Locad lands Series A to expand its “logistics engine” across Southeast Asia and Australia • TechCrunch

When Constantin Robertz was at Zalora, he was involved in warehouse moves six times as the e-commerce company outgrew its logistics infrastructure. This inspired him to co-found locatelogistics provider for omni-channel e-commerce companies that connects third-party warehouse and carrier networks with a cloud-based platform known as a “logistics engine”.

Founded in Singapore and Manila by Robertz, Zalora alumnus Jannis Dargel and former Grab chief map product manager Shrey Jain, Locad today announced it has raised $11 million in a Series A funding round led by leader. Investing in Reefknot, a joint venture between Temasek and logistics company Kuehne + Nagel. Former investors Sequoia India and Southeast Asia’s Surge, Febe Ventures and Antler also participated, along with new backers Access Ventures, JG Summit and WTI.

TechCrunch covered for the last time Locad when raising $4.5 million seed round in 2021.

Locad can handle almost any part of the delivery process, from inventory storage and packaging to shipping and tracking. To date, Locad has provided order fulfillment for 200 brands, including Havaians, Levi’s Reckitt Benckisder and Emma Sleep. The company’s customers span Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong and Australia, and typically ship between 25 and 5,000 orders per day. Last year, Locad was used to ship more than two million orders, and the company claims a 99% same-day order fulfillment rate.

Its new funding will be used to add more warehouses and transport operators to Locad’s network and recruit in Southeast Asia and Australia, with the goal of building the largest warehouse network in the region. sector in the next 5 years.

Robertz said helping Zalora scale its logistics infrastructure “has seeded a cloud-based supply chain approach, with a scalable logistics infrastructure as a service , would be a better way.” During their time at Zalora, Robertz and Dargel also worked with brands that had to establish their own e-commerce execution capabilities and technology stacks to support multiple sales channels.

Legacy logistics infrastructure, originally created for B2B wholesale distribution, cannot keep up with direct-to-consumer brands as their sales channels multiply. It also means they can no longer rely on “walled garden” fulfillment networks run by e-commerce platforms, like Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), as they scale.

At the same time, consumers want faster and cheaper shipping, so offering multiple options like same-day, next-day, or economical shipping is important for conversions at checkout. Robertz says that to deliver faster without paying more, retailers need to store products closer to the customer so they can deliver shorter and faster last mile deliveries. This requires a warehouse network and integration between sales channels, warehouses and carriers. That’s what Locad’s technology allows.

Locad’s logistics engine synchronizes inventory from multiple sales channels, including Shopify, Lazada, Shopee, and TikTok Shops, and manages storage and delivery through its network of warehouses and carriers. me. Many Locad customers approach the startup for the first time while phasing out their in-house logistics. Brands typically start with a warehouse to consolidate inventory and fulfill orders across sales channels, before moving inventory into additional warehouses based on customer location.

As it expands across Southeast Asia and Australia, Locad also plans to increase the number of warehouses in cities from Tier 1 to Tier 3 in the region, with the goal of enabling same-day delivery in all cities. this.

In a statement about the funding, Reefknot Investments vice president Ervin Lim said: “Locad’s unique operating model of localizing warehouses into cities ensures that inventory is kept close to customers. customers, thereby resulting in significant cost and time savings for both the brand and the consumer. We believe Locad’s logistics engine will drive greater participation in the digital economy as consumers outside of Tier 1 cities can now receive their orders 2 times faster. -3 times at a lower cost than usual.”