Thai financial and investment services company, Asia Plus Group Holdings has invested in Lalamove to drive the app delivery company to profitability and to complete Lalamove's third-round funding within the last 18 months. The latest cash injection brings Lalamove's total funding up to USD 30 million.
The latest round of funding, attracting Thai investor Asia Plus Group Holdings, was led by existing investor MindWorks with participation from other existing investors including China's Crystal Stream, Taiwan's AppWorks and Hong Kong's Aria Group.
Following Lalamove' s recent partnership with LINE to launch LINE Man app, the funding success reveals the speed at which Lalamove is growing, as CEO Shing Chow expressed.
"We began as a small start-up in Hong Kong working out of my apartment and have grown to 21 cities across Asia in the last two years. When we began, we targeted lots of small businesses, but since then we have developed enterprise solutions to allow companies like Google, IKEA, and now LINE to make their delivery much faster and simpler", said Chow.
Chow continued, "There is so much potential in making delivery more efficient as mobile internet is changing the way mobile assets are utilized. This funding will be used to accelerate our leadership position and expansion efforts throughout China and other SEA countries. It's really a vote of confidence from our existing investors in our model and team. It is our goal to be profitable this year, and it's quite rare that you see a startup growing at our speed achieving that in less than three years. We are on track to deliver that."
The investment of Asia PlusGroup Holdings is the first time the Thai company has invested in a tech company, demonstrating the company's belief in Lalamove.
Asia Plus Group Holdings' CEO Dr. Kongkiat Opaswongkarn is positive about the investment. "The fact that we are investing in an app company for the first time really demonstrates how much we believe in the success of Lalamove and the e-logistics market in Thailand and within Southeast Asia. We have followed the expansion, strategy and successes of Lalamove and we like what we see and the great potential for profitability. We are excited to be helping to make that happen and to be part of that success story."
Santit Jirawongkraisorn, Co-founder and Managing Director of Lalamove Thailand states that the investment from Asia Plus Group Holdings reveals great confidence in Lalamove. "We are involved in a fast-moving company in an expanding market with huge potential. The recent funding reveals investor confidence in our business plans, including Thai investor confidence. The app, logistics and mobile markets in the region are booming and Lalamove is at the forefront of that drive. Investors like Asia Plus Group Holdings are helping us steer where we want to go in the future, which is ultimately towards profitability."
With the largest footprint across Asia, Lalamove is well positioned to capitalize on the growing trend of businesses looking to out-source their delivery needs. Additionally, with more and more consumers looking to have their items delivered faster, Lalamove' s average delivery time of 46 minutes is changing the landscape of intra-city delivery in Asia.
Lalamove can be downloaded for free from Google Play store and Apple Store.