Brazilian digital freight broker Cargo X raises $80 million

Brazilian digital freight marketplace Cargo X announced that it raised $80 million in Series E investment. This was Cargo X’s fifth investment round, which was led by LGT Lightstone Latin America, with participation from Goldman Sachs Growth Equity, Valor Capital and Farallon Capital among others. This funding round brings the total investment in Cargo X to $176 million.

Frequently called the “Uber of Brazilian trucking,” Cargo X is revolutionizing the Brazilian freight industry, which suffers from fragmentation and visibility issues like in the U.S., but on a larger scale. A substantial part of the Brazilian trucking processes is still dependent on paper-based documents and communication over fax, phone and email. 

Cargo X looks to sort this out, connecting carriers and shippers over a digital platform. The largest digital brokerage in Brazil, Cargo X employs 400 people and connects about 20,000 carriers and their 400,000 truckers with freight. It also offers financial services and a technology edge that keeps the company competitive in the market. 

“Cargo X is implementing an innovative business model and bringing disruptive technology to a segment that has not been digitized yet. With that, it makes the productivity of the road logistics sector in the country increase in a sustainable way, reducing idle capacity in the truck fleets, increasing the income of drivers and decreasing freight costs for shippers and transporters,” Federico Vega, the CEO of Cargo X, told FreightWaves.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has also necessitated enabling touchless operations within supply chains. Vega explained that Cargo X is positioned to offer digitalization and reduce physical interaction via process automation.

“In addition to helping our partner carriers when they need us the most, the new investment will be focused on continuing to develop cutting-edge technologies that allow them to operate 100% online and pave the future of road freight transportation,” said Vega. 

Cargo X has shown enviable 20% month-on-month growth in 2020, even amidst the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Vega mentioned that customer feedback has also been positive, with the net promoter score (NPS) standing at 62% for carriers and 57% for shippers. 

The Brazilian freight startup ecosystem has challenges with raising venture capital to execute business – an issue that Cargo X seems to have solved with its Series E round. Vega called LGT Lightstone – the lead investor in the round – one of the most exclusive and select investors in the world, and that it was “strongly aligned” with Cargo X’s goals and values.

For LGT Lightstone, Cargo X was a relevant investment as it satisfied the objectives of the fund in the Latin American region – having high growth and impact with differentiated technological solutions. 

“We believe that this new partnership will help to accelerate Cargo X even more and consolidate the company’s leadership in the sector, particularly at such an important time for the country,” said Gustavo Verdelli, the managing director of LGT Lightstone, on the reasons for the investment.

Source. Techcrunch, Vishnu Rajamanickam, April 9, 2020

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Convoy raises $400 million to expand its on-demand trucking platform

Convoy, the digital freight network that connects truckers with shippers, has raised $400 million in a Series D funding round as it aims to scale its business amid an increasingly competitive market.

The funding round brings Convoy’s post-money valuation to $2.75 billion.

The round was co-led by Generation Investment Management and previous Convoy investor T. Rowe Price Associates. Asset management firm Baillie Gifford, which has fondness for pre-IPO tech companies, Fidelity and Durable Capital Partners, as well as Series C investors CapitalG and Lone Pine Capital, also participated in the round.

Convoy has managed to attract a slew of high-profile investors — and their capital — such as Jeff Bezos, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and even U2’s Bono and the Edge. In the four years since its founding, Convoy has raised a total of more than $668 million. Early investors include Greylock Partners, Y Combinator, Cascade Investment (the private investment vehicle of Bill Gates) and Code.org founders Hadi and Ali Partovi.

And that money has been put to work. Convoy co-founders Dan Lewis and Grant Goodale set out in 2015 to modernize freight brokerage, a fragmented and oftentimes analog business that matches loads from shippers with truckers.

The company has gone from hundreds of loads per week in 2016 to tens of thousands per week across the U.S. Notably, Convoy’s platform handles 100% of the matching, as opposed to having humans complete the task.

