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TechTakaa South Korean online shopping fulfillment startup that provides third-party logistics services to e-commerce sellers, raised $9.5 million (KRW12.6 billion) in a series funding round B from a single investor, Altos Ventures.
The company helps e-commerce sellers manage the supply chain, from warehousing, order packing, and shipping, so TechTaka users can focus on product and marketing. The startup also provides a SaaS operating system to optimize the supply chain and logistics operations of online sellers.
Soo Young Yang (CEO), who worked at Amazon and Coupang as a software engineer, and Kyung Wook Lee (CTO), who previously worked at Coupang, founded TechTaka in May 2020 and launched its fulfillment service called Argo in March 2021.
Yang told TechCrunch that he has first-hand experience at e-commerce giants of the importance of fast delivery services to customers. His expertise and interests in logistics and optimization led him to create TechTaka to offer fast and reliable logistics services.
TechTaka offers its users next-day delivery (orders before midnight for packages arriving the next day), which is key to attracting customers, according to Yang. Since July last year, the three-year-old startup has integrated with Naver’s SmartStore, which dominates South Korea’s e-commerce market with Coupang. (Coupang has its own distribution centers, and Naver is strengthening its fulfillment service in collaboration with logistics and fulfillment companies like TechTaka.) The startup’s CFO Steve Kim told TechCrunch that its performance increased significantly in terms of revenue and customers after its partnership with Naver. It currently has more than 170 customers in South Korea.
The company will continue to expand its partnerships with markets and sales channels not only in South Korea, but also in the United States and Southeast Asia. TechTaka, which has a warehouse in Seattle, has started helping Korean suppliers sell their products on Amazon, Kim said, adding that it plans to integrate with global marketplaces like Amazon and Shopify.
“We tested our service in the United States by introducing Korean e-commerce sellers to Amazon, starting in May 2023,” Kim said. “As soon as we complete the process of finding an official Amazon partner, we plan to expand this business to the United States”
The latest capital, which brings the total raised to $18 million (KRW23.6 billion), will allow TechTaka to advance its technology, expand its service to online merchants and hire staff.
TechTaka has integrated artificial intelligence into its system to analyze shipping patterns to enable users to predict inventory, orders and sales. Argo’s AI technology also recommends optimized packaging and routes for warehouses (warehouse management system) and deliveries (transportation management system). It detects operating errors via an AI-powered camera. TechTaka claims its internal research shows the company’s optimization algorithm saved 20% time in the supply chain process, Yang said.
On top of that, the startup has partnered with LG CNS, an IT solutions arm of Korean electronics giant LG, to bring LG’s collaborative robotics service, which picks up packages from workers, to warehouses. TechTaka, together with LG CNS, plans to launch a RaaS, or Robot-as-a-Service, business model to optimize warehouse operation, Kim told TechCrunch.
Earlier this month, the startup set up a warehouse representing 17,000 square meters of storage space in South Korea. Today it has 76 employees. Its previous backers include Naver D2SF, Kakao Ventures and Lotte Ventures.
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