Waresix connects shippers and business with available warehouses and trucks across Indonesia

Waresix​, an Indonesian logistics tech startup, announced today that it has closed US$14.5 million in Series A round of funding led by EV Growth, a Southeast Asia growth fund set up by regional VC firm East Ventures (investor in Tokopedia and Traveloka).

Local VC firm SMDV and Singapore-based Jungle Ventures also joined the round, which comes less than eight months after raising its pre-Series A of US$1.6 million. Previously, the startup raised a seed round in February 2018.

The fresh financing will be used to expand Waresix’s land transportation service and further strengthen its warehousing network to second-tier cities.

“Our mission ​is to simplify logistics and make it accessible for everyone. With this new capital, we want to scale and expand our coverage to support the digital ​transformation of Indonesia’s US$240 billion domestic freight sector,” Andree Susanto, Co-founder and CEO of Waresix.

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“We will continue developing our land transportation and warehousing network to more second-tier cities across the country and make further improvements to the supply chain process. Indonesia is experiencing an infrastructure growth spurt at the moment thanks to the government’s policies, and this spurt will fuel Waresix’s widening coverage as well,” he added.

According to Co-founder and CFO Edwin Wibowo, Waresix will further invest in R&D to enhance its data analytics capabilities. “Our technology will seamlessly merge data analytics with the logistics infrastructure to give businesses complete control of their goods and maximise our suppliers’ space utilisation. This way, Waresix ensures fast and reliable transportation, while keeping supply chain costs low and predictable.”

“In order to achieve our mission to simplify logistics for all. Waresix will also double down on our people investment, particularly those with data science, operations, logistics, finance, design, marketing, and sales expertise,” Wibowo added.

Founded by Susanto and Wibowo, both alumni of the University of California Berkeley, Waresix basically connects shippers and business with available warehouses and trucks across Indonesia. The  aims to improve supply chain efficiency by improving utilisation and removing middlemen. It provides multi-modal services including land and marine transportation, general cargo handling, and cold storage to cater inter-island freight movement across Indonesia.

The company claims it has over 20,000 trucks and 200 warehouses on its platform.

“We’re leveraging our extensive warehouse network to generate demand and create network effect for our trucking ecosystem. By expanding into the trucking business, we can maximise space utilisation and also avoid trucks with empty miles,” according to Susanto.

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The archipelagic makeup of Indonesia has resulted in one of the highest logistics costs in Asia, accounting for nearly a quarter of the country’s US$1 trillion gross domestic product (GDP). In its 2018 Logistics Performance Index, the World Bank found that while the country’ logistics sector has improved in recent years, its logistics cost-to-GDP ratio of 24 per cent still lags behind that of regional peers Thailand and Malaysia. This high logistics costs not only hamper Indonesia’s industrial competitiveness, but also add to its SMEs’ cost of doing business in the domestic economy.

The government is currently working to close Indonesia’s infrastructure deficit gap via the ​National Medium-Term Development Plan 2015-2019, which aims to build 2,650 km of roads, 15 airports, 24 seaports, and 3,258 km of rail lines.

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