Convoy also has about 100 routes, many of them concentrated around economic hubs such as Chicago, Michigan and California, Lewis told TechCrunch.

The 850-person company wants to accelerate those efforts with capital raised in this latest round. However, it’s bound to face more competition. Uber Freight, Loadsmart and Flexport are just a few online marketplaces that are targeting freight.

Convoy has added new features to its platform as part of its scaling strategy. The company launched in 2019 an automated reloads feature that allows truckers to book multiple loads at a time. It also added Convoy Go, which allows drivers to bring their truck cab and hook up to a trailer pre-filled with cargo.

Source. TechCrunch, Kirsten Korosec, November 13, 2019
 

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Looking to become the central hub for logistics management, Shipwell raises $35 million

Shipwell, the software platform for managing trucking logistics, has raised $35 million and is expanding its suite of services to become a full-service hub for logistics management. 

The new round led by Georgian Partners comes as the company has just expanded its suite of tracking and management tools to integrate with FedEx’s parcel shipping services. The company also is planning an expansion into ocean shipping in the coming months, according to chief executive Gregory Price.

The Austin-based company works with multiple service providers — including the logistics services unicorn Flexport — but operates as a marketplace for shippers to connect with freight companies and online tools to manage those shipments. In effect, the company is pitching to any retailer or outlet a version of the proprietary logistics management toolkit that has made Amazon so successful.

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To compliment this platform the company also offers an innovative care management app that centralizes communication and task management among family members and the caregiver, along with a Care Concierge service to help family members with administrative, navigational or organizational tasks.

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Since its last round of funding a year ago, Shipwell has grown to service more than 4,000 customers per month with supply chains spanning multiple geographies. The company now operates in Canada, Mexico and even across Europe.

With the new funding the company intends to open new offices in Chicago and expand to a second location in its home base of Austin.

The company has also launched a new application program interface that allows it to help manage logistics through other modes than just trucking. Price says the company has about 20 companies beta-testing the tool, which is set to launch publicly in November.

Source. TechCrunch, Johnathan Schreiber, October 24, 2019

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Wheels raises $50 million for pedal-less e-bike share

Wheels, the startup founded by Wag founders Jonathan and Joshua Viner, just announced a $50 million round led by DBL Partners. This round brings Wheels’ total funding to $87 million.

Wheels currently operates in six markets, including San Diego, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, and Scottsdale, Ariz.The plan is to use the funding to deploy in additional markets throughout the U.S. and in international markets.

“We’re excited to open up to dozens of cities over the next few months including international expansion,” Wheels COO Marco McCottry told TechCrunch. “As we think about how we fit with the other companies in the space, we’re growing the pie and expanding the market.”

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myCareBase™ is a platform for seniors and their families to find, evaluate, hire and manage home support services, to improve the seniors’ ability to remain living safely in their current home for as long as possible. The caregiver marketplace currently offers candidates in Greater Toronto and Greater Vancouver.

To compliment this platform the company also offers an innovative care management app that centralizes communication and task management among family members and the caregiver, along with a Care Concierge service to help family members with administrative, navigational or organizational tasks.

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Right now, Wheels is focused on the shared model but does see an opportunity to sell directly to consumers, Josh Viner told TechCrunch. Wheels differentiates itself from other bike-share companies with its modular design, swappable parts and batteries. Though, JUMP recently unveiled its vision for swappable batteries on bikes.

Wheels has also developed a patent-pending smart, shareable helmet system that integrates seamlessly onto the bike. The helmet, which can be unlocked with a smartphone, comes with removable hygienic liner. The plan is to deploy the helmet-equipped vehicles by the end of this year.

“The micro mobility market has the ability to continue to revolutionize the future electrification of transport, but problems of safety and sustainability are keeping the industry from reaching its true potential,” DBL Partners Founder and Managing Partner Ira Ehrenpreis said in a statement. “Wheels is solving these issues with its safety-focused product design, including the upcoming release of its integrated helmet technology, a more sustainable business and maintenance model, and a mass-market design that appeals to a wider gender and age demographic.”

