Hong Kong logistics startup Easyship has raised an undisclosed amount of pre-series A funding from 500 Durians, a fund managed by Silicon Valley’s venture capital major 500 Startups.
Easyship is an online platform providing crossborder logistics services for eCommerce companies, claiming to have access to more than 80 shipping companies and offering visibility on delivery time, cost breakdown, reliability and tracking.
To date, it has raised aggregate funding estimated at US$2.5 million. The latest round will help it expand into Southeast Asia via Singapore, following the validation of its business model and building of traction in the Hong Kong market.
Its expansion to Singapore provides strategic access to Southeast Asia and leverages off the city-state’s logistics infrastructure and networks – just as US eCommerce giant Amazon is establishing a presence there.
The venture originates from problems with international shipping encountered by co-founders Tommaso Tamburnotti and Augustin Ceyrac when they were trying to build the crossborder business of Rocket Internet’s Lazada, as reported. At the time, Lazada was trying to attract more vendors to its platform in China and Hong Kong selling into Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines.
However, Lazada’s rapid sales growth was inhibited by a “very unstructured and fragmented” logistics industry. Easyship streamlines this process, providing an end-to-end process for packaging, labelling and tracking goods with couriers. It charges no fees for these services, with sellers paying the couriers. Revenue is generated from courier commissions.
Easyship claims its saves its 1000-plus clients in Hong Kong up to $20,000 a month on shipping fees.