GIC’s investment in Locus

Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC, recently announced that it had led a $50 Million Series C funding round into India-based logistics startup, Locus.

This strategic investment is set to help Locus expand its logistics and warehouse automation solutions to other parts of the world besides India, where it is already having a major impact on the industry.

The following article will explore the implications of this major investment into Locus and what it means for the logistics industry.

Overview of GIC

GIC is a global long-term investor with well-diversified portfolios and a network of offices in many countries. GIC manages over 5 trillion USD of assets for over 80 members worldwide, including sovereign wealth funds, central banks, and institutional investors. GIC invests in public equities, real estate, fixed income investments, and private equity for the long-term success of its members’ financial goals.

GIC’s investment philosophy is based on an in-depth understanding of businesses and the global economic landscape. The firm believes that investing for the long term and taking an active approach to risk management of its portfolio companies can maximise returns while minimising risk over time. Accordingly, the firm applies rigorous analysis techniques to its potential portfolio companies, seeking to identify those that offer both near-term potential growth opportunities and sustainable long-term growth opportunities.

GIC recently announced an investment in Locus Technologies – a provider of data-driven solutions that enable electric power producers to manage risks associated with electricity generation operations more efficiently. Through this investment, GIC aims to help Locus drive its innovative solutions into markets which are still nascent but promising across Asia Pacific and Europe with significant potential for sustained growth.

Overview of Locus

Locus is an American on-demand delivery service that connects customers with nearby independent couriers who can deliver their orders. The company provides a platform that allows users to make real-time delivery requests, track their items in transit, and pay for their deliveries online. Through its affiliated network of independent couriers, Locus offers same-day, next-day and even same-hour deliveries for customers across the US.

GIC has invested in the growth of Locus by offering funding to support its development and marketing initiatives. This investment has helped the company to expand its operations across multiple new markets and improve its overall customer experience by introducing new features such as real-time tracking, payment options and customer loyalty programs. With this funding, Locus has become one of the leading players in the on-demand delivery industry and is well positioned to capitalise on future growth opportunities.

Singapore’s GIC Leads $50 Million Series C Funding In Locus

Singapore’s largest investment firm, GIC, has recently led a $50 million Series C funding round for the logistics technology firm Locus. The round included other investors such as Falcon Edge Capital, Accel, Sequoia and Exfinity Ventures.

This is the latest in a series of investments GIC has made in Locus, leading their Series A and B rounds.

Let’s dive deeper into the details of the investment.

Amount invested

Locus Bio-Energy Solutions Corporation (“Locus”), a renewable energy technology company, announced today that GIC Private Ltd. (“GIC”), an institutional investor, has committed to a CAD$17 million strategic equity investment in the company. This amount also includes the full exercise of all warrants issued previously to GIC, resulting in total proceeds to Locus of CAD$19 million.

This strategic equity investment enables Locus to expand its operations and further their mission of creating local positive environmental and economic impact by providing innovative anaerobic digestion (“AD”) solutions for these communities. This is expected to help reduce greenhouse gases in communities worldwide by diverting organic waste from landfill sites, while simultaneously producing clean renewable energy and sustainable organic fertiliser products.

The capital will be used towards working capital requirements as well expansion costs of greenfield projects, investing in business development and infrastructure to continue with ongoing success, and carrying out endeavours associated with global expansion into new markets. In partnership with GIC and leveraging their extensive technical experience in this space, Locus expects to accelerate biogas solutions’ deployment and scaling up across North America, Asia and Europe.

Series C funding

Locus, a Bengaluru-based AI startup, announced it closed its Series C funding round at US$25 million today. Tiger Global led the round with participation from existing investors Falcon Edge Capital, Chiratae Ventures (formerly IDG Ventures India), and Ventureast.

The new funds will accelerate the company’s global expansion, fuel investments in developing and marketing Locus’ AI-driven ‘autonomous logistics’ solutions, and increase hiring and development of its current products.

Series C is usually the third round of funding for a startup after Series A and Series B rounds. At this stage, startups typically already have an established product and service offering addressing the market needs, but are growing rapidly with the need for more capital. As a result, this is when venture capital firms enter with much larger amounts since the risk of investing at this stage is comparatively lower than earlier. In particular, series C investments provide working capital for scaling up operations, launch aggressive marketing campaigns, or undertake acquisitions to expand into new markets or launch new products/services.

Use of funds

Locus Raises $62 Million in Series C Equity Financing for the Healthcare Industry.

Locus, a cloud-based SaaS platform for healthcare claims and payments solutions, has raised $62 million in Series C financing. The round was led by Oak HC/FT and included new and existing investors such as Flare Capital Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, BoxGroup, Polaris Partners, and Founders Fund.

The funds will be used to expand the company’s presence in the US and globally; to build out its product lineup which includes an analytics engine; and to develop new initiatives across its current products: automated audits; fraud detection; data visualisation & analytics; healthcare financials automation & more. The investment also allows Locus to tap into these investors’ talent pool, enabling further growth of their development operations with experienced professionals experienced in healthcare industry investments.

