Retail Asia 2018 May 2018 | Page 23

LOGISTICS

LOGISTICS

Alibaba to acquire full ownership of Ele . me

CHINESE multinational conglomerate Alibaba Group announced last month that the company will acquire all outstanding shares that it does not already own in Ele . me , an online delivery and local services platform in China , in a transaction that implies the enterprise value of Ele . me at US $ 9.5 billion .
Alibaba and its affiliate Ant Small and Micro Financial Services Group currently own approximately 43 % of the outstanding voting shares of Ele . me .
This acquisition will deepen Ele . me ’ s integration into Alibaba ’ s ecosystem and advance Alibaba ’ s New Retail strategy to provide a seamless online and offline consumer experience in the local services sector , according to the company .
Daniel Zhang , CEO of Alibaba Group , said : “ We are excited for Ele . me to become a part of the Alibaba ecosystem . Under the leadership of its founder and management team , Ele . me has achieved leading market share in China ’ s online food delivery and local services sector . Our shared belief that New Retail will create more value for customers and merchants has brought us together . Looking forward , Ele . me can leverage Alibaba ’ s infrastructure in commerce and find new synergies with Alibaba ’ s diverse businesses to add further momentum to the New Retail initiative .”
Ele . me ’ s fast local delivery service will build on its core expertise in food delivery to provide consumers with a wider range of products and services on-demand . This expansion of offerings will allow Ele . me to efficiently utilise its large delivery force that currently fulfils orders in cities across China , the company said .
Ele . me also complements Koubei , Alibaba ’ s affiliated local services platform and provides extended synergies . By combining Ele . me ’ s online home delivery services with Koubei ’ s consumer acquisition and engagement capability for a range of restaurants and service establishments , Alibaba will be able to offer an integrated experience to online and offline consumers .
Zhang Xuhao , founder of Ele . me , said : “ This acquisition shows that we have built Ele . me into one of China ’ s most valuable Internet businesses . Our customers , merchants and partners will benefit from our further integration into the Alibaba family . We share the same strategic vision that New Retail has a bright future and being part of Alibaba ’ s ecosystem will take Ele . me ’ s growth to a new level .”
Ele . me will continue to operate in its own brand and work closely with its existing partners and merchants . Alibaba said it will lend its full support to Ele . me including access to its New Retail infrastructure , product offerings and technology expertise .
Upon completion of the acquisition , Zhang Xuhao will become chairman of Ele . me and a special advisor to Alibaba ’ s CEO on New Retail strategy . Wang Lei , vice-president of Alibaba Group , will become chief executive of Ele . me . ra

Courier service platform BBT completes Series A financing

START-UP crowdsourcing logistics and delivery platform BBT has announced the completion of a Series A round of financing that raised “ several tens of millions of USD ”, with leading entrepreneurs from Hong Kong as the top investors in the round .
Through the financing , BBT hopes to expand into crowdsourcing-based logistics and delivery markets in mainland China , Hong Kong and Taiwan , by further leveraging big data and professional technology support platforms .
“ After completing the financing , we , in addition to continuing to strengthen services for the mainland market , plan to speed up our entry into Hong Kong ’ s takeaway delivery , express delivery and logistics markets , by leveraging the existing technology , data and experience that we accumulated as we built the business in mainland China ,” said KK Chiu , CEO of BBT . “ We plan to grow our business further , with the next targets being Taiwan , the Philippines and tiertwo cities in mainland China .”

Zipline ’ s new drone flies farther , faster and with more cargo

LAST month , automated logistics company Zipline unveiled what it cited to be “ the fastest commercial delivery drone on earth ”.
The new aircraft is part of a complete redesign of Zipline ’ s logistics system , which dramatically improves the system ’ s launch , autonomous flight and landing capabilities . The improvements will decrease the amount of time between Zipline ’ s receipt of an order and launch of a fulfilment flight from 10 minutes to one , increase the number of daily delivery flights that each Zipline distribution centre can make from 50 to 500 , and expand the radius of each distribution centre to serve populations of up to 10 million people .
Zipline ’ s new delivery-vehicle is an autonomous fixed-wing style airplane . The plane is capable of flying at a top speed of 128km / h and a cruising speed of 101km / h — 21km / h faster than the previous generation of aircraft — with a round trip range of 160 km carrying up to 1.75kg of cargo . The new plane is capable of flying four times faster than the average quadcopter drone and can serve an area 200 times as large , according to the company .
“ Our first-generation aircraft and logistics system allowed us to create the first and only drone delivery service in the world , which is helping to save lives in Rwanda every day ,” said Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo . “ We ’ ve taken everything Zipline has learnt making thousands of lifecritical deliveries and flying hundreds of thousands of kilometres and redesigned our entire system and operation from top to bottom . The new aircraft and distribution centre system we ’ re unveiling will help Zipline scale to meet the needs of countries around the world — including the US .”
Zipline ’ s mission is to bring life-saving medicine to the most difficult to reach places in the world . The Silicon Valleybased company operates the world ’ s first and only national scale drone delivery system , making thousands of deliveries per year . ra
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