Source. TechCrunch, Megan Rose Dickey, October 15, 2019

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Electric moped startup Revel raises $27.6 million as it eyes new markets

In less than two years, Revel has gone from an idea to a shared electric vehicle startup with more than 1,400 mopeds across Washington, D.C., and Brooklyn and Queens, New York. Now, it’s ready to grow up — and beyond these three cities — with a fresh injection of $27.6 million in capital raised in a Series A round led by Ibex Investors .

The equity round included newcomer Toyota AI Ventures and further investments from Blue Collective, Launch Capital and Maniv Mobility.

The capital will, as it often does with startups, allow Revel to scale up. CEO and co-founder Frank Reig said this growth will extend to its fleet of scooters within the cities it currently operates as well as expand into new markets. Reig wouldn’t name where the New York-based startup will launch next, although he provided some hints. Large U.S. cities with the right population density and more temperate weather are at the top of the list.

Revel is targeting about 10 cities by mid-2020, Reig added.

How that growth occurs, and who is behind its operations, is what Reig believes differentiates Revel from other shared electric vehicle providers such as scooter startups that have had a record of deploying in cities before getting approval from local authorities.

Many startups in the shared industry, including Revel, talk up their focus on safety and desire to be responsible partners with cities. Revel’s choice of vehicle — along with a few other decisions — helps it stick to those promises.

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myCareBase™ is a platform for seniors and their families to find, evaluate, hire and manage home support services, to improve the seniors’ ability to remain living safely in their current home for as long as possible. The caregiver marketplace currently offers candidates in Greater Toronto and Greater Vancouver.

To compliment this platform the company also offers an innovative care management app that centralizes communication and task management among family members and the caregiver, along with a Care Concierge service to help family members with administrative, navigational or organizational tasks. 

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“These mopeds are motor vehicles,” Reig noted. “This means there’s no regulatory gray area: you have to have a license plate.

To get that license plate you have to register each vehicle with the Department of Motor Vehicles in each state and show third-party auto liability insurance. And then because it’s a motor vehicle, it’s clear that it rides in the street, so we’re completely off sidewalks.”

Revel caps the speed of its mopeds to 30 miles per hour. The company also provides two helmets — and single-use liners — on every ride and requires users to be licensed drivers aged 21 or older who pass an initial safe driving history check. About one out of every 12 applicants does not make it past this screening, according to Revel.

Any concerns about users bypassing the protective headgear are largely erased because both New York and Washington, D.C. have helmet laws, Reig said.

No gig workers

The company, unlike most on-demand mobility startups, does not have any gig economy workers, either. Revel only has full-time employees, said Reig, adding that it’s a decision he intends to stick with even as his company grows.

“We don’t use gig economy in anything we do and I see a ton of value in that,” Reig said. “We need a well-trained workforce that is really committed and cares about the vehicles, because if not it’s something we’re going to be throwing out every 60 days.”

Revel’s shared mopeds have a three-year asset life, Reig said, based on their in-house estimates. To ensure the mopeds last, which has become a key factor in the unit economics of shared mobility businesses, they remain on the street.

The mopeds are removed by employees for routine maintenance that occurs every four to six months. Otherwise, the mopeds aren’t loaded into vans by gig economy workers who make money by charging them up — a common practice with the small stand-up scooters that have inundated cities like San Diego and San Francisco. Instead, employees swap out the batteries on the mopeds, which have a range of about 50 miles

20 months and 1,400 scooters

The idea for Revel was born out of Reig’s travels to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he witnessed locals on every form of two-wheeled vehicle.

“A sort of light bulb went off my head, and I asked myself, ‘why is it not a thing in the U.S?,’ ” Reig told TechCrunch in a recent interview. “I came back to New York, started studying the market more and saw all these electric moped operators had been popping up in Europe over the last few years and just realized that if I don’t do it, somebody else will.”

