Ayala-backed logistics tech startup raises fresh capital

Ayala-backed technology startup Expedock has secured $17.5 million worth of funding to enhance its digitized freight forwarding process in a bid to make the operations of the supply chain sector more efficient.

The total funding raised includes $13.5 billion in Series A financing and $4-million seed money.

Global software investor Insights Partners led the funding round. Meta, eBay, Clearmetal and Project44, among others, also participated in the fundraising activity.

“Insight’s bread and butter is software companies driving transformative change in their industries, and that’s exactly what Expedock is doing in the international freight industry,” Insights Partners senior associate Connor Guess said. He is set to join Expedock’s board of directors.

Expedock is a portfolio company under Kickstart Ventures Inc., a wholly owned corporate venture capital firm of Globe Telecom.

The capital infusion is earmarked to expand Expedock’s team which provides the supply chain sector data that could aid in scaling operations. With data automation, Expedock noted that businesses could improve efficiency and profitability and bring down costs.

Harnessing data

“Expedock is reinventing how supply chain businesses are able to harness their own data. Given our 600-percent growth this past year, we are going to do even better by bringing on engineers to expand our use cases and our account executives to support more customers,” Expedock CEO King Alandy Dy said.

The tech firm said it uses artificial intelligence in translating paper documents into data. It automates invoices and statements of accounts to ensure the timely settlement of payments to vendors.

“The global supply chain has been under crisis since the pandemic started, a situation felt globally, and further exacerbated by the current geopolitical conflict,” Kickstart president Minette Navarrete said.

As such, Navarrete said that Expedock “helps alleviate the problem by transforming paper forms into usable digital data, reducing the risk of error and improving performance across the supply chain ecosystem.”

Its client list includes global supply chain firms Wayfair, ClearFreight and Ascent.