Indonesian LogisticsTech company SiCepat has announced that it has raised a total of $170 million in its Series B round of funding. The round was participated in by the following: Falcon House Partners, Kejora Capital, the German Development Finance Institution, MDI Ventures, Indies Capital, Pavilion Capital, Tri Hill, and Daiwa Securities. The startup plans to use its fresh capital to invest in working on its current services and infrastructure, and it is also entertaining the possibility of expanding in other markets within the Southeast Asian region.
The Indonesian last-mile delivery company was founded in 2014 by Rudy Swigo and The Kim Hai. It provides proper end-to-end logistics for small merchants and more recently expanded to serve the e-commerce market. SiCepat takes care of warehousing, fulfillment, middle-mile logistics, and online distribution. Since then, the company has grown quite a bit. It now claims that it was able to fulfill more than 1.4 million packages per day in 2020.
The company’s last funding round was in April 2019 wherein it raised $50 million from its Series A round from Kejora InterVest Growth Fund. The company claims that its latest fund is the largest Series B amount ever raised in Southeast Asia.
“This financing round is designed to further fortify SiCepat’s position as the leading end-to-end logistics service provider in the Indonesian market and potentially to explore expansion to other markets in Southeast Asia. We are even more prepared to support and empower millions of SMEs and local businesses not only to survive but to thrive during these challenging times.” said The Kim Hai, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of parent company Onstar Express, in a statement shared with TechNode Global.
Sebastian Togelang, Managing Partner at Kejora Capital, expressed his opinion on SiCepat’s position and possibility in the industry: “Indonesian e-commerce market stood at US$32 billion in 2020 with a projected five-year CAGR of 21 percent to become US$82 billion industry by 2025. We believe that SiCepat is ideally positioned to serve customers from e-commerce giants to uprising social commerce players which contribute an estimated 25 percent to the total digital commerce economy.”
With a highly fragmented logistics industry, Indonesia will definitely face challenges when it comes to added costs for businesses. The e-commerce industry has seen a sudden growth, especially due to the coronavirus pandemic which forced businesses and consumers to migrate to digital platforms. This has resulted in a big opportunity for logistics providers to ramp up their operations to meet upcoming demand.