Chennai-based start-up Wiz Freight has raised a Series A funding of ₹275 crore in a mix of equity and debt led by Tiger Global with participation from Axilor Ventures, Foundamental, Arali Ventures, Stride Ventures and Alteria Capital. The investment marks the largest Series A funding in Indian logistics sector. The company will utilise the funds to accelerate its technology research and development and global expansion into Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa with the new investment.
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Founded in August 2020 by Ramkumar Govindarajan and Ramkumar Ramachandran, Wiz Freight helps exporters and importers in emerging markets book and manage their cross-border shipments on its tech platform with e-commerce-like convenience. The start-up claims that its AI-powered platform offers instant capacity discovery, dynamic pricing, optimised routing, door-to-door tracking and automated document workflows saving countless hours for shippers.
Ramkumar Govindarajan, CEO, Wiz Freight said, “Global trade is witnessing all-time high volatility in capacity and rates led by pandemic and the recent geopolitical events causing massive disruptions in supply chain planning & execution for shippers.” He added, “We’re helping customers take control of their supply chains by offering 10x shipment visibility, intelligent risk-optimised routing solutions and multi-carrier capacity offerings through our tech platform and build maximum resilience to avoid business disruptions.”
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"We are excited about partnering with the team at Wiz as they build a leading digital cross-border transporter in emerging markets,” said Griffin Schroeder, partner, Tiger Global.
Currently, the start-up caters to over 1,500 enterprises including Adani, Mahindra, Tata, Aditya Birla and ITC who ship thousands of tons of cargo over air and sea every month using the Wiz platform. The company’s state-of-the-art tech-enabled command centre in Chennai monitors the live execution of 1000s of shipments every month.
The company has been doubling its revenue quarter on quarter. It plans to open two new tech research and development centres in Bengaluru and Singapore where it will carry further development of its AI/ML, blockchain and IoT capabilities to offer intelligent and connected cross-border shipping to its customers. It is looking to double its headcount and grow revenue by 400% in the coming year. The start-up looks to launch operations in 15 other countries in Southeast Asia and Middle East and Africa with Singapore and Dubai as the headquarters for the respective regions by the end of 2022.