Logistics automation start-up Locus raises US$ 22 mn from Tiger, Falcon Edge

Bengaluru: Locus, a logistics automation start-up, has raised $22 million from Tiger Global Management and Falcon Edge Capital, the company said on Monday. The series B round also saw participation from existing investors Exfinity Venture Partners and Blume Ventures.

This is the six investment by Tiger over the past six months, after Ninjacart, Facilio, Fyle, CleverTap and Zenoti. The New York-based investor is focusing on business-to-business (B2B) and software-as-a-service (Saas) deals as it renews pace of India investments after the departure of Lee Fixel. Falcon Edge, which has close ties to Tiger, is an investor in Ola DailyHunt, Quikr, Aye Finance and National Stock Exchange, among others.

Locus offers a Saas platform to delivery and logistics services companies, automating a part of the process that earlier required manual decision making. The company’s logistics optimization solutions includes route optimization, real-time tracking of orders, and analytics, which, it claims, gets more efficient with use.

“Locus provides autonomous supply chain optimization thus minimizing the dependency on human intelligence, built by an incredible team of PhDs & Engineers. Product applications include clubbing of forward and reverse logistics in a single route plan, schedule and on-demand dispatch planning, and automatic escalation management,” Nishith Rastogi, chief executive officer at Locus said in a statement.

The company plans to use fresh capital for expansion and hiring chiefly in the North American markets, and investment in technology,

Serial entrepreneurs Nishith Rastogi and Geet Garg, who earlier started location-based chat forum PinChat and mobility service RideShare, launched Locus in 2015. Locus raised $4 million in series A funding in June last year from investors including Rocketship.vc, Recruit Strategic Partners, pi Ventures, Blume Ventures, Exfinity Venture Partners, BeeNext and growX ventures.

Among its clients today are Blue Dart, BigBasket, LensKart, UrbanLadder, Unilever and Myntra, according to its website. The company is present in US, Indonesia, Singapore, India, and Australia currently.

“We believe the trillion dollar global logistics market is ripe for disruption via technological change, particularly AI and machine learning driven solutions. We are excited to lead a Series B round in Locus, a company that deploys AI/ML/deep tech to drive route optimization outcomes in global logistics markets.. We are excited to help Locus expand its breadth and depth of product and sales reach, moving from route optimization to a full-stack SaaS offering to the enterprise around its logistics needs.” said Navroz D. Udwadia, co-founder, Falcon Edge.

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