Emerging e-commerce brands struggle to compete against the likes of Amazon, Lazada when it comes to efficiently operate their own delivery fleet. Singapore has been witnessing firms specializing in on-demand logistics help companies rid their worries of delivering products. One such firm, CarPal, has secured $2.75 million (S$3.83 million) to further develop its SaaS solution which helps businesses build and control their own fleet of drivers.
The round is led by a group of undisclosed private equity investors with the participation of the existing investor RB Investments. With this fresh inflow of funds, CarPal plans to expand into new markets and new segments that includes growing its R&D and sales team. Prior to this round of funding, CarPal had raised $717K (S$1 million) in pre-series A back in January last year.
The company had launched its SaaS delivery management solution named CarPal Fleet pretty recently. It enables businesses to optimize the routing of delivery orders and match the best available driver. This brings delivery costs down and helps the firms to compete with industry giants such as Zalora and Lazada. Businesses can avail the service and pay for CarPal Fleet via volume-based pricing.
CarPal wants to give firms more control over their delivery fleet and help them find a healthy mix between in-house and third-party drivers, without actually having to purchase any vehicles or hire additional staff. It differentiates itself from other businesses operating in this industry by the fact that it recruits drivers in every market for customers to add to their fleet, taking away the initial recruitment efforts. It claims to have recruited over 10.000 drivers in Singapore alone.
Maarten Hemmes, founder, and CEO of CarPal, said,
Over the past few years we learned that many of our customers wish to build their own fleet of drivers. This is mainly due to specific requirements or SOP. Hence launching a product to give customers full control over the delivery operations made a lot of sense.
With a team of fifteen, CarPal has a presence in in multiple locations in Southeast Asia with “hundreds of customers” all the region. The firm has been witnessing over 200% yearly growth since 2014. Its customers include (full-service) logistics providers, parcel delivery services, food delivery services among others.
