CEO of Lalamove said that for the logistics industry, the digital transformation is to improve the digital intelligence level of the scenario, including people, vehicles, goods and roads.
On December 22, Internet logistics mall Lalamove (in Chinese, Huolala) completed USD 515 million Series E financing. This round was led by Sequoia Capital China and followed by Hillhouse Capital, Shunwei Capital and other investors. This round of financing will be used to expand business in the sinking market, diversify business layout and elevate logistics digital intelligence level.
Earlier, on December 16, Bloomberg reported that, the company was seeking a new round of financing, raising at least USD 500 million, and was likely to raise more funds according to investors' needs, some people familiar with the situation said. Now, this rumor is confirmed by Lalamove.
"Market expansion, especially the business sinking to the fourth- and fifth-tier cities, will continue to accelerate. We strongly believe that the transformation of China's freight industry amid the Mobile Internet time is far from over." said Zhou Shengfu, founder and CEO of Lalamove. He also claimed that the logistics industry's tech transformation is to improve the digital intelligence level of the scenario, constituted by people, vehicles, goods and roads. The company will continue to increase investment in those four dimensions.
Lalamove was founded in 2013 and grew up in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Up to now, it received seven rounds of financing, developing from a city-wide trucking platform at the beginning to an Internet logistics services platform. Lalamove now provides intra-city/cross-city freight, enterprise logistics services, moving, LTL, truck rental and auto aftermarket services.
Lalamove has been committed to providing efficient logistics solutions for individuals, merchants and enterprises. As of November 2020, its business has covered 352 cities in China with 480 thousand monthly drivers and 7.2 million MAUs.
Shen Nanpeng, the Global Executive Partner of Sequoia Capital, said that the popularization of the Mobile Internet and the rapid development of AI, big data and cloud services have expedited digitalization and intellectualization of logistics. The trucking business is welcoming a thorough reform.
Through continuous innovation and refined operation, Lalamove has built the core competitiveness by digitally integrating scattered transport capacity. It has become a good example of implementing new technology in the logistics business to achieve optimization.