Logistics management startup Locus has raised $22 million (around Rs 196 crore) in its Series B round of funding led by Falcon Edge Capital and Tiger Global Management LLC.
Existing investors Exfinity Venture Partners and Blume Ventures also participated in this funding round, said Locus in a statement.
In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Locus stated that it secured $25.8 million (Rs 181.9 crore) from 17 individual investors last month.
The company said the amount mentioned in the SEC filing includes the $4 million it had raised earlier through convertible notes and which has been converted into equity in this round. The company had raised $4 million (Rs 26.8 crore) in a pre-Series B round of funding from new and existing investors in June last year.
The company will use the capital to expand further into its new markets North America and Southeast Asia, which it entered last year. Part of the funds will also go towards revamping its local teams, it added.
Locus, which is operated by Mara Labs Inc., is an advanced supply chain optimisation company that uses proprietary algorithms and deep learning to address supply chain challenges and operational complexities to its customers. The company has offices in India, the US and Indonesia and dedicated local teams for these regions. It has over 40 clients across multiple segments.
“With Blue Dart and other prolific anchor customers, the (Locus) team has demonstrated the ability to build and deliver cutting-edge technology and algorithmic-driven outcomes that provide attributable ROI to the enterprise at scale,” said Navroz D Udwadia, co-founder, Falcon Edge Capital.
Locus was founded in March 2015 by Nishith Rastogi, a BITS Pilani alumnus, and Geet Garg, an IIT- Kharagpur graduate. Both had earlier worked together at Amazon. The duo had earlier co-founded Pinchat, a location-based interaction app.
In another big funding round in the space, BlackBuck raised $150 million (about Rs 1,040 crore) in its Series D round earlier this month.
Investors
Falcon Edge Capital was founded in 2012 by Richard Gerson, along with Udwadia and Ryan Khoury. It manages more than $2 billion in assets, globally.
In January, VCCircle reported that the hedge fund was raising money for an India-focussed investment vehicle.
Falcon Edge Capital has made at least half-a-dozen investments in India. According to VCCEdge, the data research platform of Mosaic Digital, the firm’s disclosed India investments total more than $400 million.
Tiger Global has picked up its investment pace in India ever since it ended a three-year hiatus late last year.
The firm invested in Roposo--a social platform for sharing photos and videos--in December 2018, backed Bengaluru-based expense management startup Fyle Technologies Pvt. Ltd in February and pumped capital into customer lifecycle management platform CleverTap in April.
Last month, it also invested $90 million in business-to-business agri-marketing platform Ninjacart. Earlier this month, it led a Series C funding round of $50 million (Rs 350 crore) in Zenoti, a software provider to salons and spas.