Hong Kong’s Lalamove expands to India

Photo credit: Lalamove

Lalamove is taking its on-demand courier service to India for the first time.

The beta launch was confirmed by Blake Larson, Lalamove’s managing director, international, at the StartmeupHK 2019 festival in the startup’s home city of Hong Kong.

The last-mile logistics provider is piloting its service in Mumbai, claiming an average delivery time of under 55 minutes to get shipments anywhere in India’s second city.

Its India website – which still indicates the service is “coming soon” – features a portal where those interested can sign up as drivers, as well as a waiting list for businesses that want to avail of special rates.

Rival on-demand courier GoGoVan – another Hong Kong outfit – entered the Indian market in 2016.

Previously known as Easyvan, Lalamove has raised a total of US$160 million in disclosed funding to date since launching in Hong Kong in 2013.

It secured US$100 million in its October 2017 series C round, which was led by Xiaomi founder Lei Jun’s Shunwei Capital. Previous backers Xiang He Capital and MindWorks Ventures were among others to participate.

At the time, the company said it would use the funds to grow its presence in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam rather than expanding to new markets such as India and farther afield and having already “saturated almost 80 percent of the market” in mainland China.

GoGoVan became the Fragrant Harbor’s first unicorn following its August 2017 merger with Chinese freight startup 58 Suyun.

Singapore-based competitor Ninja Van raised at least US$87 million in its series C round one year ago.