Openlogi raises JPY 1.75 billion in Series C funding to enhance recruiting Promote alliances with Japan’s leading general trading and transportation companies and leverage Technology and Data to accelerate Digital Transformation of Logistics

　22 October, 2020, TOKYO: Openlogi, Inc. announced today that it has completed the first closing of its Series C financing, raising a total of JPY 1.75 billion through a private placement of new shares with Signifiantt, Shinsei Corporate Investment*1, Sumitomo Corporation, SEINO Holdings *2, Sojitz*3 and Chiba-Dojo Fund and debt financing.
Following this round, Openlogi has raised a total amount of JPY 2.75 billion and plans to continue raising funds from other investors to complete this round by the end of 2020.

Openlogi has acquired a wide range of stakeholders through this Series C financing round and will aim to further strengthen its relationship with these partners. This includes Japan’s blue chip companies: Sogo Shosha, general trading companies such as Sumitomo Corporation, Sojitz, and ITOCHU Corporation*4, with domestic and international commercial distribution networks, and SEINO Holdings, one of Japan’s major transportation companies.

Openlogi plans to use the funds to expand its team (especially engineers) as it strengthens its product development capabilities.

Openlogi aims to further expand its business to become a logistics platform player to realize the concept of “Physical Internet”*4, an open global logistics system. Openlogi is well positioned to digitize physical logistics system by technology, digitally connects warehouses and delivery providers and optimizes transportation of goods by leveraging logistics related big data and algorithms.

*1: An investment from Shinsei Venture Partners No. 1 Investment Limited Partnership, operated by Shinsei Bank Group’s Shinsei Corporate Investment
*2: An investment from Logistics Innovation Fund, where SEINO Holdings has invested as Anchor LP
*3: Investment from corporate venture capital jointly organized by Sojitz and Pegasus Tech Ventures
*4: Existing investor through a fund
*5: A concept proposed by Professor Benoit Montreuil of Georgia Tech University, Physical Internet Center, inspired by an article in the British magazine The Economist, is defined “as an open global logistics system founded on physical, digital and operational interconnectivity through encapsulation, interfaces and protocols” .

　Openlogi offers a logistics fulfillment platform service with the vision of “using technology to network siloed logistics and revolutionize the flow of goods through data analytics”. Openlogi engages with logistics companies based on standard service specifications which eliminates the need for individual inquiries or quotations, and is available on a pay-as-you-go basis with no fixed costs. More than 8,000 users have used the service, and the number of affiliated logistics companies nationwide has reached more than 40.　

Equity investors in this round

-Signifiant KID Corporation
-Shinsei Venture Partners No.1 Investment Limited Partnership
-Sumitomo Corporation
-Logistics Innovation Fund Investment Limited Partnership
-Pegasus Tech Ventures (Sojitz CVC)
-Chiba Dojo No. 2 Investment Limited Partnership

Lenders in this round

-Aozora Corporate Investment Co. *6
-The Shoko Chukin Bank, Ltd.
-Japan Finance Corporation
-Mizuho Bank, Ltd.
-Resona Bank, Ltd.
*6: Debt finance by corporate bond issuance (planned)

As the demand for logistics increases along with the expansion of online shopping especially in the current circumstances, the logistics industry is facing various problems, such as a shortage of workers, an aging population, and an increase in the workload. The “Physical Internet” is a new system for efficient transportation of goods that is expected to lead to a solution to the problems that plague the logistics industry.

Realizing “Physical Internet” by digitally connecting warehouses 

　Logistics, like the Internet, is a network in which large numbers of unspecified goods move in large numbers. However, unlike the Internet, logistics deals with physical goods.
In addition to goods to be delivered, assets such as real estate and trucks, robots and equipment, and the technical know-how of the people who handle them are operating independently according to the standards of each company and industry, so they are not standardized and cannot be seamlessly interconnected like the Internet.
Against this backdrop, Openlogi is working to make it possible for shippers, warehouses and delivery companies to work together seamlessly by standardizing operations and systems that form the basis for the “standardization and common specifications that enable the free flow of goods” that are already necessary for the physical Internet. The standardization of operation service specifications and warehouse networking cultivated at Openlogi’s affiliated warehouses will serve as the starting point for standards for the interconnection of the entire supply chain, allowing product information, shippers, transporters, distribution centers, stores and residences to be networked as if it were the Internet of Things. Openlogi believes that this can lead to the realization of the “Physical Internet”.

Transform legacy logistics to a “hyper efficient”system based on data and algorithms

　In conventional logistics, shippers, warehouses, and delivery systems are not coordinated, and most of them have been optimized within their own networks. This is because each player operate independently and optimized only within its own network.
“Physical Internet”, which links logistics assets and data that transcends corporate boundaries while optimizing them based on algorithms, will make it possible to improve the efficiency of warehouse space, vehicle dispatch and delivery, returns operations, and so on, all in an integrated manner, optimizing the entire logistics industry. Openlogi believes that we can realize the new logistics. Logistics is made up of a number of complex commercial distribution channels. In order to effectively link these distribution channels, Openlogi will actively collaborate with the companies that have invested in us beyond the boundaries of the company. Specifically, Openlogi will coordinate the resources and information on the destination, volume, and delivery of goods in our warehouses based on an algorithm that optimizes the resources and information of each company in order to optimize the transport and delivery routes, which will lead to highly efficient and optimal solutions. We would like to build up logistics as a physical Internet and build the world’s best logistics network in Japan.