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Logistics and supply chain management startup Locad has announced that it has raised $11 million (about P600 million) in a series A round, the company said in a statement on Monday (January 16). It is the year’s first major funding announcement for a local startup.
The amount adds to the $4.9 million (about P240 million) Locad raised during its seed round in July 2021.
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Leading the funding round was Reefknot Investments, a fund anchored by Temasek and logistics powerhouse Kuehne & Nagel. Also participating were returning investors Sequoia India and Southeast Asia’s Surge, Febe Ventures, Antler, Foxmont, and Kaya Founders, as well as new investors Access Ventures and JG Digital Equity Ventures.
Locad said it plans to use the funds to build the region’s largest fulfillment network by adding warehouses, partnering with transport operators, and hiring talent across the region to scale its operations in Southeast Asia and Australia
A third-party logistics startup that syncs inventory across sales channels such as Shopify, Lazada, Shopee, Woocommerce, and TikTok Shop, Locad allows modern consumer brands in the Philippines and across Asia-Pacific “to automatically store, pack, ship, and track orders in a distributed, end-to-end supply chain as-a-service.” It also helps fulfill B2C and B2B orders from storage to delivery through a network of warehouses and shipping partners.
The company claims to have served over 200 brands in the Philippines as well as countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Australia and fulfilled more than two million transactions since it was launched in October 2020.
Some of its clients include Havaianas, Century Tuna, Reckitt Benckiser, and Emma Sleep, as well as growing D2C and mid-market merchants such as DMD Skin Sciences, Rawbites PH, Nuprene Co, Humble Sustainability, and others.
“As modern consumer brands in the Philippines and APAC are transforming to direct-to-consumer and omnichannel retail, we have seen that the supply chain and fulfillment infrastructure is a key barrier to scaling the business, and the bar is only rising further due to higher customer expectations for fast delivery, and the complexity driven by an increasing number of sales channels,” Locad CEO and co-founder Constantin Robertz said in a news release. “Ultimately, our goal is to enable a frictionless movement of physical goods and data across the supply chain for SME and enterprise brands, enabling anyone to sell anywhere, on any sales channel, and deliver seamlessly.”
Robertz is perhaps best known within local startup circles for his work with Zalora during the company’s early years.
“We are excited to partner with Locad to bring holistic end-to-end e-commerce logistics solutions to brands across Asia Pacific.” shares Ervin Lim, Vice President of Reefknot Investments, “Locad’s unique operating model of localizing warehouses into the cities ensures that inventory is kept close to the customers thereby enabling significant cost and time savings for both brand and consumer. We believe that Locad’s logistics engine will spur greater participation in the digital economy as consumers outside of Tier-1 cities can now receive their orders 2-3x faster at a fraction of the usual cost.”
“In the Philippines, we already have fulfillment centers in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Over the next 5 years, we expect to build the region's largest network of warehouses enabling next-day delivery in Tier 1 to 3 cities across the region, and make this available to brands and merchants in one integrated platform,” Robertz added.
(in main photo: Locad founders CTO Shrey Jain, CEO Constantin Robertz, COO Jannis Dargel)
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