THE capturing of a total of US$100 million by two technology providers and the entrance of third-party logistics (3PL) Redwood Logistics to the last-mile optimisation space highlights investors' growing appetite to back projects focused on online shipping and shows how logistics providers are seizing the opportunity.
Supply chain optimisation technology companies Locus and Shippo each announced $50 million in new funding. Locus raised $50 million in a Series C funding round led by GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, with participation from Qualcomm Ventures and existing investors Tiger Global and Falcon Edge, bringing its total funding to $78.8 million, according to Crunchbase.
Founded in 2015, Locus, which uses machine learning and proprietary algorithms to optimise such tasks as last-mile routing, on-time delivery, and reverse logistics, said it will use the funding to grow geographically and build its research and development team to expand its product line.
Shippo raised $50 million from investors led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Shippo provides a last-mile multi-carrier cloud-based software solution used as a standalone or integrated into platforms such as Shopify. Since its founding in 2013, Shippo has raised $154.3 million, according to Crunchbase.
Shippo also plans to use its latest funding to expand geographically and invest in additional technology enhancements.
Meanwhile, third-party provider Redwood Logistics said recently it has acquired Skipjack Supply Chain and Proactive Global Logistics and combined them with its existing services to launch Redwood Parcel. Skipjack is a multi-carrier cloud-based parcel platform that provides rating, labelling, and other capabilities that can be integrated into Oracle transportation and warehouse management applications. Proactive Global Logistics is a non-asset-based parcel service provider that offers contract analysis, procurement, and business intelligence.
Redwood Parcel will provide an integrated parcel solution under Redwood Logistics' broader Logistics Platform as a Service (LPaaS) offering.
'E-commerce continues to emerge as a vital growth channel for many of our customers, and we are pleased to expand our freight management and platform capabilities to offer superior parcel expertise that will drive efficiency in their supply chain planning and operations,' Mark Yeager, CEO of Redwood Logistics, said in a statement.
After increasing 32.4 per cent year over year in 2020, US e-commerce sales remained elevated during the first quarter of 2021, increasing 39 per cent from the first quarter of 2020, according to data from to the US Census Bureau.
With US GDP projected to grow around 6 per cent this year, growth in e-commerce will remain strong even as vaccinations become more readily available and consumers begin to return to in-store spending. According to Brie Carere, vice president and chief marketing and communications officer of FedEx, the US domestic parcel market will hit 100 million packages per day by 2023, pulling volume projections forward by three years from the previous expectation, and 96 percent of that growth will come from e-commerce.
However, increasing volumes are straining capacity availability and on-time performance. In addition, providers are raising rates and surcharges to offset their additional costs and manage demand, reports IHS Media.
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Supply chain optimisation technology companies Locus and Shippo each announced $50 million in new funding. Locus raised $50 million in a Series C funding round led by GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, with participation from Qualcomm Ventures and existing investors Tiger Global and Falcon Edge, bringing its total funding to $78.8 million, according to Crunchbase.
Founded in 2015, Locus, which uses machine learning and proprietary algorithms to optimise such tasks as last-mile routing, on-time delivery, and reverse logistics, said it will use the funding to grow geographically and build its research and development team to expand its product line.
Shippo raised $50 million from investors led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Shippo provides a last-mile multi-carrier cloud-based software solution used as a standalone or integrated into platforms such as Shopify. Since its founding in 2013, Shippo has raised $154.3 million, according to Crunchbase.
Shippo also plans to use its latest funding to expand geographically and invest in additional technology enhancements.
Meanwhile, third-party provider Redwood Logistics said recently it has acquired Skipjack Supply Chain and Proactive Global Logistics and combined them with its existing services to launch Redwood Parcel. Skipjack is a multi-carrier cloud-based parcel platform that provides rating, labelling, and other capabilities that can be integrated into Oracle transportation and warehouse management applications. Proactive Global Logistics is a non-asset-based parcel service provider that offers contract analysis, procurement, and business intelligence.
Redwood Parcel will provide an integrated parcel solution under Redwood Logistics' broader Logistics Platform as a Service (LPaaS) offering.
'E-commerce continues to emerge as a vital growth channel for many of our customers, and we are pleased to expand our freight management and platform capabilities to offer superior parcel expertise that will drive efficiency in their supply chain planning and operations,' Mark Yeager, CEO of Redwood Logistics, said in a statement.
After increasing 32.4 per cent year over year in 2020, US e-commerce sales remained elevated during the first quarter of 2021, increasing 39 per cent from the first quarter of 2020, according to data from to the US Census Bureau.
With US GDP projected to grow around 6 per cent this year, growth in e-commerce will remain strong even as vaccinations become more readily available and consumers begin to return to in-store spending. According to Brie Carere, vice president and chief marketing and communications officer of FedEx, the US domestic parcel market will hit 100 million packages per day by 2023, pulling volume projections forward by three years from the previous expectation, and 96 percent of that growth will come from e-commerce.
However, increasing volumes are straining capacity availability and on-time performance. In addition, providers are raising rates and surcharges to offset their additional costs and manage demand, reports IHS Media.
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