Waresix, a leading Indonesian logistics tech player, announced today that it had closed a Series A round of funding of US$14.5 million, less than eight months after sealing its pre-A of US$1.6 million round. The Series A round was led by EV Growth, a Southeast Asia growth fund set up by regional VC firm East Ventures; with participation from Indonesia’s SMDV and Jungle Ventures, a Singapore-based VC that invests in category leaders. 

Waresix connects shippers and business with available warehouses and trucks across Indonesia, providing better transparency, quality of service, and improve income for asset owners. Its expansive ecosystem now reaches over 20,000 trucks and 200 warehouse operators across the archipelago. 

“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 maximize space utilization and also avoid trucks with empty miles,” Andree Susanto, co-founder and CEO of Waresix said. 

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 Indonesia’s logistics sector has improved in recent years, the country’s logistics cost-to-GDP ratio of 24% 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 Indonesia SME’s cost of doing business in the domestic economy. 

Waresix aims to improve supply chain efficiency by improving utilization and removing middlemen who broker logistics. It provides multi-modal services including land and marine transportation, general cargo handling, and cold storage to cater inter-island freight movement across Indonesia. 

Andree said, “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. Given our extensive ecosystem, Waresix has the ability to be extremely agile in tackling the many pain points in Indonesia’s logistics sector. 

“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,” Susanto enthused. 

The Indonesian government is currently working to close the country’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. 

Edwin, co-founder said the startup 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 maximize our suppliers’ space utilization. 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,” Edwin added. 

The participation of EV Growth in this Series A round marks the third time East Ventures -- the fund that has backed Tokopedia and Traveloka, two of Indonesia’s four unicorns -- has invested in Waresix. East Ventures also participated in Waresix’s seed funding round in February 2018 and pre-Series A round of US$1.6 million in October 2018. 

Susanto said this vote of confidence from East Ventures, led by founding partner Willson Cuaca, carries much significance. 

“Like many, I’m inspired by Willson’s dedication and the vision of using technology to improve the life of the average Indonesian and his acumen in identifying how the domestic economy’s pain points can be addressed,” Susanto remarked. 

East Ventures Managing Partner Willson Cuaca believes that logistics play an important role in Indonesia’s economic growth. He says, “Put simply, the more efficient our logistics are, the more competitive our products become. This is only one of the simplest examples of how logistics affect the nation’s economy. However, there are many things to be improved in Indonesia. The average logistics cost in Indonesia still make up 24% of the nation’s GDP, and 74% of these costs are spent on transportation.” 

Cuaca continues,"One way to lower the cost is to build a strong and efficient infrastructure, especially for transportation. The government understands this as well, which is why they have been very aggressive in building the infrastructure the past few years, especially in 2015. East Ventures agrees with the government’s initiatives and wants to support it by investing in logistics leaders like Waresix.”