The company started with a small pilot of 68 mopeds in a few neighborhoods within Brooklyn. In May, after a nine-month pilot, Revel pulled the original mopeds it used in its limited pilot and replaced them with 1,000 new models built for two riders and equipped with kickstands for parking. With more mopeds in its fleet, Revel expanded the service to more than 20 neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens. In August, Revel launched its service in Washington, D.C., where there are now more than 400 mopeds.

Revel rides cost $1 per person to start, followed by $0.25 per minute to ride and $0.10 per minute while parked. Revel says it will cut the cost by 40% for eligible riders — and give them a $25 credit — through its Revel Access program. Riders who use public assistance programs like SNAP or live in NYCHA housing are eligible for the program.

Source.TechCrunch,  Kirsten Korosec, October 10, 2019

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Self-driving vehicle startup Zoox has expanded to Las Vegas

Zoox, the autonomous vehicle startup, is expanding to Las Vegas, CTO Jesse Levinson said at TechCrunch Disrupt SF.

The startup, which has raised $800 million and has been testing on public roads in San Francisco, said Las Vegas is a target market for its autonomous driving fleet and service. Las Vegas will serve as an anchor market for Zoox. The company plans to test, validate and refine its technology with future plans to launch an autonomous ride-hailing service there, Levinson said.

Zoox received permission from the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles in early 2019 to drive autonomously on state roads. The startup is currently mapping and test-driving new routes in the greater Las Vegas region. The permit also allows Zoox to transport passengers, although that is not happening at this time, the company said.

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Sponsor

myCareBase is a platform for seniors and their families to find, evaluate, hire and manage home support services, to improve the seniors’ ability to remain living safely in their current home for as long as possible. The caregiver marketplace currently offers candidates in Greater Toronto and Greater Vancouver.

To compliment this platform the company also offers an innovative care management app that centralizes communication and task management among family members and the caregiver, along with a Care Concierge service to help family members with administrative, navigational or organizational tasks.

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For now, Zoox is doing strategic testing to keep costs in line, CEO Aicha Evans told TechCrunch during Disrupt. That means, Zoox is sending its retrofitted Toyota Highlander autonomous vehicles to Las Vegas for blocks of time, maybe six weeks or so. The company, which has a fleet of more than 30 of these modified vehicles, has now completed five of these deployments.

Over time, Zoox will expand its time and footprint in the city. Zoox plans to start demonstrating its ground-up vehicles on public roads in 2020, with commercial operations soon to follow, the company said,

Zoox says it selected Las Vegas because the region offers an opportunity to extend learning in a second dense urban environment and one that it says has diverse and unique use cases compared to driving in San Francisco. For instance, Las Vegas has reversible lanes, complex pick-up and drop-off zones, high temperatures and more night-time activity, the company said.

Source. TechCrunch, Kirsten Korosec, October 3, 2019

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Loadsmart Raises $19M in Funding

Loadsmart, a Chicago, IL- and NYC-based digital freight technology company, raised $19m in funding.

Backers included Ports America, Maersk Growth, Chromo Invest and Connor Capital SB.

This latest round follows Loadsmart’s series A round in late 2018, bringing total funding to date to $53.4m.

The company intends to use the funds for its new Smart Drayage initiative.

Co-founded by Ricardo Salgado, CEO, and Felipe Capella, chief product officer, Loadsmart is a digital freight platform that specializes in truckload and intermodal shipping. The company is leveraging data and machine learning to build artificial intelligence processes into the complex freight cycle, allowing shippers to book a truck in seconds and providing instant and targeted loads to carriers.

The announcement comes together with the release of Loadsmart Drayage Instant Booking. The new service is available via the company’s website and enables small and medium-sized shippers to book a drayage truck in seconds.

For enterprise accounts Loadsmart offers an API integrated solution.

