Locad, an e-commerce logistics startup based in the Philippines and Singapore, has announced that it has secured $4.9 million in a Seed round led by Surge, Sequoia Capital India’s rapid scale-up program. The round was also participated by Antler, Febe Ventures, Foxmont, Hustle Fund, Global Founders Capital, and the Gokongwei family.
In an interview with Rappler Philippines, Locad Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Constantin Robertz shares his thoughts on the Philippines’ eCommerce logistics industry: “E-commerce and on-demand delivery services are accelerating in the Philippines. Many vendors, producers, and sellers are migrating to digital channels but are still hampered with the logistics of bringing products to their customers. They also lack infrastructure, resources, and experience in managing both online services and their own supply chain.”
The logistics startup is based in Manila and Singapore and was founded in October 2020 by Constantin Robertz, former Director of Operations for Zalora Jannis Dargel, and former Lead Product Manager of Maps for Grab Shrey Jain. The company is a graduate of Surge’s fifth cohort.
Locad aims to provide an end-to-end solution for cross-border e-commerce companies through its cloud-based platform that gives users real-time access to their orders and inventory across the startup’s network. Since it was founded, the company has hosted over 30 brands and has fulfilled roughly 600,000 items. It hosts brands such as Mango, Vans, Payless Shoes, and Toshiba.
Locad currently runs seven fulfillment centers: four in the Philippines and one warehouse each in Singapore, Hong Kong, and New South Wales. The company plans to use part of its seed fund to further expand its warehouse network in the Philippines and across the APAC region.
“We need a couple of strategically placed warehouses throughout the country, those would mean larger warehouses that we’re looking for that have the power to scale up throughout the ‘ber months’, throughout the peaks. Then you need some strategic small hubs around the country that would then be able to cover really all of the segments of cities with prime delivery standards,” said Co-Founder and COO Jannis Dargel, in an interview with ABS-CBN.
Aside from expansion, the company also plans to continue investing in its platform. The startup plans to boost its software engineering team, increase its warehouse network capacity, and work on its platform’s current features.