Kargo, a logistics startup based in Indonesia, announced in late March that it has received USD 7.6 million seed funding. The investment was led by Sequoia Capital India and sourced from 10100 Fund (VC firm set up by Uber founder Travis Kalanick), Agaeti Ventures, Intudo Ventures, Zhenfund, ATM Capital, Innoven Capital and Patrick Walujo, co-founder of Northstar Group.
Kargo was founded by former Uber executive, Tiger Fang, along with Yodi Aditya, who has experience building online platforms for the logistics, aviation and financial industries and is Kargo’s CTO. The main goal of the company is to connect shippers and transporters directly, removing middlemen who broker logistics and trucking deals. Shippers, transporters and truckers can connect, transact and track shipments in real time on Kargo’s platform, which they can access via the website and mobile app. Kargo verifies all transporters and continuously monitors their performance. Payment is disbursed to transporters once shipment is completed.
Although Kargo is focusing on Indonesia for now, it has aims to become a global company, citing China’s Full Truck Alliance Group and India’s Blackbuck as examples.
The challenges of logistics on the Indonesian archipelago are massive and several startups are trying to use technology to address the issues. Another logistic startup Sicepat Ekspres raised USD 50 million in April 2019 in one of the largest Series A funding rounds in South East Asia, led by Barito Teknologi and Kejora InterVest Growth Fund.
(Sources: Techcrunch; Techinasia)
