Nuport announced that it has received an investment of USD$125,000 from ODX Flexport, an incubator program by Flexport and On Deck, designed to accelerate the next wave of logistics startups across the world. The Bangladesh-based company created a route optimization and distribution planning software for manufacturers and distributors that can save time, cost and improve productivity for these companies.
"Companies spend on average a minimum of 3 hours per day making delivery plans for approved sales orders and rarely have any visibility or control over their shipments once it leaves the warehouse," Nuport says in a press release. "Through automation, Nuport generates static route plans instantly saving 3 hours a day. This also allows the live monitoring of shipments by dynamically overlapping the actual route which can be monitored by an Android mobile app."
The investment and other supports will allow Nuport to accelerate product development and invest in growth.
The details: Founded in 2021 by Fahim Salam (Bangladesh) and Chris Li's (Canada), Nuport aims to optimize the distribution cycle by automating the route-to-market process for manufacturers, distributors, and e-commerce companies. The partners first identified the process problems these companies while working on their previous company Loop Freight.
"We are targeting manufacturing and distribution companies in Bangladesh", says Fahim Salam, Co-founder and Managing Director of Nuport. "We would also like to target local ecommerce companies in the coming days. Moving forward, we plan to work with freight forwarders such as Flexport and their partners to essentially automate some of their clients regionally so that some of the process bottleneck can be solved and streamlined."
As part of ODX Flexport, Nuport will be working closely with Flexport partners in executing a go-to-market strategy and scaling regionally. And with the fresh capital, the company plans to grow its engineering and sales team and expand its internet presence to reach regional companies with process bottlenecks and accelerate growth.
Nuport, currently a team of 9 people, says it has received excellent response from the market over the last few months. The company plans to use a combination of a great product, strong customer service and after sales service to break into the market.
Flexport: Founded in 2013, Flexport is a freight forwarding and customs brokerage company based in the US. The Company offers air and ocean freight, trucking, warehouse and fulfillment, customs brokerage, and cargo insurance services to customers worldwide. In 2019, Flexport raised $1 billion investment led by Softbank which valued the company at $3.2 billion.
ODX Flexport: Flexport launched ODX Flexport, a community-backed incubator in partnership with On Deck in November this year with a stated ambition to accelerate the next wave of logistics startups across the world.
The program provides $125,000 in funding for a 7% equity, a dedicated, experienced Flexport Build Partner and unlimited access to the On Deck network to selected companies.
Something to know about logistics: The transport and logistics services market in Bangladesh has a value of $15 billion (PwC 2018), equivalent to 6.8 percent of GDP. Regionally in South East Asia and South Asia, there is a huge market for a solution like Nuport that helps automate supply chain. Several estimates suggest, the market size for route optimization and distribution planning software will reach $5 billion by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 11.4%.
Nuport's ambition: "Our target is to build something out of Bangladesh for the world," says Fahim. "There is a lack of focus on after-sales and customer service in this sector. That's something incredibly important and needed again because many of our clients need constant support in terms of technical integration and information. We have to make sure that their queries are heard. That's something we want to change, which we believe will help us to grow."
