Telecommunications conglomerate SoftBank’s Vision Fund has invested $100m in Brazil-based logistics service provider Loggi, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, as part of a round reported by Crunchbase News to be $111m in size.
Crunchbase News listed venture capital firm Kaszek Ventures as an additional investor in the round, citing an unnamed source, though local newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reported that the round consisted of R$400m ($107m) from SoftBank.
Founded in 2013, Loggi operates an urban same-day delivery service for food and goods. The platform allocates deliveries to nearby couriers using motorbikes and vans, organising them into the most efficient routes by time and cost.
The company is approaching its 3 millionth delivery, co-founder Fabien Mendez told Bloomberg, adding that the business broke even last year.
The funding will enable Loggi to hire some 300 additional engineers as the company explores artificial intelligence and robotics technologies to improve its operations.
Loggi previously collected $14.3m in funding from Qualcomm Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of mobile chipmaker Qualcomm, investment firm Dragoneer Investment Group and VC firm Monashees in July 2017.
Qualcomm Ventures and Monashees had already supplied $4.2m in capital for the company in 2014.
Akshay Naheta, partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, said: “Brazilian logistics is fragmented, inefficient and under-invested, making it an attractive market for disruption. We believe Loggi is the market leader and is unlocking the growth of the on-demand economy.”
