6 Hong Kong Logistics Startups You Should Know

Hong Kong is one of the leading logistics hubs globally, the trading and logistics sector generate 22.3 percent of the total GDP of Hong Kong. A lot of manufacturing, supply chain, and shipping business set up an office in Hong Kong, taking advantage of its great strategic location as the gateway to China and easy access to the rest of the world.

Logistics startups in Hong Kong have been striving to enhance the efficiency in the sector and reshape the industry, here are the 6 startups that caught our eye.

Lalamove

Lalamove, a mobile application for delivery service in Asia, raised US$30 million in Series B in January 2017, in a round led by Beijing’s Xianghe Capital with the participation from Blackhole Capital, Mindworks Ventures, and Crystal Stream Capital. With the Series B funding, Lalamove plans to expand its operation from 45 cities to 100 cities across 10 countries in 2017.

As of today, Lalamove has raised US$61.5 million in 5 rounds from 11 investors, including MindWorks Ventures, Crystal Stream Capital, AppWorks Ventures, Aria Group, Geek Founders, Sirius Venture Capital, Crystal Stream, 01vc and Asia Plus.

Founded in 2013 by Shing Chow, co-founder and CEO, Lalamove (previously EasyVan) is an online platform that connects users with professional drivers, simplifying the delivery process and revolutionizing the logistics industry. Lalamove has operations over 80 cities including Bangkok, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taipei. It also operates in mainland China. The company currently has over 5 million registered users and 500,000 drivers on its network.

Shing Chow mentioned during his interview with SCMP earlier this year, that he was contemplating listing the company in Hong Kong or overseas.

GoGoVan

(Updated on August 30, 2017)

GoGoVan, a Hong Kong-based van-hailing app, has become the first “unicorn” in Hong Kong officially.

Announced on August 29, 2017, during a joint press conference, GoGoVan has agreed to a merger with 58 Suyun, the freight business arm of Chinese online classifieds giant 58 Home. The merged company would be a startup valued at over US$1 billion, however, it declines to give a specific valuation.

In May 2016, GoGoVan has raised an undisclosed amount in a Series C round led by New Horizon Capital. Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund, Singapore Press Holdings, Hotung Investment Holdings, and existing investors also took part in the round.

The startup has also secured US$10 million Series B-plus funding from former 91 Wireless CEO Hu Zemin, Renren CEO Yizhou Chen and other existing investors. RenRen has also invested US$10 million in Series B in November 2014.

Adding the US$6.5 million Series A funding from Centurion Investment Management and several Singapore-based angel investors, the 4 rounds of funding brought its total disclosed equity funding to US$26.5 million before the merger.

Founded in 2013 by Steven Lam Hoi-yuen, Nick Tang Kuen-wai, and Reeve Kwan Chun-man, GoGoVan is a mobile application that connects van and truck drivers with customers to offer delivery services and improve logistics efficiency. The startup has over 180,000 registered drivers within its network in 14 cities across 6 countries, including Singapore, South Korea, China, Taiwan, and India.

58 Suyun operates in 100 cities in China, focusing on individual customer services. 58 Suyun, spun out of 58 Home, is backed by Alibaba, private equity firm KKR and Chinese insurer Ping An.

The joint business will be named as 58 Suyun in China and GoGoVan overseas. 58 Suyun will hold the majority stake in the combined company. The company plans to expand to 200 more Chinese cities and provide services to corporate clients in 40 mainland cities. The merged business will further expand its footprint in Southeast Asia in the upcoming two to three years and plans to test new energy and self-driving vehicles in the future.

However, Lalamove and GoGoVan are not the only logistics startups conquering the Asian logistics market. They are up against the Singapore-based Ninja Logistics, who has raised US$30 million Series B in April 2016 and penetrated markets including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

As for the China market, they are facing two huge local players called No.1 Van and LOJI. No.1 Van raised over US$1 billion from SCM China and Sequoia Capital while LOJI raised more than US$126 million from investors including IDG Capital.

