Logistics in Southeast Asia: Who’s behind the boom?

Every day, 100k+ smart people read our newsletter. You can sign up here.

Hello readers,

It was exactly one year ago when Singapore went into a stay-at-home measure called “circuit breaker.”

For me, the past year was a year of following weird food trends (remember dalgona coffee and cloud bread?), having a lot of food delivered, and doing a lot of online shopping. While the passion for the first one has ended, the latter two have stuck; I just checked out US$100 worth of clothing two hours ago.

After having a taste of its convenience, online shopping could become a lasting habit for consumers – and logistics players and ecommerce enablers are celebrating this change.

Today we look at:

• Who the key players are in Southeast Asia’s logistics market
• The startup that’s fighting carbon credit fraud with blockchain
• Other newsy highlights such as India’s latest unicorn and Glints’ new fundraise

PREMIUM SUMMARY

The startups shaking up Southeast Asia’s logistics scene

Ecommerce is on the up and up in Southeast Asia. That’s good news for logistics services providers and ecommerce enablers because they are prospering amid this boom.

• Over US$55 billion: That’s the expected market size of the region’s logistics space.
• Race to raise: The boom has captured investors’ attention, who have been pouring large amounts of funds into regional logistics startups lately. There’s Indonesia’s J&T Express recently banking US$2 billion in investment, as well as Lalamove’s US$1.5 billion series F round, which it’s close to sealing.
• Skyrocketing in a year: According to the funding activities we’ve tracked and charted out in an accompanying graph in the article, the total deal value of investments in the region more than tripled between 2020 and this year – and we’re not even halfway through 2021 yet.

Read more: The key ecommerce logistics players and enablers in Southeast Asia

STARTUP SPOTLIGHT

This startup is fighting carbon credit fraud with blockchain