Alina Kisina began her career as an English and Spanish teacher and stumbled upon logistics almost by accident. On `HL in Moscow, she did not even know how to turn on a computer. Today, she leads Borzo, the on-demand logistics platform, formerly known as WeFast, as its chief executive officer (CEO), responsible for steering the company through a fiercely competitive market.
Borzo operates in five countries and 23 cities across India. It has raised $60 million through several rounds of investment from venture capital (VC) firms, including VNV Global, Mubadala Investment Company and Flashpoint VC. The company has returned half of these funds to investors due to successful exits from regions outside India. Borzo became profitable in India in 2024 and now aims to be self-funded.
On a visit to the country, Forbes India caught up with Kisina at the company’s Mumbai headquarters to discuss the evolution of the last-mile delivery landscape, why India is a critical market, and how supporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) remains at the heart of its growth strategy. Edited excerpts:
Q. How important is India to Borzo’s global growth story?
It is extremely critical. To my surprise, we never paid attention to India until 2023. We had operations in so many countries, and we were trying to manage each one of them, while neglecting India’s potential.
Today, it contributes up to 65 percent of the total gross merchandise value (GMV), and accounts for 78 percent of all deliveries. Out of roughly 375,000 active clients globally, about 90 percent are from India. Our India operating profit margin has been at 10 percent for the last three quarters. Our average quarterly GMV has been around ₹500 million in India. And we have about 40,000 monthly active riders in the country.
Q. So, why the move to focus on the India market?
The opportunity is enormous. India has a large population and a highly fragmented SME ecosystem. If you compare it with other countries, there’s no other place that allows so many SMEs to thrive. In India, homemakers can cook, create something, and sell it, which is incredible. When I came here, I learnt that many of my employees’ wives and mothers are engaged in these small businesses. For Borzo, this represents a huge opportunity.
Q. What makes the Indian logistics market different from others where Borzo operates?
First of all, the model we operate is totally the same. But what’s different here is actually cultural. You have to understand the mindset of riders here; it’s different from other countries.
All riders want to earn, but the way they treat their earnings and the way they approach deliveries is different.
The weather also plays a big role. In summer, taking long distances can be quite difficult—you have to pay extra, and factor that in. During the monsoon, especially in Mumbai, logistics get even more complex.
Another area we pay extra attention to is security and safety, because we have to manage fraud. Unfortunately, it happens more often here than in other countries, which adds to the complexity and challenge.
Q. While the business in India is doing well, why did you decide to pull out from some other countries?
We used to be in more than 10 countries, but we’ve shrunk our coverage. We stopped in some countries because we decided there was no need to develop business there. Currently, we operate in Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, Indonesia and India. We entered the business of last-mile delivery seven to 10 years ago, when it wasn’t as flourishing. Post Covid-19, when we started serving the SME sector, it required a lot of marketing cost. Unlike enterprise clients—such as Blinkit, Amazon, Meesho and the like—where onboarding them brings huge volumes, SMEs need constant marketing, and it has never paid off. Therefore, we decided to concentrate on markets where we have a solid local base.
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Q. Are you looking at any other countries and what about expansion in India?
We will not be expanding into other countries. As for India, we haven’t yet hit the ceiling in our current cities. In 2022-2023, we were experimenting and didn’t capture all the potential we could. Now, we’re focusing on growing the cities we’re in, building brand awareness and strengthening our base. India became profitable in 2024, and we want to be totally self-funded, so we’re focusing on prioritising growth in existing cities.
Q. Which sector drives the largest growth for Borzo in India: SMEs, ecommerce or D2C? And which city is your biggest market?
It’s mostly SMEs, with ad hoc demand. They might send documents or other items. Next comes food and grocery, and then retail. Mumbai is our biggest market. Delhi could have been on the same level, but we lost the share there. In 2022-2023, we focussed on enterprise clients and hyperlocal delivery, but our product couldn’t serve both enterprise and SME segments at the same time.
Q. What kind of challenges do you face in India?
Mostly brand awareness. In India, trust is the key to success—once people and companies know you, they begin to trust you. That’s what we’re working on, along with maintaining quality. I think because our office is in Mumbai, people may be more familiar with us, but we are focussed on improving our services in other cities as well, and that’s the plan for the rest of the year.
Q. There’s lots of chatter about quick commerce and last-mile deliveries in India. How does Borzo plan to maintain its edge over competitors?
First and foremost, through the quality of service. It’s something I personally champion within the company. Two, AI (artificial intelligence) implementation. However, the tricky balance is not losing the human touch that defines us. And third, by expanding the variety of services we offer, for instance, slot deliveries, day deliveries or different types of vehicles.
I won’t deny that the competition is strong, but it’s a good thing because it keeps us motivated and creates positive pressure.
Q. What are your views on AI, and do you view it as a threat or an opportunity?
The first step was opening ChatGPT accounts for everyone in the company. We are developing an AI CEO. For us, AI is an opportunity. We let AI do any non-professional, repetitive task that can be automated. But I don’t believe in going all-in and replacing the human touch. Even companies that have implemented AI at 100 percent are realising people still want human communication and human brains.
Q. How do you think India’s quick commerce ecosystem is evolving compared to other global markets?
Quick commerce is not our focus area, so I won’t elaborate much, although we tried to step in and quickly realised it’s not our DNA. Overall, this sector is evolving rapidly, though it has yet to catch up with global benchmarks. For example, in Russia, the 10-minute delivery is possible because of the presence of dark stores every 500 m; in India, the density is still limited. Another model that will eventually be introduced may be the outlets or pick-up points, again every half a kilometre, where customers can drop off or pick up packages. Globally, this model has scaled well.
Q. What’s working well for last-mile deliveries in India and what needs improvement?
Although the ecosystem has grown rapidly, there are challenges to overcome. Managing and minimising fraud is a major issue. In India, high levels of internal migration mean that riders move frequently between cities and regions, making it harder to maintain verification and tracking. Along with maintaining strong verification, we are focusing on training riders on customer interactions, and since a majority of them come from villages, viewing delivery work as temporary, our challenge is to make them see it as professional work, along with taking pride in it. Even though there are just 0.01 percent cases of fraud, it has the potential to crack the whole system.
Q. What are your plans for incorporating electric vehicles (EV) and broader sustainability practices?
The company has experimented in the past with EVs, but challenges around maintenance, durability of engines and supply chain management have made it difficult for overall adoption. SMEs don’t have the same requirements as large enterprises, making it a less urgent need for our operations. India is a huge market and it is complicated to manage some things with greener alternatives.
First Published: Oct 16, 2025, 10:28
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