Philippine-born logistics engine startup Locad raises $11M Series A funding to expand operations in Asia Pacific, according to its CEO Constantin Robertz. Jekki Pascual, ABS-CBN News
MANILA - Homegrown startup Locad said on Monday it has raised $11 million in Series A funding to expand its operations in the Philippines and in the Asia Pacific region.
Locad offers a cloud supply chain for big or small companies to store, pack, ship and track orders of consumers. For example, a business may store its products in the warehouses of Locad and once customers purchase via Lazada, Shopee or Tiktok, it will be Locad's role to deliver the products to the customer.
The Series A funding round was led by Reefknot Investments, a fund anchored by Temasek and logistics firm Kuehne & Nagel. It also saw the return of many of its initial investors and new ones as well like Access Ventures and JG Digital Equity Ventures of JG Summit, Locad CEO and Co-Founder Constantin Robertz said.
At a media briefing in Taguig City, Robertz said they will use the money to enhance their technology, hire more people, and expand operations like adding more warehouses to the 15 the company currently has.
The company has headquarters in Singapore and Manila with most employees working in the Philippines.
"Expand our fulfillment network and to build the largest and most scalable fulfillment network for brands in Southeast Asia and Australia, and both for big enterprises as well as for SMEs," said Robertz.
Locad said it could help SMEs to expand their operations as businesses won't need to burden themselves with storage and delivery. Locad has a system where it connects warehouses with couriers and e-commerce sites as well.
"An entrepreneur can essentially get your life back, you no longer need to deal with inventory management order fulfillment shipping yourself, and you also don't need to use your precious capital to rent warehouses, hire people and build that infrastructure. But instead you plug into Locad," he added.
Robertz is also betting on the logistics industry growth despite the return of onsite retail.
He said in an archipelago like the Philippines, having a coordinated system would make deliveries faster and more convenient as it offers seamless movement of goods and data across the supply chain.