Locus, a startup that uses AI to help businesses map out their logistics, said on Wednesday it has raised $50 million in a new financing round as it looks to expand its presence.
The Series C round was led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC. Qualcomm Ventures and existing investors Tiger Global Management and Falcon Edge also participated in the round, which brings the startup’s to-date raise to $79 million. The new round valued the startup, which was founded in India, at about $300 million, said a person familiar with the matter.
Angel investors Amrish Rau (CEO of Pine Labs), Kunal Shah (CEO of CRED), Raju Reddy (founder of Sierra Atlantic), and Deb Deep Sengupta (former President and MD of SAP in South Asia) also participated in the round.
Locus helps its clients automate their logistics workloads that have traditionally required intensive human labour, said Nishith Rastogi, CEO of Locus. He also added:
“When you order from Licious or BigBasket, for instance, they need to decide each day at their centres how many vehicles they need to use, and what size of vehicles they need to go with. We help our clients move beyond visibility into all of these decision makings using proprietary algorithms and deep machine learning.”
The startup, which operates in North America, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Indian subcontinent, says it has helped its customers save over $150 million in logistics costs, and shaved tens of millions of kilometres off their journey that they would have travelled otherwise.
Rastogi said the vast majority of the startup’s revenue today comes from international markets, especially North America. The startup said its platform is especially popular among FMCG and e-commerce firms as well as those who need distribution partners.
Locus enters into categories where the cost of logistics is a big portion of the cost of goods sold and where the profit margin is thin. Varsha Tagare, Sr. Director at Qualcomm Technologies and Managing Director at Qualcomm Ventures, said:
“Locus’ smart product suite is optimizing supply chain efficiencies by using machine learning to deliver real-time tracking and insights for the last mile fulfilment. We’re excited to invest in Locus to enable logistics as a service and support their journey to become a global last-mile automation leader.”
The startup plans to deploy the new capital to expand to additional markets and also broaden its technology team.
