FarEye, the logistics upstart from India which most ecommerce companies depend upon for their supply chain tech, has raised an additional $13 million to complete its Series D funding round which was announced earlier this summer. In April, when this funding round commenced, the company raised $25 million led by M12, Microsoft’s venture fund. Today’s announcement brings the total amount raised to about $37.5 million.
In the previous version of the round, industry giants like Eight Roads Ventures, Honeywell Ventures, and existing investor SAIF Partners joined the initiative to bring the total amount raised to $25 million. However, the company, probably impressed by the incredible response, and to handle the sudden growth caused by the pandemic, decided to extend the round and raise another $13 million led by industry veterans Nandan Nilekani and Sanjeev Aggarwal’s Fundamentum Partnership, with participation from KB Global Platform Fund.
Back in April, Kushal Nahata, co-founder and chief executive of FarEye had said that the market of logistics is suffering from a lack of digitization. He explained that this leads to a lack of oversight over the company’s fleet and thus, erroneous results. Moreover, the number of factors affecting results and deliveries these days has skyrocketed and something like FarEye is absolutely the need of the hour.
Thus, the platform (that has been employed by the likes of Domino’s uses) AI to parse through a billion data points. When you order a pizza from the Domino’s app, the company’s software checks factors like how many delivery executives are available, if several orders can be bundled together, the experience of the assigned driver, the best delivery route etc. to show you just how long it’ll take to get your pizza delivered. On the side of Domino’s, it helps the company cut costs by suggesting the most cost effective measures while conducting its operations.
FarEye says that the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated business activities for most of its clients as more customers are relying on online deliveries than ever before. In fact, even ecommerce has managed to not just get back on track but also surpass its pre covid numbers, registering a 17% growth in volume in India. This means that the company needs more capital to handle this exponential growth. Moreover, with festival season approaching in the country, the capital will go a long way towards building infrastructure to handle the increased pressure on its facilities.