Source. FinSMEs, September 6, 2019

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Spotawheel picks up €5M for its online used car dealership

Spotawheel, a startup operating in Greece and Poland with a car dealership model quite similar to Carvana in the U.S., has picked up €5 million in new funding. Backing the online used car dealership is VentureFriends, which led the round, with participation from Velocity Partners and unnamed “strategic” investors.

The investment includes both equity and debt financing, since part of Spotawheel’s business includes purchasing used cars upfront. It brings total raised by the Athens-headquartered startup to €8 million since launching in 2016.

“Used cars is one of the largest markets in value worldwide growing at a 5-7% rate annually, operating still primarily offline in a notoriously non-transparent way,” says Charis Arvanitis, Spotawheel co-founder and CEO.

This sees potential buyers fear buying a “lemon,” coupled with over-complicated processes, hidden-fees, and fragmented supply. The latter is largely a combination of private sellers via classified ads, and traditional offline used car dealerships.

“The lack of centralized control on the industry’s hugely fragmented seller structure, has prevented any meaningful innovation over the past 20 years, when the typical online classified ads emerged,” says Arvanitis. “That problem is even more evident in Europe, where car trade flows between countries make it much harder to control quality and trace cars history”.

To address this, Spotawheel offers an online B2C platform for used cars that Arvanitis says has redesigned the buy-sell process from scratch to create a “frictionless” and trusted buying experience. The idea is to bring e-commerce levels of convenience and protection to purchasing a used car.

“Customers can opt in for a test drive or have the car delivered countrywide under a 7-day return policy, while enjoying up to 5 years of limited warranty, the largest in Europe,” he says. This is underpinned by Spotawheel’s “predictive analytics” covering the condition and expected failures on a per car basis.

In addition, Arvanitis explains Spotawheel’s car sourcing model combines both debt-financed and marketplace practices, allowing the startup to source the best cars from private owners and B2B resellers across Europe. This includes deploying working capital purchasing vehicles upfront or via a commission-basis agreement.

Source. Techcrunch, Steve O'Hear, September 2, 2019

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Proterra, the Tesla of electric buses, closes in on $1 billion valuation

Proterra has authorized shares to raise $75 million, a new round of funding that would push the electric bus maker’s valuation past $1 billion, TechCrunch has learned.

The company authorized the sale of 10,857,762 shares at a price of $6.91 in a Series 8 round, according to a securities filing that was obtained by the Prime Unicorn Index, a company that tracks the performance of private U.S. companies, and reviewed by TechCrunch. If all of the shares are issued, the company’s total valuation would be $1.04 billion, pushing it into “unicorn” territory, according to Prime Unicorn Index.

Proterra declined to comment.

Efforts to raise capital come as the company explores an IPO, according to a report last month by Reuters that said Proterra had hired underwriters from Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley.

Prior to this August 2 filing, Proterra had raised a total of $551.77 million in funding from investors that include G2VP, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Constellation Ventures, Mitsui & Co. as well as BMW i Ventures, Edison Energy, the Federal Transportation Administration, General Motors’s venture arm and Tao Capital Partners.

Proterra produces electric buses for municipal, federal and commercial transit agencies; it has a line of electric buses, hundreds of which have been sold, that can travel 350 miles on a single charge. The Burlingame, Calif. company, which has a number of former Tesla employees in leadership positions, including CEO Ryan Popple, has since diversified its business.

Proterra rolled out in April a $200 million credit facility backed by Japanese investment giant Mitsui & Co. to scale up a battery leasing program aimed at lowering the barrier of entry of buying an electric bus.

And just this month, the company announced it has added a new business line called Proterra Powered that will sell its vehicle battery systems, powertrain technology and charging infrastructure to commercial truck and manufacturers of heavy-duty vehicles like garbage trucks.

This new business line stems from its previous relationships with companies like Van Hool and Daimler . Proterra announced last year it was working with Daimler to electrify the company’s Thomas Built Buses division, which makes a line of school buses. That relationship comes with some financial backing and an agreement to share technologies.

