Wiz Freight raises Rs 125 crore in Series B funding

CHENNAI: Wiz Freight, a full stack cross-border supply chain startup that digitizes the export import journey, has raised Series B equity funding of Rs 125 crore in a round led by Japan-based SBI Investment and with participation of Nippon Express Holdings, at a post-money valuation of around Rs 1,400 crore.

In a difficult funding environment, Chennai-headquartered Wiz Freight has managed to record a 50% jump in valuation from its previous round. Earlier in March 2022, Wiz raised a Series A funding of Rs 275 crore in a mix of equity and debt.

Existing investors Tiger Global, Axilor Technologies Fund, Foundamental, Arali Investments, and others also invested. With this funding, the company plans to expand globally across Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and the US.

“The current fundraise is part of a larger round of around Rs 250 crore and we intend to close the remaining portion by this year,” the founders said in an interaction.

"We are already profitable at an India entity level and expect to be profitable at the group level this year. With that, we will be on track to go public in 4-5 years," they added.

Founded in 2020 by serial entrepreneurs Ramkumar Govindarajan and Ramkumar Ramachandran, Wiz helps exporters and importers book and manage their cross-border shipments on their AI-enabled tech platform, which has features like capacity discovery, dynamic pricing, optimised routing, door to door tracking, and automated document workflows, among others.

Govindarajan, co-founder and CEO of Wiz, said the funds will also go towards meeting its investment commitments in Tamil Nadu as Wiz has signed a MoU with the state to invest Rs 300 crore over the next five years.

"This will be across R&D efforts in Chennai, and we are also evaluating plans to invest in multi-modal logistics parks," he added.

"We are already present in five countries and gearing up to expand into five more countries across Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, China, Malaysia, and parts of Europe," Ramachandran, co-founder and chairman, Wiz Freight, said.

The company clocked a revenue of around Rs 1,325 crore in FY 23 and says that FY24 revenue would be at a similar rate despite the supply chain crisis and macroeconomic situation. It currently has a team of 850 employees globally. It serves more than 1,500 businesses including Adani, Mahindra, Tata, Acer, Reckitt, Kraft and Skechers.