Indonesian logistics startup Kargo raises US$7.6M in seed funding round
Indonesia-based logistics startup Kargo today announced that they have raised a US$7.6 million seed funding round led by Sequoia Capital India.
Travis Kalanick’s 10100 fund; Pandu Sjahrir’s Agaeti Ventures; Patrick Walujo, co-founder of Northstar Group; Intudo Ventures; Zhenfund; ATM Capital; and Innoven Capital also participated in the funding round.
The company plans to use the new funding round to invest further in its infrastructure and technology. It also plans to speed up talent acquisitions in the Indonesian market.
Kargo was founded in 2018 by CEO Tiger Fang, who launched Uber’s operations in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and scaled operations in Indonesia and Western China, serving as General Manager.
He was also part of the founding management team at Lazada Thailand and Vietnam.
The company’s co-founder also included CTO Yodi Aditya, who had experiences in building platform solutions across the logistics, airline and finance industries in both Indonesia and Singapore.
Kargo’s team also included alumni from Uber global team and Indonesia’s leading tech startups.
According to Kargo, trucks delivering goods from urban production centres often make the return trip empty with drivers for day-to-day trucking gigs being typically sourced through multiple phone calls and Whatsapp groups.
Contracts for the drivers are often handwritten and payments sometimes made months after the driver finishes delivery.
The company aims to make freight logistics industry more efficient, transparent, and accountable by using a platform that enables shippers, transporters, and truckers to connect, transact, and track shipments.
“Kargo’s platform is designed to solve the problem of unreliable availability, opaque pricing and lack of trust with payment cycles with an easy-to-use mobile app,” said Fang.
“The idea is to drive efficiencies for both shippers and transporters in a way that creates greater utility of available trucks. Shippers and transporters can strike deals transparently with the comfort of knowing that they are dealing with verified, trusted, high-quality partners. This framework will go a long way in raising the earning potential of truck drivers, and making sure that not a single truck will ever hit the road empty again,” he added.