Comet, a marketplace for international freight services has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed funding round led by India Quotient, the Mumbai-based early stage VC fund. Rajul Garg, founders of BlackBuck, Rajesh Yabaji, Chanakya Hridaya, Ramasubramaniam B, and Vishwanathan have also invested in their personal capacity. Other investors include Dubai-based Nobel House, Sunstone Capital, and Alok Mittal.
The company plans to utilise this round of funding to build the team, technology, and increase market penetration.
Speaking on the investment, Madhukar Sinha, co-founder and Partner, India Quotient said, “International logistics is complex and there is a need of transparency in this very large fragmented market. The problem statement was clear and the founder’s ambition to solve the customer experience in international trade using technology and automation got us to back them”.
The company was founded in June 2016 by Chitransh Sahai, Gautam Prem Jain, Ayush Lodhi, and Mehul Katiyar, young IIT-Delhi graduates—who co-founded and sold Plat to Housing.com in June 2015.
Comet is a platform for international B2B freight service providers and clients, to manage everything from booking containers to tracking and custom clearances, all from a single dashboard.
Talking about the platform, Chitransh Sahai, co-founder Comet said, “We are creating a centralised system which can coordinate international freight service providers, transport companies, CFS’s (container freight stations), and customs operations. The idea is to bring down the opacity in the international freight management industry and thus improve time and cost efficiencies.”
It also takes the responsibility to manage all paperwork to ensure end-to-end cargo delivery internationally, through roads, sea, and air. The Comet marketplace offers a technology-enabled system to move, track, and manage their cargo across the globe. The company claims to have seen a considerable traction in trade heavy routes like China-to-India and India-to-UAE.
Earlier in August 2016, courier service provider Pigeon Express Pvt. Ltd was in talks to acquire the Gurgaon-based delivery startup GoJavas. The latter was out in the market looking for buyers after it temporarily suspended its operations last week due to ‘technical issues.’ GoJavas laid off at least 1,500 delivery personnel and delivery hub executives.
Other startups in this segment include Delhivery, EcomExpress, and QuikPod.
