This entry is part of KrASIA’s collaboration with Project Alpha of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Singapore-based venture capital firm SeedPlus, featuring high-potential startups in Southeast Asia.
As the e-commerce industry matures in Indonesia, more tech startups are entering the logistics space, which is seen as one of the emerging sectors following growth in the country’s digital economy.
The Indonesian logistics sector has various problems that need to be addressed. Moving goods from one city to another is challenging and expensive, given that it is an archipelagic country with thousands of islands. Logistics costs run at 25–30% of Indonesia’s GDP, which is much higher compared to developed economies, where it is below 5% of the GDP, according to a Mordor Intelligence report.
“Indonesia spends a lot of money on logistics not only because of its geographical situation, but also due to bad infrastructure, and lack of reliable information and tech support,” Roolin Njotosetiadi, the co-founder and CEO of Logisly, told KrASIA in a recent interview.
Njotosetiadi is no stranger to the logistics industry as she came from an entrepreneurial family that has been operating for more than two decades. Prior to establishing her own company, Njotosetiadi was the head of product at Indonesian offline-to-online platform Kudo, where she learned that logistics plays an important role in empowering traditional retailers.
While the trucking industry in Indonesia has been disrupted in the past years, overall, the logistics tech space is still in its infancy, and therefore needs more innovation, according to Njotosetiadi. This belief is what drove her to build Logisly, a B2B digital platform that connects shippers to hundreds of trucking companies in Indonesia.
“Approximately 80% of cargo logistics movement in Indonesia is on trucks, but only 40% of them are utilized properly, which means there are many trucks running empty or parked in pools,” she added.
Founded in January 2019 by Njotosetiadi and her partner Robbi Baskoro, the young startup aspires to increase trucking utilization and bring more transparency into the trucking ecosystem with technology.
“The transaction penetration in B2B trucking logistics is very low. I believe that with my strong background and knowledge in logistics combined with my partner’s expertise in technology, we’ll able to solve huge pain points in this industry,” she said.
Through its website and Android app platforms, Logisly provides real-time tracking of shipments, as well as digital financing management for both shippers and transporters, creating a more efficient hiring and shipping process for all parties.
“Many problems can emerge in trucking business operations, like traffic congestion, accidents or warehouses that are unexpectedly closed or full, so shippers often have difficulties in finding available trucks,” she said.
To address this issue, Logisly provides a reliable transport network, order transparency, and automation that guarantee the availability of trucks for shippers. It also digitizes the entire administration process, which makes the booking and shipping processes much easier, according to Njotosetiadi. Meanwhile, for transporters, Logisly maximizes the capacity of their trucks and helps them settle payments quickly, so they can serve more clients and gain more profits.
Although it has only been operating for six months, the company has been doing well, Njotosetiadi said. It currently partners with more than 200 trucking companies and has worked with around 100 shippers from various sectors, including fast-moving consumer goods, chemicals, constructions, e-commerce, and more.
Logisly is not alone in Indonesia’s trucking space. Its services are similar to those of local startups Kargo Technologies and Ritase. All three integrate shippers and logistics providers onto a single platform, aiming to solve inefficiencies and reduce costs. Logisly’s competitors also raised fresh investments earlier this year.
Kargo Technologies bagged USD 7.6 million in seed funding in March by Sequoia Capital India, while Ritase raised USD 8.5 million in a Series A round led by Golden Gate Ventures in July.
These recent deals show how interest in freight-related tech startups continues to grow. And Logisly has been in the spotlight. In August, it reportedly raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Indonesia-based Convergence Ventures and Japan’s Genesia Ventures, following its earlier seed investment from Singapore-based VC Seedplus.
Although Logisly is not rushing to raise more funds, it is always open for collaboration and partnership opportunities, Njotosetiadi said.
As a new player, she doesn’t worry about competition as she believes that the trucking logistics sector is huge and that there are opportunities for every player.
“Although a young company, we already see a positive cash flow, which means that our business model works. Therefore, we’ll continue to deepen our presence in this sector and work with more partners. We plan to expand our trucking network and we target to utilize at least a thousand trucking companies in the next six months. In the future, we aim to have the largest trucking network in Indonesia,” Njotosetiadi said.
This article is part of KrASIA’s “Startup Stories” series, where the writers of KrASIA speak with founders of tech companies in South and Southeast Asia.
