Techtaka, a South Korean online shopping fulfillment startup that provides third-party logistics services for e-commerce sellers, has raised $9.5 million (12.6 billion KRW) in a Series B round of funding from a sole investor, Altos Ventures.
The outfit helps e-commerce sellers manage the supply chain, from warehousing, order packing and shipping, so that Techtaka users can focus on product and marketing. The startup also provides a SaaS operating system to optimize the online vendors’ supply chain and logistics operations.
Soo Young Yang (CEO), who had stints 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 had firsthand experience at the e-commerce giants of how fast delivery services are significant to customers. His expertise and interests in logistics and optimization led him to start Techtaka to offer quick and reliable logistics services.
Techtaka offers its users next-day delivery (orders by midnight for packages that arrive the next day), which is a key to attracting customers, according to Yang. Since July last year, the three-year-old startup has integrated with Naver’s SmartStore, which is leading South Korea’s e-commerce market along with Coupang. (Coupang has its own fulfillment centers, and Naver bolsters its fulfillment service in collaboration with logistics and fulfillment companies like Techtaka.) The startup CFO Steve Kim told TechCrunch its performance notably increased in terms of revenues and customers after partnering with Naver. It currently has more than 170 customers in South Korea.
The outfit will continue to expand its partnerships with marketplaces and sales channels, not just in South Korea but also in the U.S. and Southeast Asia. Techtaka, which has a warehouse in Seattle, has started helping Korean vendors 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 U.S. by introducing Korean e-commerce sellers to Amazon, starting in May 2023,” Kim said. “As soon as we complete the process for an official Amazon partner, we plan to expand this business in the U.S.”
The latest capital, which brings its total raised to $18 million (23.6 billion KRW), will enable Techtaka to advance its technology, scale its service for online merchants and hire staff.
Techtaka has incorporated artificial intelligence into its system to analyze shipment patterns to enable users to predict stocks, orders and sales. Argo’s AI technology also recommends packaging and optimized routes for warehouses (warehouse management system) and deliveries (transportation management system). It detects operation mistakes via an AI-powered camera. Techtaka claims that its internal research shows the company’s optimization algorithm saved time in the supply chain process by 20%, Yang said.
On top of that, the startup has partnered with LG CNS, an IT solution arm of Korean electronics giant LG, to bring LG’s collaborative robotic service, picking up parcels for workers, to the warehouses. Techtaka, in conjunction with LG CNS, plans to launch a RaaS, or Robot-as-a-Service, business model to optimize operation in the warehouse, Kim told TechCrunch.
Earlier this month, the startup set up a warehouse representing 17,000 square meters of storage space in South Korea. It has 76 employees as of today. Its previous backers include Naver D2SF, Kakao Ventures and Lotte Ventures.