Locad lands in Series A to expand its ‘logistics engine’ across Southeast Asia and Australia • TechCrunch

Constantin Roberts worked in Zalora six times in warehouse moving as the ecommerce company grew its logistics infrastructure. This inspired him and led to his co-founding. locadA logistics provider for multichannel e-commerce businesses that connects their network of third party warehouses and freight forwarders with a cloud-based platform. This is known as their “logistics engines”.

Locad, a Zalora alumnus Jannis dargel and a former Grab product manager for maps Shreyjain, was founded in Singapore by Roberts. Reefknot InvestmentsTemasek’s logistics company Kuehne + Nagel joined forces to create a joint venture called, Along with new backers Access Ventures JG Summit, WTI, and Sequoia India, returning investors, Antler, Vape Ventures, and Surge Southeast Asia were also present.

TechCrunch latest coverage Locade when it raised its initial round of $4.5 million in 2021.

Locad can manage almost all aspects of the delivery process, including stocking, packaging, shipping and tracking. Locad has fulfilled orders from 200 brands including Havaians and Levi’s Reckitt Benckisder. Customers are spread across Australia, Singapore and the Philippines. They ship 25 to 5,000 orders per week. Locad was used to ship more than 2 million orders last year. It claims a 99 percent order fulfillment rate on the same day.

It will use the new funding to add warehouses, transport operators and staff to Locad’s network in Southeast Asia and Australia. The goal is to build the largest regional network of warehouses over the next five year.

Roberts, who helped Zalora scale its logistics infrastructure said that he “planted the seed for how a cloud approach, with scalable logistics infrastructure and a service, to supply chain would be a better option.” Robertz and Dargel worked together with brands to develop their own ecommerce fulfillment capabilities and technology stack to support multiple sales channels during their time at Zalora.

As direct-to-consumer brands increased in number, the logistics infrastructure that was originally designed for wholesale B2B distribution could not keep up. They can’t rely on the “walled gardens” fulfillment networks that e-commerce platforms like Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) provide as they grow.

Consumers want faster and more affordable delivery. This is why it is important to offer multiple options for checkout transfers, such as next-day, same-day, or economy shipping. Roberts stated that retailers must store products near customers in order to be able to deliver faster and cheaper last-mile deliveries. This requires integration between shipping companies, warehouses, sales channels, and warehouses. This is what Locad technology can do.

Lockad’s logistic engine syncs inventory across multiple sales channels including Shopify and Shopee. It also manages warehousing through its network warehouses and couriers. Locad’s clients often start a startup while they are phasing out in-house logistics. Many brands start with one warehouse to consolidate their inventory, fulfill orders across sales channels, and then move inventory to additional warehouses based upon where their customers are located.

Locad plans to expand its reach in Australia and Southeast Asia. It also plans to build more warehouses in Tier 1 and Tier 3 cities to enable same-day delivery.

In a statement about the financing, Reefknot Investments Vice President Ervin Lim said, “Locad’s unique operating model for urban warehouse localization ensures inventory remains close to customers, enabling significant cost and time savings for both the brand and the consumer. We believe the proprietary logistics engine Locad will drive greater participation in the digital economy as consumers outside Tier 1 cities can now receive their orders 2-3 times faster at a fraction of the usual cost.”