Sequoia’s Surge-backed Locad to launch logistics aggregator platform

Locad, an end-to-end fulfillment service and cloud logistics provider based in the Philippines, is set to unify third-party logistics players under one aggregation platform for merchants.

Through the new platform, which will be launched in January next year, sellers will be able to see shipping options from providers such as Ninja Van, J&T Express, DHL, Entrego, XDE, LBC, and Lalamove. This will allow merchants to easily compare and pick couriers based on preferred parameters like price, pick-up time, and delivery time.

Photo credit: Locad

“As we have worked to build a better fulfillment network, we have realized that shipping, and especially integrating shipping and fulfillment, is a key pillar to close the loop, right all the way to the customer receiving their product,” Constantin Robertz, co-founder and CEO of Locad, told Tech in Asia.

He added that merchants and brands have been requesting the company for such a feature on its platform. But it wasn’t previously possible to create the new feature as all of the company’s services, such as warehousing, carrier integration, fulfillment software, analytics, and inventory access, were bundled together. This made it difficult for the company to add the new aggregated logistics service.

Locad eventually decided to develop a standalone platform, which has already passed testing stage with some clients like Kumu, Etaily, and Havaianas, with other businesses lined up to be onboarded by the end of the year.

This new offering comes from its US$4.9 million seed round led by Sequoia Capital India in July.

(From left) Locad co-founders Shrey Jain, Constantin Robertz, and Jannis Dargel / Photo credit: Locad

Founded in 2020, Locad was the first startup from the Philippines to join a cohort of Surge, Sequoia Capital India’s accelerator program. The company makes order fulfillment easier for direct-to-consumer businesses by taking out a huge part of the work related to product preparation.

“Fulfillment and shipping are essentially the broken link in the ecommerce ecosystem from a merchant perspective, because it’s extremely complex to do this all by yourself,” said Robertz, noting that most small and medium-sized enterprises that started out of passion are finding themselves spending more time on preparing packages and managing deliveries.

Photo credit: Locad

Having been established during the Covid-19 pandemic, the experience allowed Locad to identify with other businesses who similarly saw opportunities within the pandemic-driven landscape.