Amazon invests in UK startup 'Beacon'... Driving logistics cost reduction

▲Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon [Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Amazon has invested in the UK logistics startup Beacon. This move is interpreted as part of Amazon's ongoing efforts over the past several years to reduce logistics costs.

According to CNBC on the 31st, Jeff Bezos, Amazon's CEO, participated in Beacon's $15 million (approximately 18.4 billion KRW) funding round.

Beacon stated, "We have secured investments from CEO Bezos and venture capital firm 8VC, among other investors."

Headquartered in London, UK, Beacon was founded in 2018 by two former executives of the ride-sharing company Uber. Handling international freight, Beacon is also a supply chain finance company that provides services such as real-time freight transport information, cost, and market outlook on pricing.

Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp, co-founders of Uber, as well as former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, are also known to have invested in the company. Beacon's Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Pierre Martin, previously led software for Amazon's freight transportation technology division.

Fraser Robbins, CEO of Beacon, said, "With the acceleration of digitalization worldwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the future of traditional freight carriers is precarious. We plan to use the raised funds for new hires, technology development, and market expansion."

Amazon is strongly driving efforts to enhance logistics services to reduce costs. Recently, despite a 24% increase in sales due to the COVID-19 impact, Amazon's transportation costs reportedly rose by 49%. As delivery costs increase in e-commerce, improving profitability has become difficult without reducing logistics expenses.

To this end, Amazon has also considered acquiring the autonomous driving startup Zoox. This is also aimed at reducing logistics costs by utilizing autonomous driving technology. Bloomberg reported, "Delivery costs are significant in e-commerce," and "Amazon is willing to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in automation technologies such as autonomous driving and robotics to reduce these costs." In 2012, Amazon acquired the robot manufacturer Kiva Systems for $775 million, and last year invested $180 million in the autonomous driving startup Aurora.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.