Supply chain start-up Pando raises Rs 64 crore

January 13, 2020: The networked logistics management software provider, Pando, has raised Rs 64 crores in a Series A funding round led by Chiratae Ventures with participation from Siemens-backed Next47 and existing investor Nexus Venture Partners.

Notable angel investors in this round include Ramkumar Narayan, VMWare India MSD, Alok Mittal, CEO of Indifi and Saikiran Krishnamurthy of xto10x Ventures. With this funding round, the company has raised over Rs 80 crores, to date.

Pando is the first Indian investment of Next47, a global venture firm created by Siemens that invests in, and partners with, entrepreneurs who build industry-defining companies. With offices in Bangalore, Beijing, London, Munich, Palo Alto, Paris, Stockholm, and Tel Aviv, Next47 gives start-ups access to one of the world's largest portfolios of customers in the areas of industry, energy and infrastructure as well as domain expertise in the deep technologies that impact those customers.

Nitin Jayakrishnan, co-founder & CEO of Pando, said, “This investment allows us to continue to reimagine the way freight networks operate. Pando has already delivered unprecedented value to large enterprises who have joined the network. We will continue to deepen our network offering in India, while scaling in select strategic markets internationally, investing in technology and talent, and enhancing our transaction capabilities by working closely with our vendor-partners.”

Abhijeet Manohar, co-founder & head of engineering said “We are committed to realizing value for our clients, and strongly believe that we cannot do so without thinking holistically about their freight networks.”

Founded by Abhijeet Manohar and Nitin Jayakrishnan in 2017, Pando helps global businesses like Britannia, Marico, Philips and Tata to automate and optimize their freight management, and connects them to logistics vendors and aggregators to enable transactions.

“Global Logistics is going through a disruption, and large enterprises require a platform that can help them leverage these market changes to scale faster. Pando has helped shippers and transporters address this need through a full-stack solution. Their quality of execution at marquee customers, where Pando has become indispensable within a few months of adoption is remarkable. This convinced us to partner with them” said TC Meenakshisundaram, founder MD, Chiratae Ventures.

“The global logistics market is ripe for change,” said Lak Ananth, managing director Next47. “India is a huge market with unique infrastructure challenges; this represents a promising opportunity for local startups. Pando’s platform has already attracted several high-profile customers and we are excited to partner with them to expand their reach.”

Sandeep Singhal, MD & co-founder, Nexus Venture Partners, added, “Pando is competing with and winning against global giants in the enterprise freight management market by improving network visibility, ensuring higher SLA adherence, and reducing system-level capital needs. Their solution is particularly suited to markets with fragmented supply, and their India success can be replicated in many markets. We were fortunate to partner early with Nitin and Abhijeet in their journey and welcome our new partners on this new phase of the company’s growth.”