GIC in plans to escort Locus $60 million Series C at $300 million valuation
Locus, a Business-to-business (B2B) logistics planning and optimization software start-up, is in talks with Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC to escalate a $60 million Series C funding round. After the conclusion of the round, Locus will be valued at around $300 million.
It will also take the total capital raised so far to more than $88 million. Existing investors Tiger Global and Falcon Edge are also accepted to participate in the round. Exfinity Venture Partners and Blume Ventures are some of its other investors.
The capital will help Locus to reinforce its technology, and extent up operations in the United States, its major market outer India, sources said. The company also has a presence in Southeast Asia.
In 2019, the company raised $22 million from investors led by Falcon Edge and Tiger Global as part of its Series B round. The transaction prized the company at around $100 million then.
Locus was founded in 2015 by Rastohi, a BITS Pilani alumnus, and Geet Garg, an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur. It delivers advanced supply chain optimization solutions that use proprietary algorithms and deep learning to deliver route optimization, real-time tracking, insights, and analytics, dynamic sales journey plans, competent warehouse management, and vehicle allowance and exploitation to its clients.
Rastogi and Garg had earlier worked together at Amazon. GIC has been ramping up its investments in India. The company was in the process of introduction in its $2-$3 billion public markets fund in India and is at present putting a team together for the same.
Meeting the requirements to data from Venture Intelligence, GIC has invested in 12 deals worth $11.5 billion in the last three years in the country. Some of its distinguished recent investments have been in Bharti Airtel, HDFC, Sterlite India, Indian Hotels, and Reliance Retail. So far this year, the fund has pulled out stakes in payments start-up Razorpay and Swiggy.