Locad plugs an important gap in the current eCommerce state-of-play – the fragmented, complex, and slow supply chain ecosystem in Southeast Asia.
Logistics and supply chain management integrator Locad today announced US$4.9 million in funding, in a seed round led by Sequoia Capital India’s Surge with participation from Antler, Febe Ventures, Foxmont, Global Founders Capital, Gokongwei Family, and Hustle Fund. Locad offers eCommerce brands and retailers simple yet scalable end-to-end solutions, ranging from plug-and-play eCommerce fulfilment, to a distributed warehousing network in APAC for companies that are looking to scale their business internationally.
Powered by a fully digital and integrated platform with real time visibility over order and inventory movements, Locad plugs an important gap in the current eCommerce state-of-play – the fragmented, complex, and slow supply chain ecosystem in Southeast Asia. Instead of powering growth, such gaps are creating barriers, rather than enabling companies who have the appetite and ambition to grow beyond borders.
Founded in Manila and Singapore in October 2020, Locad is fast making a name for itself in the logistics industry and now has offices in Australia, Hong Kong, India, the Philippines and Singapore. While many companies address first mile and last mile problems in delivery, very few provide the fully integrated solution that Locad is pioneering. Business customers of Locad also have the opportunity to integrate with eCommerce platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, Amazon, Shopee, Lazada and Zalora. Brands can manage all their orders and stock from a single virtual pool across multiple sales channels, with real-time visibility of sales, orders, inventory, and service levels.
While Locad irons out the back-end operations of running a direct to consumer business, brands can then be left to focus on growing their business.
“Since partnering with Locad, our business could focus less on the fulfillment process and more on other aspects like product and marketing. As a result, there is an increase in our sales and conversion rate right away.” said Janine Munez, Director of IT Operations at KJM Cosmetics. With the ability to fulfill orders faster and provide more affordable shipping rates to their customers, the Filipino-grown cosmetics brand based in Davao shared that their conversion rate nearly doubled for both their Shopee and Lazada stores after adding localised fulfillment in Metro Manila with Locad, thereby cutting delivery time and shipping fees for buyers.
“At the heart of our mission is the desire to level the playing field in direct-to-consumer commerce by giving brands small and large access to an integrated, distributed and flexible supply chain network that is simple yet scalable. In an industry where reliability and speed could make or break an eCommerce brand, our ability to provide a one-stop platform, from fulfilment capability to distributed warehousing, allows brands to meet the evolving needs of their customers with flexible, nimble and pain-free logistics solutions,” shared Constantin Robertz, CEO and Co-Founder of Locad.
The logistics market in Southeast Asia is forecasted to amount to US$55.7B by 2025 – demonstrating the growing demand and necessity for flexible, technology-enabled solutions.1 With the exponential growth of eCommerce in the region, Locad is powering eCommerce brands who will play a pivotal role in driving Southeast Asia’s massive post-pandemic growth opportunity.
“Bangalore is our Engineering HQ, the heart of our platform is developed here, and we are set on hiring the best and brightest tech talent to drive our expansion goals across the region,” shared Shrey Jain, CTO and Co-Founder of Locad.
Founders Constantin Robertz, Jannis Dargel and Shrey Jain came together to start Locad after years in Southeast Asia’s eCommerce, transportation and logistics ecosystem, previously working in leadership roles at Grab and Zalora.
Led by Sequoia Capital India’s Surge, the seed investment round of Locad is joined by Antler, Febe Ventures, Foxmont, Global Founders Capital, the Gokongwei Family, Hustle Fund and angel investors from the Technology, eCommerce and Logistics ecosystem, including Alessandro Duri (eCommerce, MEA), Paulo Campos (eCommerce, Zalora), Henry Ko (Logistics, Flexport), Huey Lin (Technology, xAffirm and xFlexport), Thibaud Lecuyer (Logistics, Loggi), Oliver Mickler and Tim Seithe (Fintech, Tillhub), Christian Weiss and Tim Marbach (Technology, Venture Capital).
Locad is part of Surge’s fifth cohort of 23 companies that have developed new digital solutions to help companies and individuals work, live and learn better in a rapidly evolving Southeast Asian landscape.
Source: Business World
