Freight forwarding and supply chain finance company Beacon, which was thrust into the spotlight when Jeff Bezos bought a stake in the startup, has continued its rapid growth. In the last quarter alone, the company has doubled the size of its team and tripled its business performance. Now the freight forwarder is opening an office in Hong Kong.
With business performance up by 300% in the last quarter, Beacon say opening an office in Asia is the logical next step for the company to support its growing customer base and global footprint.
James Yu, previously Logistics Program Manager at Uber in Hong Kong, has been appointed as Ocean Procurement Lead and will be based in the new Hong Kong office.
Asia-Europe is Beacon’s biggest trade lane, and an ever-growing number of Beacon’s customers have supply partners in China and elsewhere in Asia. Therefore, having a presence in the same time zone enables the company to offer better customer service and connectivity between importers and exporters.
The insights gained from having a local presence also means Beacon can continue to develop its technology for the benefit of both customers and their manufacturers.
It has been an extremely busy year for Beacon; we have more than doubled the size of our team and our customer numbers have also grown significantly” – says Beacon co-founder and CEO Fraser Robinson commenting on the expansion. – „The COVID-19 pandemic has further reinforced the need for more sophisticated technology solutions in order to establish more transparent and resilient global supply chains.”
In June, Beacon announced that it had raised over $15 million in its Series A fundraising round, with investors including Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon, and leading US venture capital firm 8VC.
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