Waresix’s growth slows, trims losses in 2024

Times have been tough for ecommerce logistics companies in Indonesia, with a price war among ecommerce third-party logistics players thinning margins.

As a B2B-focused logistics player mainly serving the agriculture, commodities, and infrastructure sectors in Indonesia, Waresix appears to have been spared from the price wars and general ecommerce slowdown.

Photo credit: Waresix

Still, the firm’s growth was more muted in 2024. Revenue of Tiga Beruang Kalifornia – Waresix’s Singapore-based holding company – increased 3.6% year on year to US$206.7 million.

This followed a tripling of its revenue from US$53.4 million in 2021 to US$155.5 million in 2022 as well as a 28% year-on-year rise in 2023, its filings with Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority show.

Waresix operates an asset-light platform that connects businesses with a network of third-party trucks and warehouses. The East Ventures-backed firm focuses on the first-mile (port to warehouse) and mid-mile (intercity) segments of the B2B supply chain.

Its clients include companies like Sociolla, Unilever, and Indofood. It competes with the likes of digital logistics firm Shipper and trucking platform Kargo Technologies.

Slowing revenue growth comes as the region’s ecommerce logistics industry sees consolidation. In 2024, Kargo Technologies acquired Malaysian logistics platform TheLorry to expand its coverage in the country.

Waresix did not respond to Tech in Asia’s multiple requests for comment.

EBITDA positive, narrowing loss

In 2024, Waresix saw a 4.4% year-on-year improvement in loss before taxes, which came in at US$18.6 million. East Ventures also noted in November of last year that the startup posted an over 25% annual growth rate “while remaining EBITDA positive” in 2024.

The positive EBITDA figure contrasted with a US$20.1 million net loss suggests that Waresix’s core business is generating value while non-cash expenses like depreciation and financing costs continue to weigh on the bottom line, notes Yan Hendry Jauwena, chief sales officer of South Korea-based CJ Logistics.

If Waresix could maintain its current level of costs and make usage of vehicles and warehouse space on its platform more efficient, “net loss [could] narrow significantly over the next 12 to 18 months,” he adds.

In February 2024, Tech in Asia reported Waresix’s layoffs in its data and engineering departments. The company didn’t comment or confirm the number of affected employees at the time.

This followed Shipper’s 8% staff reduction in late 2022. Both cases are part of a sector-wide correction as more logistics firms in the region shift away from the “growth-at-all-costs” model, Jeffrey Tan, a trade and logistics advisor, tells Tech in Asia.

Disciplined with costs