Locad raises $4.9 mn in seed funding led by Sequoia Capital India's Surge

Logistics and supply chain management integrator Locad raised $4.9 million in seed funding led by Sequoia Capital India’s Surge with participation from Antler, Febe Ventures, Foxmont, Global Founders Capital, Gokongwei Family, and Hustle Fund. 

Locad is part of Surge’s fifth cohort of 23 companies that have developed new digital solutions to help companies and individuals work, live and learn better in a rapidly evolving Southeast Asian landscape. 

Locad offers ecommerce brands and retailers end-to-end solutions, ranging from plug-and-play ecommerce fulfilment, to a distributed warehousing network in APAC for companies that are looking to scale their business internationally. 

“At the heart of our mission is the desire to level the playing field in direct-to-consumer commerce by giving brands small and large access to an integrated, distributed and flexible supply chain network that is simple yet scalable. In an industry where reliability and speed could make or break an ecommerce brand, our ability to provide a one-stop platform, from fulfilment capability to distributed warehousing, allows brands to meet the evolving needs of their customers with flexible, nimble and pain-free logistics solutions,” shared Constantin Robertz, CEO and co-founder of Locad.

Powered by a fully digital and integrated platform with real time visibility over order and inventory movements, Locad plugs an important gap in the current ecommerce state-of-play - the fragmented, complex, and slow supply chain ecosystem in Southeast Asia. Instead of powering growth, such gaps are creating barriers, rather than enabling companies who have the appetite and ambition to grow beyond borders. 

“Bangalore is our engineering HQ, the heart of our platform is developed here, and we are set on hiring the best and brightest tech talent to drive our expansion goals across the region,” shared Shrey Jain, CTO and co-founder of Locad.

Founded in Manila and Singapore in October 2020, Locad has offices in Australia, Hong Kong, India, the Philippines and Singapore. While many companies address first mile and last mile problems in delivery, very few provide the fully integrated solution that Locad is pioneering. 

Business customers of Locad also have the opportunity to integrate with ecommerce platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, Amazon, Shopee, Lazada and Zalora. Brands can manage all their orders and stock from a single virtual pool across multiple sales channels, with real-time visibility of sales, orders, inventory, and service levels.

While Locad irons out the back-end operations of running a direct to consumer business, brands can then be left to focus on growing their business. 

The logistics market in Southeast Asia is forecast to amount to $55.7 billion by 2025 - demonstrating the growing demand and necessity for flexible, technology-enabled solutions. With the exponential growth of eCommerce in the region, Locad is powering eCommerce brands who will play a pivotal role in driving Southeast Asia’s massive post-pandemic growth opportunity