Daimler co-led a $155 million funding along with Tao Capital Partner. Proterra is lending its battery and drive train expertise; Daimler will show Proterra how to scale its manufacturing business even further.

The partnership has already been fruitful. Thomas Built Buses received certifications from the California Air Resources Board and the Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project for an electric bus, known as the Saf-T-Liner C2 Jouley, which uses Proterra technology. Electric school bus production for demonstration and innovation vehicles begins in 2019 and commercial production begins in 2020.

Source. Techcrunch News, Kirsten Korosec, August 8, 2019

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May Mobility Raises $22M in Series A Funding

May Mobility, an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based enterprise autonomous transportation company providing daily transit to the American public, raised $22m in Series A funding.

The round was led by Millennium New Horizons and Cyrus Capital Partners, with participation from LG Technology Ventures and Thayer Ventures and existing investors BMW i Ventures, Maven Ventures, Toyota AI Ventures, and Y Combinator.

The company intends to use the funds to expand engineering and operations.

Led by Edwin Olson, CEO, May Mobility provides an enterprise autonomous transportation company providing daily transit to the American public, currently serving public and private customers in major metros. Its current fleet of vehicles has already provided more than 35,000 rides in Columbus, OH and Detroit, MI and will be deployed in more markets shortly.

In the coming months, the company will be launching public services in Grand Rapids, MI and Providence, RI with plans to announce additional commercial deployments in cities across the U.S. in 2019.

Source. FinSMEs, Staff, February 12, 2019

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VW invests $2.6 billion in self-driving startup Argo AI as part of Ford alliance

VW Group is investing $2.6 billion in capital and assets into Argo AI, the Pittsburgh-based autonomous vehicle startup that burst onto the scene two years ago with $1 billion in backing from Ford. The deal, which has been rumored for months, is part of a broader alliance between VW Group and Ford that covers autonomous and electric vehicles.

The Argo piece of this tie-up involves more than just an injection of capital in return for a stake in the startup and board seats. It turns Argo into a global company, or at least one with operations in U.S. and Europe. And it instantly boosts its staff by 40%.

The deal is a validation of Argo’s tech and, by adding one more customer, the startup diversifies and gains some independence from Ford, its first investor and customer. Argo is still a private company in which VW and Ford have taken holdings.

“Argo is now officially a technology platform company,” Argo CEO and co-founder Bryan Salesky said in a press conference Friday morning in New York.

VW has committed $1 billion in capital to the startup and also will purchase Argo AI shares from Ford for $500 million over three years. Ford will invest the remaining $600 million of its previously announced $1 billion cash commitment in Argo AI.

VW is also handing over Autonomous Intelligent Driving, the self-driving subsidiary that was launched just two years ago to develop autonomous vehicle technology for the Volkswagen Group. AID is valued at $1.6 billion.

The Munich-based AID team will become Argo’s European headquarters, a move that will expand its staff 40% to more than 700 employees.

“Our agreement with Volkswagen positions us as a technology platform company, expands the potential geography for deployment and will further fuel our product development,” Salesky wrote in a blog post detailing the announcement.

The deal raises Argo’s valuation to more than $7 billion. Despite the extra contribution of AID, Ford and VW Group will hold equal stakes in Argo. The remaining equity has been set aside for employees, the companies said Friday.

“This is a win-win situation,” Volkswagen CEO Dr. Herbert Diess said in the press conference. “The collaboration brings some of the smartest people in the field of autonomous driving. Together, software and hardware experts will work side by side to tackle the challenge of developing a safely deployable autonomous vehicle.”

The deal, which is expected to close in the first half of 2020, is still subject to the approval of regulators, Diess noted. Argo’s board will now be comprised of two VW seats, two Ford seats and three Argo seats.

Argo AI is developing the virtual driver system and high-definition maps designed for Ford’s self-driving vehicles. Now, that expands to VW.

