT went from ₹224 lakh in FY23 to ₹584 lakh, then doubled again, and then dropped nearly 59% in the latest half-year. When profits move this wildly, forecasting becomes a guessing game.
  
  

• Margins have improved consistently, which is a positive, as the EBITDA margin expanded from 6% to 19% as SaaS revenue grew and operating leverage kicked in.
  
  

• But despite better margins, return ratios crashed in H1 FY26 (RONW 41.9% → 14.5%, ROCE 25.8% → 10.2%).
  
  

• Debt has been rising every single year, doubling from FY23 to H1 FY26. Leverage stays elevated at 1.3x D/E, leaving limited headroom if growth stumbles again.
  
  

Peer Analysis 

Shipwaves clearly stands out on profitability — its 17.5% EBITDA and 10% PAT margin are far ahead of peers, who mostly operate in the 2–5% range. But that strength is offset by scale: Shipwaves is tiny compared to Tiger and Lancer, which naturally makes its topline more volatile and margins more better.

The CCC of 69 days is also on the slower side, nearly double Timescan’s and worse than Lancer’s, meaning Shipwaves locks up cash longer. Add to that a D/E of 1.33, the highest in the group, and you see why working-capital strain keeps showing up in the financials.

RONW looks exceptional at 41.89%, but it’s inflated by one strong year and already slowing.

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• Repay / prepay certain borrowings

• Fund working capital needs

• Invest in technology and platform upgrades

• General corporate purposes

Final Words 

Through the LMVT Lens

Leadership: The promoters bring experience, but mostly from fish and marine businesses. Only one has real logistics depth and her stake shrinks post-IPO — leaving execution concentrated in a team still learning the sector.

Moat: The tech layer lifts margins, but forwarding is easy to replicate. High customer concentration and volatile volumes keep the moat thin.

Valuation: With peers spread across 6–18x and Shipwaves’ own numbers swinging sharply, the valuation rests on whether the company can steady revenue and manage leverage.

Tailwinds: India’s logistics digitisation, trade growth, and multimodal expansion support the story, though long cash cycles and rising debt remain real drags.

Bottom line: A promising, higher-margin model — but still a small, volatile, and leverage-heavy player that needs to prove stability before it earns a premium.

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