India's Iron Pillar leads $30m round for logistics SaaS company
Iron Pillar and Uncorrelated Ventures have co-led a USD 30m investment in Pando, a US-headquartered logistics software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider with an India-based development team.
Iron Pillar closed its second fund on USD 129m last month with a view to investing cloud and SaaS companies from India and connecting them with global markets. It called the vehicle the first of its kind.
The Series B round also featured Nexus Venture Partners, Chiratae Ventures, and Next47, as well as several angel investors and US-based CEOs. They include Scott Kirk, a partner at Bain Capital, and
Tom Noonan, a director at the New York Stock Exchange and co-founder of early-stage VC firm TechOperators.
Chiratae led a USD 9m Series A in 2020 with support from Nexus and Next47. Nexus provided USD 2m in seed funding alongside individuals from companies such as LinkedIn Inida, and Vodafone.
Pando provides manufacturers, retailers, and third-party logistics players an artificial intelligence-enabled, no-code cloud platform that aims to streamline the order-to-fulfillment process end-to-end. It claims the service reduces carbon footprint and costs.
The idea is that as supply chains are disrupted globally, companies need to improve their agility in terms of procurement and order fulfilment, while avoiding rising costs. Pando cites research from MarketsAndMarkets that suggests the global logistics technology market will be worth USD 25bn by 2025 on the back of volatility-driven demand.
“Pando addresses the problem holistically and, with its world-class talent in India and the US, takes a global view to IP-led [intellectual property] product development,” Mohanjit Jolly, a partner at Iron Pillar, said in a statement.
“Their growth with multiple Fortune 500 companies is testimony to the quality of the product and management team, but their focus on building a large long-term business is what got us excited to partner with [co-founders Abhijeet Manohar and Nitin Jayakrishnan].”
The company said it would use the fresh capital to grow across geographies and industries. The current footprint spans the US and Asia Pacific. There is scope to expand in the Middle East with support from Iron Pillar’s networks in the region.
“Most of the brands we love and live with are weighed down by legacy logistics tools that make their products less affordable, accessible and eco-friendly,” said Jayakrishnan (pictured right with Manohar).
“Pando's platform allows these brands to automate manual processes, modernise legacy systems and plug the gaps between tools without multi-year transformations, delivering change here and now.”
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