Shippit says the acquisition showcases its commitment to the burgeoning Southeast Asian eCommerce market. Shippit reports its Co-founder and Co-CEO, will relocate to Singapore, where he will oversee a team of 50 including localised R&D and back-office teams.
Shippit, an Australian logistics technology platform, announced the acquisition of Southeast Asian start-up, Luwjistik, the creator of a unified API that allows freight forwarders, courier’s and third party logistics companies to connect into network partners globally. The deal is worth AUD$18m and will see Shippit’s Co-founder and Co-CEO, William On, relocate to Singapore to head up the SEA operation, and a team of 50.
Through the acquisition, Shippit – which has been operating in Southeast Asia since 2020 – says it will double-down on growth in the region, including in its enterprise customers, by leveraging Luwjistik’s technology, local relationships and expertise. Luwjistik has agreements with 100+ network partners across 18 countries, with a deep focus on Southeast Asia.
The acquisition is Shippit’s second in 2022, having announced in March the acquisition of leading Australian last mile technology firm, Premonition. In May, Shippit says it completed an AU$65m (US$48m) Series B2 capital raise to power the company’s growth, with a particular focus on the Southeast Asian Market.
Commenting on the news, Co-founder and Co-CEO, On, says the acquisition is a realisation of the company’s long-term strategy.
“Today is an incredibly exciting day for Shippit and the realisation of a vision we’ve held since starting out in 2014. Adding Luwjistik to the Shippit group bolsters our team with Co-founders who possess significant industry knowledge and relationships that will transform our go-to-market strategy in the region.
“Southeast Asia is a burgeoning eCommerce market and we’re incredibly excited to expand our presence in Singapore, and across the region. Together with Luwjistik, we will continue to prioritise technology that tackles the challenges of rapid eCommerce growth across the online retail ecosystem,” says On.
Luwjistik counts carriers such as Ninja Van, J&T Express, and JNE Express as network partners on its platform and provides solutions for major logistics players in the region including Maersk, POS Malaysia, Lion Parcel and Gushcloud’s social commerce arm, Summer International.
Luwjistik has won a number of start-up awards in the region, including Alibaba Cloud Demo Day 2022 (Malaysia), Startup Wheel International Track 2022 (Vietnam), Promising Startup Champion, LogiSYM (Singapore) as well as finalist at the Cradle MYStartup Pre-Accelerator Program 2022 (Malaysia) and Mranti Global Accelerator Program 2022 (Malaysia).
Syed Ali Ridha Madihid, co-founder and CEO at Luwjistik says the acquisition validates the company’s mission.
“This is a hugely significant moment for Luwjistik, a company which is barely a year old, to be recognised for its vision and efforts in elevating the logistics and retail sectors in Southeast Asia. We started Luwjistik because we saw technology as the solution to many of the industry’s longer-term challenges.
“We expect the strong growth of eCommerce in SEA will continue, so Shippit and Luwjistik coming together is very timely. As a group, we’re now able to offer a one stop platform for not only enterprises but the growing SMEs segments – especially in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand. It’s an incredibly exciting period for both Shippit and Luwjistik across SEA in 2023, and beyond,” says Madihid.
Shippit says over 3,500+ retailers of all sizes use its platform to power their deliveries. In FY22 over 40 million deliveries were booked through the Shippit platform, with $5.5bn worth of eCommerce fulfilled through the platform since Shippit’s launch in 2014.