Locad, an e-commerce logistics startup, said Monday it raised $11 million in series A funding to expand its supply chain platform that allows modern consumer brands in the Philippines and the Asia-Pacific to automatically store, pack, ship and track orders in a distributed, end-to-end supply chain as-a-service.
Reefknot Investments, a fund anchored by Temasek and logistics powerhouse Kuehne & Nagel, led the funding series.
The series A funding round also saw participation from returning investors Sequoia India and Southeast Asia’s Surge, Febe Ventures, Antler, Foxmont and Kaya Founders and new investors Access Ventures and JG Digital Equity Ventures.
“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 co-founder and chief executive Constantin Robertz said.
“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,” he said.
Launched in the Philippines in 2020, Locad’s platform, dubbed the logistics engine, syncs inventory across sales channels such as Shopify, Lazada, Shopee, Woocommerce and TikTok Shop and orchestrates end-to-end order fulfillment for B2C and B2B orders, from storage to delivery, through a network of warehouses and shipping partners.
Locad has served over 200 brands across the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong and Australia, and fulfilled more than 2 million transactions while maintaining a 99-percent same-day order fulfillment rate. After launching in the Philippines in 2020, the company expanded its regional presence over the last two years.
“We are excited to partner with Locad to bring holistic end-to-end e-commerce logistics solutions to brands across Asia Pacific,” said Ervin Lim, vice president of Reefknot Investments Inc.
“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 two to three times faster at a fraction of the usual cost,” he said.
Locad’s logistics engine provides the backbone to support the e-commerce and omnichannel growth of global consumer brands such as Havaianas, Century Tuna, Recki Benckiser and Emma Sleep in the region, while also expanding access to best-in-class logistics infrastructure to growing D2C and mid-market merchants such as Filipino brands DMD Skin Sciences, Rawbites PH, Nuprene Co, Humble Sustainability and many more.