For the past two years, Argo AI has done much of its testing in Pittsburgh, where it’s based. The company is also testing its autonomous vehicle technology in Austin, Miami, Palo Alto, Washington, D.C. and Dearborn, Mich. It recently expanded testing to Detroit, specifically Corktown and sections of downtown around Campus Martius Park.

Argo will treat VW and Ford as separate customers, although there will be some collaboration, which will help both companies share costs, Ford CEO Jim Hackett noted during the press conference.

This means Volkswagen and Ford will independently integrate Argo AI’s self-driving systems into its own purpose-built vehicles. Argo AI’s focus remains on delivering a SAE Level 4-capable SDS to be applied for ridesharing and goods delivery services in dense urban areas.

Source. TechCrunch, Kirsten Korosec,  July 12, 2019

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Waresix hauls in $14.5M to advance its push to digitize logistics in Indonesia

Waresix, one of a handful of startups aiming to modernize logistics in Indonesia — the world’s fourth most populous country — has pulled in $14.5 million to grow its 18-month-old business.

This new investment, Waresix’s Series A, is led by EV Growth — the growth-stage fund co-run by East Ventures — with participation from SMDV — the investment arm of Indonesia corporation Sinar Mas — and Singapore’s Jungle Ventures . The startup previously raised $1.6 million last year from East Ventures, SMDV and Monk’s Hill Ventures. It closed a seed round in early 2018.

Waresix is aiming to digitize logistics, the business of moving goods from A to B, which it believes is worth a total of $240 billion in Indonesia.

A large part of that is down to the country’s geography. The archipelago officially has more than 17,000 islands, but there are five main ones. That necessitates a lot of challenges for logistics, which are said to account for 25-30% of GDP — a figure that is typically below 5% in Western markets — while Indonesia barely scraped the top 50 rankings in World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index.

But, as Southeast Asia’s largest economy and the key market for digital growth in the region, that makes this an attractive problem to solve… or, rather, attractive industry to modernize.

Like others in its space worldwide — which include Chinese unicorn Manbang and BlackBuck in India — Waresix is focused on optimizing logistics by making the process more transparent for clients and more efficient for haulage companies and truckers. That includes removing the chain of “middle man” brokers, who add costs and reduce transparency, and provide a one-stop solution for transportation by land or sea, as well as cold storage and general cargo handling.

As of today, Waresix claims a fleet of more than 20,000 trucks and over 200 warehouse partners across Indonesia. The company said it plans to use this new capital to expand that coverage further. In particular, that’ll include additional land transport options and additional warehouse capacity in tier-two cities and more remote areas. That’s a push that founders Andree Susanto (CEO) and Edwin Wibowo (CFO) — who met at UC Berkeley in the U.S. — believe fits with Indonesia’s own $400 billion commitment to improve national infrastructure and transport.

It is also consistent with East Ventures, the long-standing early-stage VC, which has backed a pack of young companies aiming to inject internet smarts into traditional industries in Indonesia. Some of that portfolio includes Warung Pintar, which develops smart street vendor kiosks, Kedai Sayur, which is digitizing street vendors, and Fore Coffee, which draws inspiration from China’s digital-first brand Luckin Coffee, which recently listed in the U.S.

Now with EV Growth, which reached a final close of $200 million thanks to LPs that include SoftBank, East Ventures has the firepower to write larger checks that go beyond seed and pre-Series A deals, as it has done with Waresix.

But the company is far from alone in going after the logistics opportunity in Indonesia. Its rivals include Kargo, which was started by a former Uber Asia exec and is backed by Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick’s 10100 fund among others, and Ritase.

Ritase, which claims to be profitable, closed an $8.5 million Series A this week. It said it has 7,500 trucks and, on the client side, some 500 SMEs and a smattering of well-known global brands. Kargo has kept its metrics quiet, but it is a later arrival on the scene. The startup only came out of stealth in March of this year when it announced a $7.6 million funding round.

Source. TechCrunch, Jon Russell, July 5, 2019

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