Lalamove, also known as EasyVan grabbed another US$10 million in venture capital funding today led by Hong Kong’s Mindwork ventures. The shareholders, also present in previous round of funding, included Crystal Steam from China, AppWorks of Taiwan and Hong Kong’s Aria Group with Asia Plus of Thailand joining the panel for the first time.
The deal brings company’s total funding to US$30 million till date with previous two rounds each worth US$10 million held in January this year and September of 2015. The company currently operating in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei and 15 cities in China will use the money to expand its business across South East Asia and targets more provinces of mainland China. Lalamove’s CEO and founder Ching Show, said,
While very few startups thrive in South East Asia and China we are thrilled to show such growth in past 18 months.
The on-demand delivery service connects drivers of trucks, vans and motorcycles with customers in need of transporting goods. The company was founded in 2013 with the aim of serving Small and Medium-sized enterprises and broadened its service since then to serve large corporations like Google, LINE and IKEA.
Statistics released by Lalamove show it had more than 30,000 drivers across its various markets, with 8,000 operating in China. The company claims to have recently sent out its one millionth delivery in the region. Other than focussing on expansion Chow aims to achieve profitability. He added,
We will be profitable for all cities that opened prior to this year. New cities take a little bit of time to be profitable but we are proving that they have a clear path to actually make that happen.
Recently, Lalamove partnered with LINE, the popular messaging app in Thailand to deliver food via a restaurant database, Wongai. The collaboration puts Lalamove in food delivery vertical competing with other firms.
Lalamove faces tough competition with its rival GogoVan, another Hong Kong startup, the latter claiming to have 150,000 drivers in the company. According to a source, GogoVan has raised funding of $26.5 million altogether with its recent funding round being an undisclosed amount from Alibaba announced on May 11.
