Radar Ventures Pvt. Ltd, which runs full-stack digital cross-border supply chain platform, Wiz Freight, on Wednesday announced that it will invest Rs 300 crore in a research and development (R&D) centre in Chennai for innovations in logistics tech.
The centre is set up with an initial capital expenditure of Rs 30 crore, with the company committing to invest the remaining amount over the next 3 years to fund research and development.
WIZ Freight is backed by marquee investors such as Tiger Global, Axilor Ventures, Foundamental, Arali Ventures, Stride Ventures and Alteria Capital, among others.
The centre, which will employ a team of 300 members, will facilitate tech-enabled innovation in the shipping industry to reduce shipping costs, offer accurate end-to-end visibility, enable better upstream and downstream supply chain planning and execution and minimise carbon footprint.
In a press statement, the company claimed that the centre will be the largest R&D centre in Asia dedicated to cross-border shipping technology.
Founded in 2020 by Ramkumar Govindarajan and Ramkumar Ramachandran, Wiz Freight is a cross-border supply chain startup enabling exports and imports via its platform.
Using technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), blockchain, the internet of things (IoT), web and mobile applications, and big data capabilities, the Centre will develop solutions for the cross-border shipping industry, it added.
“The blockchain-based applications will help in digitizing shipping documentation, and provide end-to-end visibility, carbon footprint calculation and trade finance execution,” said Ramkumar Govindarajan, co-founder and chief executive officer, Wiz Freight.
Such solutions are expected to improve crucial operations like estimated time of arrival (ETA) prediction, routing, end-to-end visibility, digitization of shipping documentation, warehousing management and business insights.
“Our new initiative will help reduce the carbon footprint of the global logistics industry and contribute to achieving the COP26 goals of reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and global warming,” said Ramkumar Ramachandran, co-founder and chairman, Wiz Freight.
Early this year, the startup raised $36 million in funding in a mix of equity and debt led by Tiger Global Management, and participated by Axilor Ventures, Foundamental, Arali Ventures, Stride Ventures and Alteria Capital.
The company claims to be serving more than 1,500 enterprise and mid-market customers across India, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Its clientele includes companies such as Adani, Mahindra, Tata, Aditya Birla and ITC.