Connect with us

Tech News

On-demand logistics startup Lalamove raises $300M for Asia growth and becomes a unicorn – TechCrunch

Published

on

Lalamove, a Hong Kong-based on-demand logistics startup, has closed a $300 million Series D round as it seeks expansion across Asia. In doing so, the company has officially entered the unicorn club.

Founded in 2013 by Stanford graduate Shing Chow, Lalamove provides logistics and delivery services in a similar style to ride-hailing apps like Uber but it is primarily focused on business and corporate customers. That gives it more favorable economics and a more loyal customer base than its consumer-focused peers, who face discount wars to woo fickle consumers.

This new round is split into two, Lalamove said, with Hillhouse Capital leading the ‘D1’ tranche and Sequoia China heading up the ‘D2’ portion. The company didn’t reveal the size of the two pieces of the round. Other investors that took part included new backers Eastern Bell Venture Capital and PV Capital and returning investors ShunWei Capital — the firm founded by Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun — Xiang He Capital and MindWorks Ventures .

The deal takes Lalamove to over $460 million raised to date, and it follows a $100 million Series C that closed in late 2017. Lalamove isn’t disclosing a valuation but Blake Larson, the company’s head of international, told TechCrunch that it has been “past unicorn mark for quite some time [but] we just don’t talk about it.” That figures given the size of the round and the fact that Lalamove was just shy of the $1 billion mark for that Series C.

The Lalamove business is anchored in China where it covers over 130 cities with a network of over two million drivers covering vans, cars and motorbikes.

Beyond China, Lalamove is present in its native Hong Kong — where Uber once briefly tried a similar service — Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, where it works with popular chat app Line. All told, it covers 11 cities outside of China and this new capital will go towards expanding that figure with additional city launches in Southeast Asia and entry to India.

“If we do this well, then we are in countries that are more than half the world’s population,” Larsen said in an interview, although he didn’t rule out the potential for Lalamove to expand beyond Asia in the future.

There are also plans to grow the business in mainland China in terms of both geography and new services. Already, Lalamove has begun to offer driver services, starting with financing packages to help drivers with vehicle purchasing, and it is developing dedicated corporate offerings, too.

Lalamove CEO Shing Chow started Lalamove in late 2013, his past roles have included time with Bain & Company, a number of startup ventures — including a Hong Kong-based skin center — and a stint as a professional poker player

Overall, the business claims to have registered 3 million drivers to date and served more than 28 million users across all cities. With its headquarters in Hong Kong, it employs some 4,000 people across its business.

Rival GoGoVan exited through a merger with China-based 58 Suyun in 2017, at a claimed valuation of $1 billion, but Lalamove has remained independent and stuck to its guns. Larson said that already it is profitable in “a significant amount” of cities and typically, he said, the blueprint is to reach profitability within two years of opening a new location.

“The focus has always been on sustainable growth and we’re very strong on the cash flow front,” the former Rocket Internet executive added.

Larson and Lalamove have been very forthcoming in their desire to go public in Hong Kong, noting so publicly as early as 2017 at a TechCrunch China event in Shenzhen. That desire is still evident — “we’re very proud to be from Hong Kong and Hong Kong would be a good place for an IPO,” Larson said this week — but still the company said that it has no particular plan on the cards, despite its consumer-focused peers Uber and Lyft lining up IPOs in the U.S. this year.

“We don’t spend maybe even five minutes a year talking about it,” Larsen told TechCrunch. “The discussion is really ‘Let’s make sure we’re IPO ready’ because sometimes there are macroeconomic conditions you can’t control.”

Clearly, investors are bullish and it is notable that Lalamove’s new round comes at a time when many Chinese companies are downsizing their staff, with the likes of Didi, Meituan and JD.com announcing cuts and refocusing strategies in recent weeks.

“[Lalamove CEO and founder] Shing is a role model for Hong Kong’s new generation of innovative entrepreneurs,” said Sequoia China founder and managing partner Neil Shen. “Raised in Hong Kong and educated at Stanford University, Shing returned and plunged himself in the entrepreneurial wave of ‘Internet Plus,’ becoming a figure of entrepreneurial success.”

Source link

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Tech News

The BMW XM’s Boldest And Brightest New Options, Ranked

Published

on

Thank heavens BMW resisted the urge to grab the new XM with eye-searing paint colors. Instead, it has the typical blacks, whites, and grays, but it does have a bright red (Toronto Red Metallic) and a deep blue (Marina Bay Blue metallic) hue at no extra cost. The eccentric madness of options starts with the wheels — the XM’s 23-inch M Light alloys in gold (pictured above), which is a unique touch for a large SUV. Thankfully, you can have the same wheels in a more subdued steel gray option, and the standard 22-inch rollers are not that bad.

The BMW XM gets a standard Merino cowhide upholstery with a black-on-black theme, but the $1,500 Sakhir Orange leather option is worth every penny, standing out even more with a combined black accent. For $1,000 more, however, the Silverstone gray leather with a vintage coffee ceiling and door panels is a refreshing aesthetic. However, BMW’s vintage coffee interior theme looks best with the Deep Lagoon teal leather upholstery (pictured above), which costs the same at $2,500.

BMW wants XM buyers to go crazier with its NightGold Metallic exterior trim, a no-cost styling option that matches well with the gold wheels. The package includes a gold-metallic accent band that runs from ahead of the A-pillars and wraps around the side windows (pictured above), the outer border of the front kidney grilles, and the rear diffuser. Another no-cost option is M Sport Brakes with blue or red calipers, and exclusive M logos.

With base prices starting at $160,00, the all-new BMW XM is a big, bold, powerful SUV that screams money and privilege. It exists in a world littered with Lambos, Aston Martins, Maybachs, Bentleys, and Rolls-Royces, but none feels more forward-looking as the XM.

Continue Reading

Tech News

This Jet-Powered Soviet Airliner Had A Unique (But Dangerous) Design

Published

on

As any aviation enthusiast will tell you, the name “de Havilland” is synonymous with the history of the jet engine. The British de Havilland Comet was the first of its kind — a jet airliner that would revolutionize air travel and pave the way for other airliners to follow. Its first prototype launched in 1949, according to the Royal Air Force Museum. After two disasters, the result of structrual deficiencies, the Comet 1 was retired.

But the Soviet Union unleashed its own jet airliner: the Tupolev TU-104. The body of a TU-16, another Soviet bomber, was adapted to add more passenger space inside, and the aircraft switched from a military to a commercial capacity. 

In authorities’ zeal to put the Soviet stamp on the history of global jet travel, about 10,000 staff members worked on the plane, and its flight debut occurred several weeks earlier than originally intended. This seemed to mean, though, that testing wasn’t as rigorous as it could have been, and the aircraft was plagued by problems as a result.

Continue Reading

Tech News

Apple’s Vision Pro Headset Is Also A 3D Camera

Published

on

According to Apple, all of the videos and photos captured using the Vision Pro’s 3D camera will offer a more immersive experience compared to content captured with ordinary content. That’s not to say that you can’t experience your existing Photos library with the headset, however, and Apple notes that panoramas can be viewed wrapped around the user — though only if those panoramas were captured with an iPhone, by the sounds of it.

The content appears within large windows placed in the user’s own environment, meaning the videos are watched on a large virtual screen that, in a way, is like a huge living painting positioned in one’s living room or office. These videos can be played alongside other apps available on the Apple Vision Pro, and they include expected controls like the ability to scrub through the videos, pause videos, expand photos to larger sizes, and similar. To no one’s surprise, the camera and headset both play well with other Apple products like FaceTime, as well.

Continue Reading

Trending