Skype co-founder invests in Loship

Vietnam: Loship, a Vietnamese one-hour-delivery e-commerce startup, announced it has received an undisclosed investment from Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn, who participated through his investment vehicle MetaPlanet Holdings.

The latest funding, which is part of Loship’s Series C round, comes four months after its undisclosed bridge round led by Vulpes Investment Management.

According to Loship, the new capital would go towards upgrading its platform, increasing technological capabilities, and doubling down on marketing to strengthen its foothold in existing markets.

“It didn’t take me very long to realise Loship was on to something. MetaPlanet is planning to pay more attention to the rapidly growing economies in Southeast Asia. I’m delighted to be off to a strong start in Vietnam by adding Loship as our first portfolio company there,” said Tallinn.

“MetaPlanet’s investment will help us build a much stronger image. The competition will be much steeper in the long term, and we hope to pick up deep tech insights from Jaan Tallinn that can be applied to the Vietnam market,” opined Trung Hoang Nguyen, CEO of Loship.

“We already have a winning playbook, and we look to expand it to more markets. We know what we want to do with our product. So, a huge portion of the funding will be poured into upgrading our app and increasing our tech capability. Also, we will ramp up marketing strategies to strengthen our foothold in the existing markets,” stated the CEO.

Founded in 2017, Loship traces its roots back to Lozi, a review app allowing users to find food, beverage, and coffee shops, before transitioning into a one-hour-delivery services platform.