Alibaba’s Hong Kong fund throws cash at ‘Uber for vans’ startup GoGoVan

On-demand logistics startup GogoVan raised a series C funding round, it announced today. The funding amount is undisclosed, but is described as “a decent amount for future business expansion.”

The round was led by private equity firm New Horizon Capital and was joined by Singapore Press Holdings, Hotung Investment Holdings, and existing investors. Alibaba’s new US$130 million Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund also participated.

“This round of funding is fully committed and our new shareholders are very supportive in our strategy and growth plan,” GoGoVan head of operations Eugene Lee tells Tech in Asia.

The startup says these investors will also be providing strategic advisory and mentorship to the company. Their networks and resources, especially those of Alibaba Group, will be particularly valuable to GoGoVan.

The startup is up against UberVan (formerly UberCargo), which operates only in Hong Kong. It also competes with Lalamove, which operates in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Thailand, and Singapore. That startup raised US$10 million in September.

Hong Kong-headquartered GogoVan will use the fresh funding to improve the user experience for customers and drivers on its “Uber for vans”-style app and to continue developing new products aimed at businesses.

It just launched a service called GogoEnterprise, which helps business customers monitor multiple delivery routes and send real-time tracking updates to their customers.

“Ecommerce is growing rapidly in Southeast Asia, and definitely with this growth, [businesses] will demand last-mile logistics partners. With products like [our] API and GoGoEnterprise targeting businesses, we can better support them with efficient and convenient logistics options,” Eugene says.

“We will develop and engage state-of-the-art machine learning, artificial intelligence, and programming that will bring efficiency, productivity and cost management to the logistics business,” says Chris Yuen, CTO of GoGoVan, explaining how some of the cash will be spent.

The three-year-old service pairs idle drivers with customers that need things delivered or moved. It’s active across 13 cities in Asia, including in Hong Kong, Singapore, mainland China, South Korea, and India. GogoVan says it has a network of over 150,000 drivers and has processed over 20 million orders so far. It has raised a disclosed total of US$26,541,300, with its previous round, a “series B plus,” worth US$10 million.

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This article by Michael Tegos originally appeared on Tech in Asia, a Burn Media publishing partner.

Feature image via Tech in Asia.