Shipper Announces Series A Funding, Led by Prosus Ventures

Platform developer startups and marketplace logistics Shipper today (18/6) announced the acquisition of a series A funding. No mention of the amount obtained, this investment was led by Prosus Ventures (formerly Naspers Ventures) with the support of Lightspeed, Floodgate, Y Combinator, Insignia Ventures, and AC Ventures.

Actually this funding rumor has been circulating since last month, sources say the value obtained is up to US$20 million or equivalent to 283 billion Rupiah. However, the Shipper and investors are reluctant to comment on this.

Company closed seed round In September 2019, they posted US$5 million in funding from Lightspeed Ventures Partners, Floodgate Ventures, Insignia Ventures Partners, Convergence Ventures, and Y Combinator. Shipper is also part of the Y Combinator startup accelerator program for the Winter 2019 period.

Debuted since 2017, Shipper was founded by Budi Handoko and Phil Opamuratawongse. Their service allows SMEs to have a logistics dashboard, to find the most efficient and inexpensive shipping service according to the goods/destinations. They also provide API-based services, to be integrated into a digital application.

"With this investment, Shipper will continue to grow and continue to seek quality local talent to join us in building strong data through technology to structure the fulfillment of logistics and shipping needs that are not yet well structured," said Shipper Co-Founder & COO Budi Handoko.

With this latest investment Shipper will expand their range of solutions and assist consumers in finding the best shipping partner; without the need to spend time considering cost comparisons, orders, tracking, and insurance. Currently, Shipper has worked with more than 100 express couriers.

Logistics business challenges

According to data compiled by ResearchAndMarkets.com, Indonesia's logistics market is projected to reach US$240 billion in 2021, this figure is almost the same as the estimated US$215 billion logistics market in India in 2020. One of them is driven by business growth. E-commerce, especially driven by the SME sector.

Despite being large, according to Shipper, the logistics market in Indonesia is still very inefficient. In the city tier 2 give tier 3, shipping costs often add up to 40% of the total transaction in E-commerce, thus becoming a major barrier for people in these cities to adopt E-commerce en masse.

"Shipper is here as a solution to three main problems in the logistics aspect in Indonesia, starting from the selection of shipping services, complicated warehousing, lack of price transparency, and the ability to track routes that are still below average," added Budi.

In Indonesia, the e-logistics platform continues to grow. For platforms , besides Shipper there is also Angelo which was inaugurated at the end of 2019. The types of logistics services offered include last mile delivery, cargo via air and sea, customs services, to warehousing.

In addition, with a model that is more integrated with the platform, Bukalapak has also launched OpenSend. Aggregating services from logistics partners who have joined the company to make it easier for consumers to make deliveries and order couriers.