E-commerce continues to grow rapidly, and consumers are looking for faster delivery options. The gross merchandise volume in Indonesia is expected to reach approximately US$97 billion by 2025. Logistics of physical goods is expected to reach US$5 billion in revenue by 2025, said RaRa Delivery.
RaRa, an Indonesian-based Logistics, wants to make same-day delivery scalable. The platform announced of the closure of its seed funding round at US$830 million, led by 500 startups. Several investors from Angel Central, a Southeast Asia-focused platform, also participated in that round.
The acquired funds will be used to secure talent in business operations, development, and technology to continue to expand further in Indonesia stated the CEO and founder of RaRa, Karan Bhardwaj.
RaRa was founded in 2017, and it has been providing last-mile logistics services for e-commerce businesses in Jakarta and the surrounding areas by leveraging its real-time optimization and asset-light model technology.
“RaRa's algorithms can create routes for thousands of orders in a matter of seconds by doing capacity optimization that factors in weight, dimensions, parcel type, and distance,” Bhardwaj said.
Other platforms that try same-day delivery do the same through point-to-point deliveries, this action lacks optimization and consolidation, and they also charge a lot, with some charging up to US$3.5 for just 25 kilometers. “The price is not sustainable for e-commerce businesses, merchants, or sellers,” stated Bhardwaj.
On the other hand, RaRa charges the same price regardless of the distance. “We want to find a perfect balance between customer service and cost,” stated the CEO and founder.
In addition to its algorithms, the platform also offers integration of open application programming interfaces. It does deliveries for the likes of Bukalapak, Shopee, and Lazada, among others.
RaRa's founder also admits that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected his company as well. However, RaRa will continue to deliver groceries as well as other essentials for partners like Gorry Gourmet and Mitra Bukalapak. It is also planning to partner with more businesses that need urgent deliveries for essentials.
In 2019, this startup acquired angel funding from Zopin co-founders, Yang Bin Kwok and Royston Tay, GK-Plug and Play Indonesia, Vishal Gupta, Vidit Agarwal, and Neelesh Suryavanshee.
