JAPANESE global logistics service company nippon Express 'has been actively exploring the use of external resources, including collaborations with startup companies in Japan and overseas,' the logistics services company said in a statement.
The Tokyo-based Nippon Express said it expects the investment in India-based Wiz Freight will bolster two products it launched last July - e-NX Quote and e-NX Visibility - that enable online rate quoting and tracking.
The investment into Wiz Freight comes as Flexport recently received a US$260 million investment from existing investor Shopify, reports New York's Journal of Commerce.
Founded in 2020, most of Wiz Freight's 900 employees are based in India, although the company does have more than 20 other offices in the UAE, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and the US.
Wiz focuses on digitizing logistics processes at origin markets and then connecting the data from the processes to import teams in developed markets.
'Algorithms can take over regular repetitive tasks but not the ad-hoc and complex problem-solving activities which are common in the industry,' logistics industry veteran Wolfgang Lemacher wrote in a recent LinkedIn post. 'We see that there is 70 per cent to 80 per cent of forwarding processes that can be digitized and automated, a potential that digital forwarders can capture. But then why did digital forwarders fail where incumbents continue to operate profitably?'
Mr Lemacher argued that the 'cheap capital trap' has caught up with the digital forwarding model.
'The challenges faced by these [self-]declared disrupters say less about the weakness of the digital forwarding model, and more about the limitations of mainstream venture capital financing on which the disruptors were built,' he wrote. 'We remain convinced that the logistics industry can benefit from digitalization, but digitalization alone is not enough.'
SeaNews Turkey
The Tokyo-based Nippon Express said it expects the investment in India-based Wiz Freight will bolster two products it launched last July - e-NX Quote and e-NX Visibility - that enable online rate quoting and tracking.
The investment into Wiz Freight comes as Flexport recently received a US$260 million investment from existing investor Shopify, reports New York's Journal of Commerce.
Founded in 2020, most of Wiz Freight's 900 employees are based in India, although the company does have more than 20 other offices in the UAE, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and the US.
Wiz focuses on digitizing logistics processes at origin markets and then connecting the data from the processes to import teams in developed markets.
'Algorithms can take over regular repetitive tasks but not the ad-hoc and complex problem-solving activities which are common in the industry,' logistics industry veteran Wolfgang Lemacher wrote in a recent LinkedIn post. 'We see that there is 70 per cent to 80 per cent of forwarding processes that can be digitized and automated, a potential that digital forwarders can capture. But then why did digital forwarders fail where incumbents continue to operate profitably?'
Mr Lemacher argued that the 'cheap capital trap' has caught up with the digital forwarding model.
'The challenges faced by these [self-]declared disrupters say less about the weakness of the digital forwarding model, and more about the limitations of mainstream venture capital financing on which the disruptors were built,' he wrote. 'We remain convinced that the logistics industry can benefit from digitalization, but digitalization alone is not enough.'
SeaNews Turkey
