Japan logistics tech provider raises $16.7m
Japanese logistics technology start-up Openlogi has raised JPY1.7 billion ($16.7 million) in an ongoing Series C round featuring Sumitomo Corporation.
Equity investors include Sumitomo, Shinsei Corporate Investment, Logistics Innovation Fund, Significant KID Corporation, and local accelerator Chiba Dojo, as well as Pegasus Tech Ventures, the corporate VC arm of Tokyo-listed technology conglomerate Sojitz.
There is also a credit component featuring Mizuho Bank, Resona Bank, Shoko Chukin Bank, Japan Finance Corporation, and Aozora Corporate Investment.
It brings total funds raised to date to JPY2.7 billion, including a JPY730 million round in 2017 that included Eight Roads Ventures, Spiral Ventures, Infinity Venture Partners, and SMBC Venture Capital. The Series C – which previously attracted contributions from Itochu Corporation and Seino Holdings – is expected to be completed within the year. Proceeds will support product development and the hiring of engineers.
Openlogi’s logistics fulfillment platform aims eliminate the need for individual inquiries or quotations through a pay-as-you-go warehouse management service with no fixed costs. More than 8,000 individual customers have used the service to date, including at least 40 nationwide logistics companies, according to a statement.
There is a strong focus on maintaining the standards required by clients that may have specialized and technical handling needs. Openlogi describes systematized, offline, and digitally enabled supply chain management as a “physical internet,” that can meet a number of domestic challenges related to the rise of online shopping and a shrinking workforce.
“The standardization of operation service specifications and warehouse networking cultivated at Openlogi's affiliated warehouses will serve as the starting point for standards for the interconnection of the entire supply chain, allowing product information, shippers, transporters, distribution centers, stores, and residences to be networked as if it were the internet-of-things,” the company said.
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