Supply chain has a problem. Several of them, actually. The most recent being those that the COVID-19 trade disruptions have revealed such as the need for digital and paperless trade procedures to facilitate cross-border movement of critical goods during global health emergencies while maintaining open trade regimes for equitable access to essential goods.
But while global supply chains have largely bounced back as economies reopen borders and rebound, the supply chain issues have not gone away.
Trade costs continue to rise, with international shipping costs recently surging to an all-time peak according to the Asian Development Bank. This may further disrupt the international supply chain with its heavy reliance on sea freight transport.
But rising costs have a larger snowball effect on inflation in countries that import more, as well as those who typically pay higher freight costs including island states such as Indonesia.
Solving global logistics pain points
The archipelago nation has birthed many logistics startups, but most of these only operate in one vertical or a subset of the global supply chain. Not Andalin. The startup, which was founded in October 2016 by Rifki Pratomo (CEO), Ivhan Famly Gunawan (CTO), and Saut Tambunan (COO), aims to simplify international trade in Southeast Asia through a single platform that integrates international shipping, financial services, distribution and procurement services.
Speaking to e27, Pratomo said: “International trade is the backbone of the world’s economy. However, it’s a complex and very fragmented industry that is built upon three main activities: movement of goods (shipping); procurement and distribution (buying and selling goods); as well as financial and insurance services. Each of these activities has its challenges.
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“In international shipping, businesses face unpredictable shipping schedules and space availability, inconsistent and volatile pricing, and inefficient management through manual coordination via hundreds of emails, resulting in lack of traceability.
“In procurement and distribution, there is no single comprehensive platform that provides a curated list of trading partners with online transactions, that is also integrated with shipping and trade service capabilities. Thus, buyers and sellers have limited options when looking for new trading partners.
“On top of that, international trade finance is still heavily dominated by conventional banking infrastructure, which lacks flexibility and speed to address the high dynamics of international trade requirements,” Pratomo illustrated.
Andalin believes that Southeast Asia is ripe for revolutionising, given that its intra-regional trade accounts for 25% of global trade, a massive market with a huge economic potential to capture.
Evolving into digital freight forwarders
International trade and international shipping have always been managed manually through multiple chains of emails between 12-15 different stakeholders for a single transaction.
Andalin co-founders got together in 2016 to start building the platform, starting with digital international shipping solutions, and in 2017 launched a marketplace connecting freight forwarding companies with cargo owners.
Pratomo recounted, “As we grew, we found that marketplace approach is not the right scalable model for this region and acquired the license to operate as a freight forwarder. In 2020, we launched our digital freight forwarding business, developing our platform to simplify and synchronize the shipping process for our clients, our team and our partners.
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“The successful combination of the right technology, process, and human capital has allowed us to provide superior service which resulted in our continuous growth till today, gaining the trust and business of over 150 medium to large sized enterprises in Indonesia.
“From Day 1, Andalin does not consider itself to merely be a logistics provider. Unlike the current solution in the market which tends to provide service only in a single domain (e.g. freight forwarding solutions focusing on international shipping services only), Andalin views the international trade problem, solution and opportunity holistically,” Pratomo emphasised.
“In the future, we will explore and introduce other services into the platform, which potentially includes trading, financing and insurance services, to fulfil our vision of providing an end-to-end platform for international trade in Southeast Asia,” he said.
Make it simple and easy
Andalin aims to reform and simplify the complexity of international trade activities through its integrated end-to-end digital platform – also on mobile via the Andalin Go launched in May 2021.
Through its in-house developed technology customised for international supply chain needs, Andalin has provided better service levels compared to industry standards. For example, Andalin can issue price quotations to clients within 24 hours, compared to the industry norm of five to seven working days.
The digitisation of otherwise cumbersome manual tasks and shortened time taken have resulted in Andalin clients benefitting from up to 50% reductions in manual administrative work and at least 15% lower costs compared to their previous freight forwarding service providers.
“Our shipping schedule and price integrity, supplemented by our platform’s transparency, have enabled Andalin clients to better plan for their supply chain activities, minimising the risk of manufacturing downtime and/or delayed distribution,” Pratomo said.
To date, Andalin’s freight forwarders have covered shipping routes to over 160 countries in the world, with the most popular routes in the Asia Pacific and Southeast Asia. Its clients include well-known names such as Wings Group, Kawan Lama Group, Kino, Rentokil, and REDAChem.
The next building block, integrated solutions
As Andalin’s profile continues to grow, Pratomo and his team have been on a launching spree over the past year, rolling out services that are targeted at different supply chain pain points, while continuing to integrate global trade markets.
In May 2021, Andalin Go was launched, empowering customers to operate and monitor their shipments on the go, get instant quotes, and discuss operational technical details with the Andalin team in real-time.
This was followed in November 2021 by Andalin Get, which addresses the scarcity of container cargo along the busy Indonesia-U.S. trade route. Andalin Get converts shipments that were previously FCL (full container load) into several smaller shipments (LCL or less container load), to ensure delivery of goods is not hampered. Andalin also guarantees LCL space availability as well as on-schedule departures.
The results? From February to December 2021, Andalin’s monthly revenue grew by 690%, while recording a 10.6x increase in total containers shipped.
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These innovations quickly drew the attention of investors, and in February 2022, Andalin secured a US$4 million round led by Intudo Ventures. Two months later, Andalin signed an MoU with Vietnam’s leading industrial developer Becamex IDC Corp, to boost trade between Indonesia and Vietnam.
To build a complete foundation of doing international trade activities, Andalin has just recently launched the Andalin Trade platform in June 2022. The platform enables manufacturers and distributors across Southeast Asia to buy and sell from each other. Through Andalin Trade, manufacturers and distributors simplify the process of sourcing, supplying, and negotiating for products with international counterparts. Users can bid and transact online, and instantly procure Andalin Shipping services from the platform.
“The integration does not stop there, as we will open our platform to collaborate with other businesses and institutions which provide services related to international trade, hence allowing us to reach our grand vision of establishing a one-stop integrated platform that simplifies international trade activities in Southeast Asia,” Pratomo said.
To explore Andalin’s various trade and logistics offerings, visit andalin.com
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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by Andalin
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