East leads $20m Series A for Indonesia's Praktis
East Ventures has led a USD 20m Series A round for Indonesian logistics technology start-up Praktis with support from Sinar Mas Digital Ventures (SMDV).
East is investing via its growth strategy, which closed a USD 400m fund last year in tandem with its ninth early-stage vehicle on USD 150m.
Traditionally a seed investor, East expanded into later stages in 2018 via a joint venture with SMDV and Japan’s YJ Capital, now known as Z Venture Capital. The entity, EV Growth, was dissolved in 2021, with East assuming full control and absorbing much of the staff.
Triputra Group, an industrials conglomerate that is one of East’s LPs and an active start-up investor, also participated in the Series A. East and Triputra provided two seed rounds in 2021 and 2022. The latter saw East take a 20.8% stake in the company for about USD 2.3m.
Praktis styles itself as an end-to-end enabler of technology-enhanced logistics functions, from raw materials purchasing to fulfillment. Its core customers are D2C brands in beauty and fashion.
The target market – Indonesia’s combined fashion and beauty industries – is described as a USD 30bn opportunity set served by mostly small and medium-sized players in need of process improvements.
The company grew 12x between 2020 and 2021 and 4x between 2021 and 2022 on the back of pandemic-related tailwinds, according to a statement. Recent traction includes the appointment of Leonard Pontoh – previously of Zalora, Shopee, and Lazada – as CFO (pictured far left).
East, SMDV, and Triputra are also investors in Gokomodo, a similar supply chain simplification platform targeting the agriculture industry. They joined a USD 26m Series A for the start-up last September. All three investors have likewise backed logistics technology provider Waresix.
Indonesia’s archipelago landscape has created one of the highest-cost logistics environments in Asia and is said to account for nearly a quarter of the country’s USD 1trn GDP. About three-quarters of logistics costs are related to transportation.
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