AI-Based Supply Chain Optimization Company Locus Secures $22 Million

By Dan Anderson ● May 18, 2019

Locus, an AI-based supply chain optimization company founded by Nishith Rastogi and Geet Garg, announced it raised $22 million in Series B funding from Falcon Edge Capital and Tiger Global Management. Some of the company’s previous investors include Exfinity Venture Partners and Blume Ventures.

Last year, Locus demonstrated successful customer rollouts across a number of sectors in India and the company began expanding to North America and Southeast Asia in 2018. With this round of funding, Locus is going to penetrate deeper into the new markets by enhancing the product and solutions for each geography and expand its local teams.

How does Locus work? The company automates human decisions required for transportation a package or people between two points — which delivers gains along the axes of efficiency, consistency, and transparency in operations. Locus’ logistics optimization solutions include route optimizations, real-time order tracking, insights/analytics, and automated shipment sorting. And Locus also focuses on solving complex real-world logistics problems such as increasing First Attempt Delivery Rate (FADR) for e-commerce companies, sales transformation for global CPG companies and suggesting optimal fleet mixes for 3PL companies.

“Locus provides autonomous supply chain optimization, thus minimizing the dependency on human intelligence, built by an incredible team of PhDs and Engineers. Product applications include clubbing of forward and reverse logistics in a single route plan, schedule and on-demand dispatch planning, and automatic escalation management. Locus is on an unprecedented path to automate every possible decision in the supply chain. The funding will act as a boost to our global expansion efforts as we amplify our team size specifically in North America and continue to build our IP,” said Rastogi in a statement.

Locus is considered an established and innovative leader in AI-backed logistics solutions as it tackles the industry’s core supply chain challenges and operational complexities. And one of the largest e-grocery players in India is using Locus to achieve 99.5% SLA adherence for its customers — which is now more than 10 million.

And Locus also currently serves over 40 clients globally and helps them save logistics cost at scale and increases productivity and profitability for enterprises across multiple segments — owning a peak of over 1 million orders processed in a day.

“We believe the trillion-dollar global logistics market is ripe for disruption via technological change, particularly AI and machine learning-driven solutions. We are excited to lead a Series B round in Locus, a company that deploys AI/ML/deep tech to drive route optimization outcomes in global logistics markets. With Blue Dart and other prolific anchor customers, the 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,” added Falcon Edge Capital co-founder Navroz D. Udwadia. “We are excited to help Locus expand its breadth and depth of product and sales reach, moving from route optimization to a full-stack SaaS offering to the enterprise around its logistics needs.”