Superkul, a cold chain and chiller-based last-mile delivery startup, raised seed funding led by East Ventures

Superkul, a cold chain & chiller-based last-mile delivery services startup, today announced the completion of its seed funding round led by East Ventures, the leading and pioneering sector-agnostic venture capital firm in Indonesia. Superkul will allocate the fresh funds mainly to focus on scaling up the operation by adding operation fleets, expanding the team, and enhancing its digital platforms, developing the cold chain mid-mile business to complete the offerings. 

“Thank you, East Ventures for the strong belief and trust in Superkul. We are glad to be a part of the strong ecosystem of East Ventures, and we believe the funding and support will help us to further serve the best cold chain logistics solutions for the businesses in Indonesia. With the big potential of the cold chain logistics industry in Indonesia, which was also accelerated by the shifting behavior of the market due to the pandemic, we are confident to seize the ongoing needs and momentum to bring more empowerment to the overall growth of the society,” said Cathrine Susilowati Prajitno, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Superkul

Having extensive experience working in her family business in logistics since 2005, Cathrine realized there has been an ongoing issue of cold chain last-mile delivery in Indonesia. Especially on how the fresh and frozen businesses have to face many challenges and complaints concerning the lack of reliable cold chain last-mile delivery services. The issue hinders business owners from MSMEs to Multi-National Corporate from expanding and growing their business. They lost customer’s purchases as most customers who are hesitant to pay a higher delivery cost chose the low-cost last mile solutions; hence products received are not fresh, spoiled, or damaged.

Cathrine and other co-founders, Felix Sutanto (Chief Financial Officer), Chris Wiranata (Chief Technology Officer), and Eunike Yvonne Hanata (Marketing Manager), founded Superkul in 2020 to integrate the technology solutions into their logistics operations. Superkul offers a fleet of motorcycles equipped with refrigerated boxes that can carry -22॰C to 10॰C. These refrigerated boxes, named Superkul box, provide constant delivery temperature with a same-day delivery method and shortest route planning. 

The solution offered by Superkul solved the challenges of unstable temperature during delivery. It ensures the customers receive prime goods quality and simultaneously improves food safety and hygiene. Superkul has also eliminated the need for extra packaging and single-use thermafreeze for delivery so it helped the business owners & customers to save money and avoid the expensive delivery cost. Being said, Superkul’s solution is not only suitable for the food and beverage industry; it also applies perfectly to the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries in improving their logistics requirements.

Superkul currently operates in most of the metropolitan cities, mainly: Jakarta and Bandung. On 20 August 2022, Superkul marked its 2nd Anniversary. To date, Superkul has served more than 231 clients. In the momentum of the anniversary celebration, Superkul also signed an agreement with PT. Sekar Bumi Tbk., where Superkul will be the partner in providing the Superkul fleet as the Mobile Store of PT. Sekar Bumi Tbk. 

“Cold-chain logistics is a huge industry in Indonesia, and we believe the right integration of digital solutions provided by Superkul will help millions of Indonesians to scale their businesses. We are glad to welcome Superkul into the East Ventures family, and excited to experience more growth and impacts brought by Superkul to the logistics industry in Indonesia,” said Devina Halim, Principal of East Ventures

Indonesia’s cold chain logistics market is worth US$ 4.97 Billion in 2021, and with a CAGR of 10.2%, it is expected to reach US$ 12.59 Billion in the next decade. Superkul targets the operation of 100 fleets in the first half of 2023 and will open its operation in major big cities in Indonesia, providing Last Mile Delivery, Middle Mile aggregator, and Cross Docks services.