Reefknot leads Series A for Singapore logistics player Locad

There were re-ups from existing investors such as Sequoia Capital India, Surge, which is an accelerator operated by Sequoia, Febe Ventures, and Antler. Access Ventures, JG Summit, and WTI came in as new investors.

Founded in 2020, Locad is a cloud-based platform that connects warehouse operators with shipping companies. Describing itself as a logistics engine, the start-up syncs inventory across sales channels such as Shopify, Lazada, Shopee, and TikTok Shop. It also orchestrates end-to-end fulfilment, allowing customers to automatically store, pack, ship and track their orders.

One of the key selling points is a network of localised warehouses, which enables brands and merchants to stock goods closer to customers, achieving faster delivery and lower cost.

Locad’s goal is to alleviate friction in e-commerce processes. It plans to build Asia's largest network of warehouses over the next five years, ensuring next-day delivery in tier-one to tier-three cities. The Series A proceeds will go towards adding warehouses, establishing partnerships with transport operators, and hiring talent in Southeast Asia and Australia.

To date, Locad has served more than 200 brands across Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Australia. It has shipped more than 2m orders while maintaining a 99% same-day order fulfilment rate. Customers include consumer brands such as Havaianas, Reckitt Benckiser, and Emma Sleep.

“As modern consumer brands are transforming to direct-to-consumer and omnichannel retail, we have seen that the supply chain and fulfilment infrastructure is a key barrier to scaling the business for many brands, and the bar is only rising further, due to higher customer expectations for fast delivery, and the complexity driven by an increasing number of sales channels," said Constantin Robertz, founder and CEO of Locad, in a statement.

Temasek and Kuehne + Nagel anchored Reefknot's USD 50m debut fund in 2019. The firm invests in start-ups that bring digitalisation to supply chains, focusing on areas like big data, predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and robotics. It typically participates in funding rounds up to the Series B stage.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Early-stage
• Consumer
• Support services
• Southeast Asia
• Australia
• e-commerce
• Reefknot Investments
• Sequoia Capital
• antler
• Access Ventures
• Logistics