Indonesian cold chain solution provider Coldspace has raised $3.8 million in a seed funding round led by Intodo Ventures, Indonesian logistics company ASSA, and agriculture conglomerate Triputra Group, with participation from MKA & ITS.
This marks Coldspace’s first external round of fundraising, per its announcement on Wednesday.
The startup plans to use the proceeds to expand its service capacity for cold storage, reefer trucks, and fulfillment. It is also looking to widen its geographic coverage and launch warehouse and transportation management system solutions as value-added services for customers.
Founded in December 2022, the startup offers integrated cold chain solutions for business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) customers. It provides cold storage facilities and reefer trucks through its own inventory as well as a third-party aggregated marketplace of cold chain partners.
Through its marketplace, Coldspace aims to improve utilisation for partners through supply and demand matching in a good pricing scheme. The firm is also building out cold chain infrastructure to ensure end-to-end climate control of products, as well as providing cold fulfillment solutions to enable quick commerce services through a hub-and-spoke model.
Coldspace CEO and co-founder Arnold Giovanni said, “Building more than 15 distribution points within three months of launch has demonstrated our ability to scale quickly, and we will accelerate this process by leveraging our strategic investors’ logistics ecosystem to provide best-in-class operational excellence and competitive pricing.”
Coldspace is led by Giovanni, head of business development and product Ivan Liadi, head of sales David Loei, and head of finance Jan Sunaryanto.
The firm currently operates in Greater Jakarta, Surabaya, Malang, Bali, and Medan, with plans to expand throughout the country. As of April 2023, it manages 3,000-tonne cold storage capacity and 20 reefer trucks while its marketplace features 30,000 tonne cold storage capacity and 100 reefer trucks operated by Coldspace partners.
With emerging demand for fresh foods, pharmaceuticals, and other temperature-sensitive products, Indonesia has often lacked the climate-controlled infrastructure needed to prevent spoilage, leading to waste and product loss, said Intudo Ventures founding partner Patrick Yip.
“By targeting a fragmented and traditional space marked by inefficiencies and gaps in service, Coldspace is building out a seamless end-to-end cold chain that ensures proper handling of products while providing customers with powerful tech-enabled tools to monitor and manage products throughout the supply chain,” he added.