Lalamove, an Uber-esque delivery service for logistics, has successfully raised $10 million to expand its brand and presence into Southeast Asia and China. The company already operates in six cities.
Lalamove, which originated in Hong Kong in December 2013, allows its customers to transport items across a city using its network of drivers through both its iOS and Android apps. The business model for Lalamove is similar to Uber as anyone with a valid driver license can register and drive as a ‘regular’ driver.
Involved in the $10 million investment round are China’s Crystal Stream Capital, Geek Founders, Mindworks Ventures, Sirius Venture Capital and Aria Group, along with a number of unnamed individual investors.
Executive Blake Larson of the delivery service Lalamove told Techcrunch in an interview that money will be used to strengthen its position in its existing markets – such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Taipei, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen as well as to “further penetrate” China and enter more parts in Southeast Asia.
Blake Larson continued, “Last mile logistics booming in Southeast Asia. We find the region interesting because it is still so fragmented…but any time there are these challenges, there is a higher reward for solving them.”
Lalamove has joined the ensemble of on-demand startups to use WeChat as a platform after it made its delivery service available inside the Tencent-owned messaging app. Uber rival Didi Dache experienced success after using the platform by having its own service boosted to 40 million registered users from the original 20 million registered users in 2013. In addition, Didi Dache, as of February 2014, gets an average of 700,000 bookings per day via WeChat.
Lalamove, known by its original name EasyVan in China and Hong Kong has over 60 staff members. Another in-demand rival company, GoGoVan, raises $6.5 million round along with a $10 investment from Chinese social network RenRen last year. Larson added, “This year is about proving that our model works in different cities”.
This article was syndicated from Business 2 Community: Delivery Service Lalamove Raises $10M To Become Uber For Logistics
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