Lightspeed Leads $8 Mn Funding In B2B Logistics Startup Freight Tiger

Mumbai-based B2B logistics tech startup Freight Tiger has raised $8 Mn in a fresh funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Dalmia Group’s Alsthom Industries and Pawan Munjal Family Trust also participated in the round.

With the fresh funding, Freight Tiger plans to connect with more customers, expand its product and technology. It will be leveraging artificial intelligence as well as machine learning and build industry specific AI extensions on the platform. Prior to this round, the company has raised seed funding from Shriram Transport Finance Corporation and Mathew Cyriac, former co-CEO of Blackstone’s India Office.

Founded in 2015 by Swapnil Shah, Freight Tiger is a real time logistics visibility and collaboration technology platform. They aim to bring 100% visibility into every freight transaction including shipments on market trucks and build a single version of truth for all the stakeholders involved.

“For premium customers, we provide comprehensive data analytics dashboard, control tower software and managed services where we provide skilled control tower manpower resources for exception and escalation handling,” the company’s press release said.

It claims that Freight Tiger has over 170 customers including Saint Gobain, JSW Steel, Apollo Tyres and logistics companies such as BLR Logistiks and several 3PLs.

Bejul Somaia, managing director, Lightspeed India said “The past couple of years has seen rapid technology adoption by Indian Enterprises and Freight Tiger has been at the forefront of powering supply chains for some of India’s largest companies through its depth and breadth of software products.”

Indian logistics sector is currently valued at $160 Bn and is poised to hit $215 Bn by 2020. But it is highly defragmented and complex. The Economic Survey 2017-18 showed that the Indian logistics sector provides livelihood to more than 22 Mn people and improving the sector will facilitate 10% decrease in indirect logistics cost leading to the growth of 5 to 8% in exports.

According to Inc42’s State of The Indian Startup Ecosystem 2018 Report, India had over 900 logistics startups as of November 2018. Between 2014 and 2018, these startups have raised over $1.4 Bn funding across 115 deals.

This continuous investor attention and consumer need has given rise to multiple unicorns in the logistics industry itself. SoftBank itself has backed logistics unicorn Delhivery, which competes with other major players such as unicorn startup BlackBuck and more.