News / Kale gets $30m funding to boost expansion in Europe and North America

Mumbai-based Kale Logistics Solutions, which provides SaaS solutions for cargo management mostly at airfreight terminals, has snagged a fresh $30m funding round this week, as it aggressively targets a broader foothold across airports in the US and Europe. 

The Series B round was led by Bengaluru-based private equity fund Creaegis Advisors and follows Kale raising $5m in a Series A round in 2020.

Kale, founded in 2009, already has its cargo community systems live at 36 airports in Europe and six in the US.

“This funding round represents a significant milestone in the company’s journey and positions it for rapid expansion and continued innovation,” said the tech start-up platform.

Kale CEO Amar More told The Loadstar the funding would be used to “boost the talent pool, deploy new-age technologies like AI, blockchain and IoT in operations”, as well as boost R&D infrastructure.

He added: “We will be in the next league of growth as we are building irreversible digital infrastructure that will connect cargo communities at airport and (sea) port levels, which will further augment to develop large e-marketplaces to connect with digital corridors.

“We are specifically looking at key markets like the the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and western Europe.”

Mr More noted that Kale was also looking to bolster industry partnerships for “futuristic” goals, as it prepares to commission large projects to support innovations.

Amar More

He also indicated that Kale would add 10 locations across the globe to its network by December, including in Jordan, Siberia, Ivory Coast, Japan, Turkey, Kuwait and Uganda, while in India, it has just signed a deal with the new Goa international airport (MOPA) for cargo management services, taking its domestic presence to 12 airports and two seaports (Tuticorin and Kolkata).

According to Mr More, Kale’s expansion target is from the current count of 100 airports/seaports to 200 over the next few years.

He added that raising significantly more than the previous funding in a single round represented high investor confidence as the industry increasingly embraced digitisation of the supply chain.

Prakash Parthasarathy, CEO of Creaegis, believes the global logistics industry is in the midst of a rapid digital transformation that requires path-breaking automation and end-to-end visibility through all nodes. He added: “Kale, with its category-defining Cargo Community Platforms and suite of SaaS solutions, is leading this disruption.” 

Indeed, the pandemic-induced supply chain disruption accelerated tech advancements in supply chains, driving greater innovations to simplify cargo processes. So investors seem to be backing platforms with a proven track record in building logistics solutions with steady operational performance standards.