Benefits of the Investment

GIC’s investment into Locus brings several benefits. It will give Locus the necessary funding to continue scaling and provide GIC with greater access to the innovative technologies that Locus offers. This investment will also strengthen Locus’s position in the global logistics industry and could lead to collaborations with GIC.

Let’s take a look at the other benefits for GIC and Locus.

GIC’s strategic plans

GIC is an investment arm of the Singapore government and has many strategies for investing in companies with attractive long-term growth potential. As part of its strategy towards growth, GIC has identified Locus as a valuable asset.

Investing in Locus provides GIC with many benefits, including access to innovative technology, exposure to the global market, and strategic partnerships with established industry players. In addition, by working together and leveraging their combined resources and expertise, both parties can mutually benefit from their business relationship and create greater value for their customers.

As a strategic partner for Locus, GIC will bring new capabilities such as portfolio management, capital expenditure planning, business mentorships, and more. These capabilities will enable Locus to further scale up its operations and improve profitability in the future.

In addition to offering financial support, GIC also brings opportunities for co-innovation initiatives to promote rapid product development cycles while taking advantage of existing collaborative efforts between Locus’s strategic partners. By leveraging GIC’s deep networks within the tech ecosystem around the world — both inside and outside Singapore — Locus can grow more quickly in developing new products or services that serve global customers better.

The partnership between GIC and Locus will prove rewarding in the long run as they collaborate across different functions such as engineering, research, development, data sciences, marketing, production, finance, legal, etc., allowing them to uncover opportunities that present themselves as markets evolve or transform over time. Together, this will help them build an even more sustainable pipeline for profitable returns on their investments in the future.

Locus’s growth potential

Investing in Locus, a London-based technology company, offers investors numerous potential benefits. Even though most investments in private companies are considered high-risk, Locus has considerable long-term growth potential due to its innovative use of artificial intelligence.

The company’s business model uses machine learning and analytics to prioritise customer needs in real time and deliver timely solutions to those customers. This enables the company to drive increased customer satisfaction while consistently creating cost efficiencies for its clients. The model has been met with great enthusiasm by its existing customers who have seen increases in sales as a direct result of their partnership with Locus.

By investing in Locus, investors will gain access to a well established network of over 200 established enterprise customers that produce billions of dollars annually in revenue. Additionally, these same customers have demonstrated their willingness to invest more heavily into the platform from an innovation angle to increase revenue even further while reducing costs associated with customer interaction.

Locus’s innovative approach has attracted interest from venture capital funds and large institutional leaders who understand the opportunities associated with this kind of technology and are eager to capitalise on it any way they can. This elevated interest in the opportunity signals tremendous scale potential for investors who partner with the organisation today during this early growth stage.

Impact of the Investment

The investment of Singapore’s GIC in Locus, a logistics automation and artificial intelligence (AI) based platform, is expected to enable Locus to expand its presence and to help solve the challenges faced in this sector.

This investment could also have a huge impact in the industry, as it has the potential to revolutionise the existing logistics ecosystem through automation and AI-powered solutions.

Let’s take a further look at the potential impact of the investment.

Impact on Singapore’s economy

Investment from GIC Pte Ltd in Locus has been seen as a vote of confidence in Singapore’s start-up ecosystem and economy. GIC is an investment company owned by the government of Singapore with assets worth over $100 billion. The investment will further boost the fast-growing Southeast Asian startup funding landscape and provide opportunities for companies to access new markets through Singapore’s strong regional links.

This is especially important in light of concerns about the economic downturn caused by COVID-19. Singapore’s economy was already heavily affected, with businesses suffering due to drastic reductions in global trade and travel, weakening domestic demand, and rising unemployment. With this capital injection, Locus can benefit the local economy by creating jobs and providing services to local businesses.

Furthermore, this investment will provide the impetus to attract more investors and innovative technologies into Singapore which can help build local capabilities needed for digital transformation. This move should serve as a model for other startups who wish to replicate such success as they seek capital to scale their business ideas further or launch new products or solutions onto the market. This increased investment will help build a vibrant startup community that encourages creativity, innovation, and collaboration within

Singapore’s entrepreneurial culture.

Impact on Locus’s growth

The recent $22 million Series B round of funding that Locus has raised through GIC, a Singapore-based sovereign wealth fund, will be used to enhance the company’s growth. Locus is an AI-driven SaaS platform that automates fulfilment and delivery operations for enterprises in a cloud-interfaced way. With this investment, the startup plans to expand its research and development activities to build ingenious products, add new features and services, explore new market opportunities and grow its major existing business verticals in India.

The extra resources from GIC will allow Locus to expand its geographic reach beyond India into South East Asian countries like Indonesia and Thailand with local offices. This could help the company gain access to potential customers that would push for its foray into the delivery automation space abroad. It also intends to double down on delivering AI-backed field solutions which further amps their competitive advantage in the logistics industry.

Apart from opening new markets for their existing products, this fresh infusion of capital will also assist in augmenting newly launched services within fulfilment networks, enabling businesses worldwide with integrated digital solutions customised as per their requirements, thereby increasing overall productivity levels within organisations as well as a whole. With these investments, Locus will be well prepared to bring digital intelligence into global supply chain networks and drive revenue growth through key partnerships without compromising on quality of service or customer satisfaction levels.