News release: Former Chairman of Nordic Eye Venture Capital launches Logistics Tech VC in partnership with Oracle VC
Tradeworks VC aims to build an ecosystem of “Digital Trade Enablers” that drive Trade through Innovation - solving important problems within Logistics & eCommerce.
The $1.5m first closing proceeds will be invested in two Digital Trade Enablers, based in Singapore and Chennai respectively, the details of which will be announced shortly. Venture partner and lead investor is Oracle VC
Tradeworks.vc has a global focus, targeting early growth startups and scaleups in the Seed to Series A stage, expecting to invest $100k to $2m per deal.
According to Founder & CEO Niklas Holck, who has over 15 years’ experience in the wider Logistics space, including 9 years with Maersk, “There has never been a better time to invest in Logistics Technology. The sector is at the bottom of the digital S-curve, with a long tail of small businesses ready to embark on their digital transformation journeys. The high labour, capital and energy intensity that characterise Logistics industries provide significant potential for improving productivity and efficiency.”
Why does Tradeworks.vc focus on "Digital Trade Enablers”?
“Enablers provide tech solutions to Operators. Rather than each Operator building their own tech, Enablers can build tech for thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of Operators. It’s significantly more scalable, and greater scale brings with it more data, which in turn can be used to increase product scope. These network synergies of scale and scope are the core of our Investment Thesis, along with Product-Market Fit."
Everybody is looking for Purpose-Driven investments these days. How does Tradeworks.vc see this?
The world’s economic and human development has exploded in the past 40 years, thanks to global trade. Trade has lifted billions out of poverty. In China alone, 800 million people were lifted out of poverty since 1980. The problem is, lack of innovation in Logistics results in high Logistics costs, which stifles trade and limits economic and human development. It’s no coincidence that the world’s poorest countries have the highest Logistics costs. 10% of the world’s population - that’s 800 million people - still live in extreme poverty, and the best way to help them is to connect them and their businesses to the rest of the world through innovation and trade. This is why we aim to build an ecosystem of Digital Trade Enablers that can address the needs of the “Long Tail” of small businesses. Cutting edge technology shouldn’t be reserved for the big players.
How can Venture Capital make a difference?
Logistics is significantly under-invested. Compared with eCommerce, Logistics accounts for more than double the share of Gross World Product, but attracts less than half the VC investment. Logistics is still a black box for many VCs, who tend to focus on Last-Mile Operators these days. We want to help open their eyes to the potential of Digital Trade Enablers who can really help drive Logistics costs down, and improve performance at the same time - in a much more scalable way.
Oracle VC Managing Director, Tom Whitby, commented: "Oracle is delighted to be invested with TradeWorks from the start. Niklas has identified a niche market segment that huge potential and is currently under-served by existing venture capital. The trade & logistics eco-system is well placed to benefit from the industrial led economic recovery.
