Porter, India’s leading tech-based, on-demand logistics company, has announced its first overseas expansion with entry to the UAE offering intra-city logistics services in Dubai. 

 

Presently with more than 20,000 customers onboard, Porter plans to make an investment of $6 million in UAE over the next three years. Also, the company plans to invest $50 million into international expansion over the next five years.

 

The expansion comes under the company’s current plan to explore the GCC region and the Indian subcontinent. The logistics start-up, which is backed by some of the most renowned and active venture capital investors including Tiger Global, Sequoia and Lighrock India had earlier raised $100 million in Series E funding for expanding operations.

 

Intracity logistics

The company will provide a tech-enabled platform to ensure hassle-free deliveries through its LCVs and 2-wheelers addressing the gap in intracity logistics requirements in the region for small package delivery requirements of both personal and businesses. Additionally, the company is looking to bolster operations in these cities and further increase their customer acquisition by 2x to 40,000+ and vehicle base by 3.2x to 800+ by March 2024.

 

Porter offers cost-effective solutions that can help in improving lower vehicle utilisation, increasing the competence of the system, and ensuring the availability of appropriate vehicles for customer requirements. This will also result in efficient intracity logistics, lesser rates for customers and more earnings for driver-partners. The company currently has 300+ LCVs on the platform and recently introduced 15 two-wheelers to expand its operations in the region.

 

Pranav Goel, CEO & Co-Founder, Porter said: “We are thrilled to enter UAE as our first overseas market. Dubai being a global business hub, acts as an excellent facilitator for organisations that aim to establish their footprint in the region. We are thankful for all the business-friendly policies and infrastructure that the region has to offer and we expect to scale our business exponentially in the market. The expansion in UAE will catalyse the holistic growth of intra-city logistics ecosystem globally while also benefitting the local economy. We, at Porter are also actively focusing on generating employment opportunities for driver-partners and offering economical and efficient solutions backed by technology to the customers.”

 

Bringing efficiency 

“We are happy with the response that our platform has received and our learnings from the Indian market will help us in accelerating our growth in the UAE. Our model helps to bring efficiency into the system by addressing issues such as lower utilisation of vehicles, unavailability of the right vehicle type and the high cost for customers. This expansion should help provide a logistics solution for businesses as well as offer consumers direct control over their deliveries,” said Ankit Dwivedi, AVP - International Business, Porter.

 

In April, during the holy month of Ramadan, Porter pledged to make a positive impact on the community by contributing iftar meals and clothes with every delivery. With this, Porter aimed at helping those in need by providing a healthy and fulfilling meal at the end of a long day of fasting.

 

The company looks forward to tapping more potential opportunities in the intra-city logistics segment in the future for scaling its business.-- TradeArabia News Service