Digital freight management platform Wiz Freight on Tuesday said it has increased a $3.5 million seed round led by Axilor Ventures. Arali Ventures and Foundamental, along with angel funders Ramakant Sharma, co-founder of LivSpace; and Daniel Richner, chairman of M+R Spedag Group, also participated.
Founded by logistics veterans Ramkumar Govindarajan and Ramkumar Ramachandran in August previous year, Chennai-based Wiz Freight’s full stack platform provides enterprises and small and medium businesses (SMBs) to automate their cross-border logistics operations.
“We are witnessing a huge need for digitisation with pandemic-led disruptions in international supply chains. Customers are flocking towards solutions that offer better visibility and control over their shipments. We are delighted by the tremendous response from customers for our tech-led solutions. We are confident that we will be able to create a long term impact in this multi-trillion dollar global trade industry by leveraging technology," stated Wiz co-founder Ramkumar Govindarajan.
The startup serves about 200 enterprise and mid-
market customers through India, South-east Asia and Middle East. “The global freight supply chain is undergoing a generational shift, driven by the surge in cross border demand, the container shortage crisis and Covid-19. The industry has not seen a bigger need than now to get organized, digitize and eliminate layering to enable faster & cost effective shipments. Wiz is best placed to use this as a launchpad to build out their business. We are glad to be leading their seed round and backing their vision of being the largest digital freight platform across emerging markets," stated Nandan Venkatachalam of Axilor.
Wiz Freight targets to become the largest cross-border transporter in emerging markets by 2025 by expanding into South-east Asia, Middle East and Africa by early 2022. It also has plans to provide trade finance and cargo insurance solutions to its customers through strategic partnerships in the future.
"The traditional freight forwarding service players have been a laggard in tech adoption, whereas enterprise customers want a fully digital experience. Wiz’ founders, with their industry experience and tech skills, are best suited to disrupt this industry, and we have already seen this play out in the last 12 months," stated Arun Raghavan, founding partner, Arali Ventures.
The freight industry is fragmented and traditional, with multiple intermediaries between shipping lines and customers. At each level, these intermediaries add in margins that considerably increases the cost of shipment and related inefficiencies. Wiz’s platform aims to resolve these inefficiencies through a combination of a tech-powered platform and a direct integration of logistics providers.
Shubhankar Bhattacharya, general partner at Foundamental stated, “…Cross-border freight represents a large market that is taking centre stage in a post COVID world and yet remains largely undigitized. Wiz's full-stack approach, combined with the founders execution in delivering momentum and growth positions it strongly as a potential winner in this space."
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