Indonesian logistics startup Paxel announced it has received $23 million in Series C funding, led by PT Astra Digital Internasional, the venture builder arm of local conglomerate Astra. Other investors include Central Capital Ventura (CCV), MDI Ventures, SIG, Endeavour Catalyst, FJ Labs and PT Amsaka Investama Sejahtera.
The announcement confirmed DealStreetAsia’s earlier report based on a filing with Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA). The filing showed that Astra Digital led the round with a $14.5 million contribution.
With this funding, Paxel plans to expand its network outside Java, strengthen last-mile services in cold chain and fulfilment cold chain, allowing it to serve the business-to-customer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) segments.
“Paxel also plans to improve human resources and technology quality to reach sustainability growth,” the startup said in a statement. Paxel has seen its revenue jump 240% in the last four years while its user base has grown 176% every year.
The investment in Paxel is in line with Astra’s strategy to accelerate digital transformation.
“As a logistics startup, Paxel gives much support to SME players, which aligns with our strategy to maximise Indonesia’s digital economy potential,” Djony Bunarto Tjondro, president director of Astra Internasional, said.
CCV, as the venture capital (VC) of Indonesia’s largest private bank BCA, has begun to expand into embedded financial services such as logistics and e-commerce through the investment in Paxel, said its president director Armand Widjaja.
Kenneth Li, managing partner of MDI Ventures, said the venture firm was keen to invest in Paxel as it has created a solution to deliver products from one city to another in less than 24 hours.
Paxel was founded in 2017 by Bryant Christanto, Zaldy Masita and Johari Zein. The startup offers 2-hour and same-day deliveries, smart lockers for rental and package drop-off/pickup and an online marketplace for food and food ingredients.
Paxel had secured $9.4 million in fresh funding in February from MDI Ventures, KB-MDI Centauri Fund, SIG and Luminary Media Nusantara, its ACRA filings showed. The startup had raised $35.8 million in external funding before the Series C round. Its other investors include East Ventures and Agaeti Venture Capital.
Indonesia’s freight and logistics market is estimated to grow from $81.3 billion in 2020 to $138.04 billion by 2026 driven by the growth of e-commerce and rapid adoption of digital technology, according to Mordor Intelligence.
Freight logistics marketplace Kargo Technologies has been in the market to raise $50 million to fund its expansion while tech-enabled logistics services provider Shipper is understood to have received fresh commitments worth around $65 million in an ongoing fundraising round. DealStreetAsia earlier reported that the latter is attempting to raise a total of $100 million to fuel its expansion.
Most recently, Thailand-born on-demand logistics company Deliveree announced a $70-million Series C round to rev up its expansion in Indonesia, among other markets.