Floship

Floship, a global fulfilment provider, has raised US$3.5 million in a pre-series A bridge funding round from Taiwan’s Cherubic Ventures, Hong Kong’s Big Bloom and Empiricus Capital and China’s Regent Capital. Ardent Ventures and Vectr Ventures had led the US$1.2 million seed round funding in September 2015. The two round of funding brought Floship’s total disclosed funding to US$4.7 million. The funding will be used for expansion and product development.

Headquartered in Hong Kong, the world’s leading air cargo hub, Floship offers global e-commerce fulfillment directly from Hong Kong. Floship’s technology integrates with marketplaces and inventory management systems like Shopify, AfterShip, Magento, and WooCommerce. The startup plans to accelerate the service development and build a set of tools to assist online retailers in managing their global fulfilment.

Other than e-commerce fulfilment, Floship also offers crowdfunding fulfilment, allowing clients to ship the rewards to backers globally without hassle. Floship has worked with some of the world’s largest crowdfunding campaigns like Ambi Climate, Nanoleaf and Pressy.

Founded in 2015 by Steve Suh, Floship has partnered with multiple couriers including DHL, UPS, FedEx, Royal Mail and SF Express. The startup has been named by Explore WMS as one of the top 25 supply chain startups.

Easyship

Easyship, an online platform for cross-border logistic solutions to e-commerce companies, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a seed round from 500 Durians, Cyberport Hong Kong and Spiral Ventures. To date, Easyship has raisedUS$2.5 million in funding. The latest funding will be used to fuel its expansion plan in Southeast Asia.

Founded in January 2014 by Reuben Philip Abraham, Augustin Ceyrac and Tommaso Tamburnotti, Easyship provides a one-stop solution for online retailers. Easyship will pick up, pack and ship items from Hong Kong to anywhere in the world. The startup provides access to more than 100 shipping companies.

Easyship’s technology has been integrated with e-commerce platforms including Shopify, Amazon Goods, Etsy, Lazada, and WooCommerce. Easyship also provides API, which online merchants and marketplaces can integrate into their site and give visibility to buyers on delivery time, shipping cost and taxes.

AfterShip

AfterShip, a shipment tracking and label printing platform for e-commerce, has secured US$1 million in Series A from IDG Capital Partners (IDG-Accel), who has also invested in Baidu and Tencent. The funding will be used in product development.

AfterShip was founded in 2011 by the 3-man team at the first Startup Weekend Hong Kong, Techstars’s 54-hour event, where participants create and pitch their business idea and receive feedback. AfterShip works with over 90,000 users across 140 countries, its clients include major e-commerce sites like Groupon Goods, Etsy, Zalora, Shopify, and Lamido. The platform has tracked over 30 million shipments.

AfterShip offers automated tracking service where users can view the latest delivery statuses of all their shipments, making it easy for users to keep track of all shipments in one dashboard and monitor performance of each courier over time. Online merchants can also send out customized delivery status notification messages to customers, making package tracking easy and efficient.

OpenPort

OpenPort raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a Series A round led by Hong Kong based SIG Susquehanna and Caldera Pacific Ventures. It is reported that the aggregate funding in OpenPort would have exceeded US$2 million after the Series A round.

Prior to the Series A round, the startup has also raised US$600,000 in a seed round and another US$500,000 in a bridge round. The three rounds of funding brought OpenPort’s total disclosed funding to US$1.1 million. One of the seed investors is Gabriel Fong of venture builder Jaarvis Labs, who has also invested in GoGoVan.

Founded in May 2015 by co-founder and CEO, Max Ward, OpenPort offers logistics software solutions to increase efficiency and visibility in the supply chain. The startup connects shipper and carriers and allows clients to track delivery on its one-stop platform. OpenPort currently has offices in Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, India, United States and Pakistan. Current competitors in the same area include China’s OTMS and India’s Blackbuck. Max claims OpenPort has its advantage with the two-sided marketplace bridging shippers and transporters.

Also read: 6 E-commerce startups from Hong Kong that raised funds

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