The COVID-19 pandemic brought the global supply chain almost to a halt when containers remained at ports. The geopolitical conflicts and slow tech innovations have aggravated the situation and left enterprises, even governments, to catch up and adapt to innovative solutions.
Harnessing their work experience in cross-border shipping and proficiency in current technology, Expedock co-founders, King Alandy Dy, Rui Aguiar, Jeff Tan, and Jig Young, saw the opportunity to apply the latest technology and automate the international freight industry. This tech-savvy group of young men in their 20s, composed of three Filipinos (two are from Stanford), built Expedock as an “artificial intelligence (AI)-powered supply-chain start-up” that aims to be the data infrastructure of the global supply chain. A game changer, their service and workflow allow supply chain businesses to drive efficiency, increase profitability, reduce labor costs, and save time and financial resources.
Expedock focused its operations on the North American market, servicing clients such as Ascent, Wayfair, ClearFreight, and JUSDA.
Expedock raised $1.15 million in its pre-seed funding, led by Liqing Zheng, the co-founder of Tencent Holdings. In 2021, the company added $4 million in seed funding, part of which was by Ali Partovi, chief executive and founder of Neo, a mentorship community and venture fund. To further boost its growth, the funding was used for the expansion and product development of the techno start-up.
In 2022, Expedock got an additional investment boost after securing $13.5 million during its recent Series A funding, bringing the startup’s total funding amount to $17.5 million. Global software investor Insight Partners led the recent round, with participation from Motion Ventures, investors Pear and Neo, and executives from Project 44, Salesforce, Meta, eBay, and Clearmetal.
This development gave much leverage for Expedock to push for product development and build its team of engineers and logistics executives to keep up with the increasing number of integrations on the platform.
Currently, tens of thousands of freight containers are being moved internationally via Expedock every week thanks to the data infrastructure that handles all physical and digital data sources into a single platform.
For their meteoric rise in the global supply chain industry, the men behind the Expedock were included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list under the Industry, Manufacturing & Energy category in 2023.
Expedock is one of Manila Bulletin’s Newsmakers of the Year. The MB Newsmakers of the Year Awards is co-presented by International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI), Gcash, SM Development Corporation, and The Medical City. This event is also supported by major partner SM Supermalls.