India's ecommerce boom has transformed logistics from a backend function into a business differentiator. As D2C brands and MSMEs expand beyond their home markets, supply chains now influence everything from customer experience and inventory management to working capital and international growth.
Speaking with Shubhangi Mishra, Senior Creative Lead at YourStory, Dibyanshu Tripathi, Co-founder and CEO of Hexalog, reflects on how this shift has reshaped logistics over the past decade. He also explains why better coordination across the supply chain, not just faster movement of goods, is helping smaller businesses compete globally.
Tripathi entered the logistics industry in 2017, when India's ecommerce ecosystem processed nearly five million orders. Over the next seven years, that number grew fourfold. As businesses began serving customers across geographies, logistics evolved from an operational function into a key part of how brands scale and serve customers.
Today, through Hexalog, Tripathi is helping D2C brands and MSMEs navigate cross-border commerce with enterprise-grade logistics orchestration, allowing businesses to focus on building products while the company manages the operational complexity behind global trade.
From a Google Sheet to global supply chains
Hexalog's founders spotted an opportunity as ecommerce matured. Manufacturing hubs were emerging in places not traditionally associated with production, while Indian sellers increasingly sourced products from countries such as China, Vietnam, and Thailand before selling them on online marketplaces. The founders believed the next step was to help Indian businesses take their own products to global markets.
The founding team, Dibyanshu Tripathi, Co-founder and CEO; Utkarsh Tripathi, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer; Vineet Malik, Co-founder and Chief Customs Officer; and Shobhit Singh, Co-founder and Chief Product & Technology Officer, brought together expertise across customs compliance, international operations, product development, and sales.
Rather than building technology first, they chose to understand customer operations.
"We were cooped up in a room, and we were whiteboarding it, and we realized that do we build a product first, or do we start operating first? So technically our first product was a Google Sheet. We would actually orchestrate this entire end-to-end journey on a Google Sheet," Tripathi says.
Today, Hexalog helps D2C brands and MSMEs build enterprise-grade supply chains through cross-border logistics orchestration. That early, operations-first approach continues to shape the company. Instead of building technology in isolation, it designed workflows around customer pain points before digitising them.
Tripathi believes logistics should not be viewed only as an operational expense. Efficient supply chains improve working capital by reducing the amount of capital tied up in inventory and inefficient operations. In his view, once logistics improves working capital efficiency, it becomes a driver of business growth rather than simply a cost.
Making logistics less complex
For many MSMEs, expanding internationally is often less about product quality and more about navigating operational complexity.
While founders know how to build and market their products, selling across borders means dealing with customs authorities, compliance agencies, freight operators, warehouse partners and last-mile delivery providers.
According to Tripathi, this lack of operational visibility discourages many businesses from expanding globally. “Suddenly, from a product know-how, MSMEs have to move to an operational know-how.”
Hexalog's approach is to simplify that process. Instead of expecting founders to understand customs regulations, indirect taxation, certifications and documentation, the company positions itself as a supply chain partner.
Businesses can focus on product development, branding and customer acquisition while Hexalog manages the journey from factory pickup to international delivery. For founders, that means fewer operational distractions and greater confidence when entering new markets.
One connected supply chain instead of fragmented operations
Tripathi believes one of the biggest misconceptions about cross-border logistics is that success depends on choosing the right freight company or customs agent.
In reality, he says, logistics is only as strong as the coordination between every participant in the supply chain.
A shipment may pass through first-mile operators, customs house agents, freight forwarders, destination partners, and last-mile delivery providers. Even when each performs well individually, poor coordination between them can lead to delays, longer inventory cycles, and a weaker customer experience.
Hexalog focuses on orchestrating the entire journey rather than managing individual parts of it.
Its philosophy of taking products “from factory floor to customer's door” extends beyond transportation to managing the complete customer journey.
One of the company's key innovations is its Value Add Center, where products undergo quality inspection before leaving the country of origin. This helps identify defective products before they reach India or overseas markets, reducing reverse logistics costs and avoiding delays.
Tripathi says many logistics providers simply transport sealed shipments without inspection. By introducing quality checks earlier in the process, Hexalog reduces operational risk while improving customer satisfaction.
The company also helps brands calculate true landed costs by factoring in freight, insurance, compliance costs, and import duties instead of evaluating sourcing decisions based only on manufacturing costs.
Unlike traditional logistics providers that manage individual stages of transportation, Hexalog oversees the complete workflow, aiming to maintain consistent service levels across every stage.
Its asset-light operating model is central to that approach. Rather than owning warehouses or transportation assets, the company relies on existing infrastructure while retaining accountability for customer experience and service delivery.
“Today, given the kind of global uncertainties we are part of, it is much easier for me to get into a market because I am building it on the basis of capabilities of the existing frameworks and with a partner-led framework.”
According to Tripathi, this model allows Hexalog to enter new markets more quickly while maintaining operational reliability and predictable service levels.
Working capital as a growth lever
While founders often track customer acquisition costs, marketing spends and return on ad spend, Tripathi believes one of the most important metrics lies elsewhere: working capital.
He argues that efficient supply chains improve working capital by reducing the time inventory spends in transit or sitting idle. That allows businesses to reinvest capital more quickly and scale sustainably.
Faster inventory turns, he says, are more than a financial metric. They also reflect healthy demand and efficient operations.
Rather than viewing logistics purely as an expense, founders should see it as a business function that can improve profitability, support growth and strengthen the business over the long term.
For Tripathi, helping MSMEs compete with much larger companies is not about giving them bigger logistics budgets or larger teams. It is about giving them access to the operational capabilities and visibility that larger enterprises have traditionally enjoyed.
That also requires founders to broaden their understanding beyond the products they build.
“Founders need to understand taxation, compliance, supply chain design and the macroeconomic forces shaping global trade,” he says, adding that operational awareness is becoming just as important as product expertise.
By simplifying cross-border logistics and bringing better coordination across the supply chain, Hexalog aims to help MSMEs and emerging brands expand internationally with greater confidence.
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Source: YourStory
