NEWS WRAP: Lalatech targets new markets as global contribution grows

The intra-city logistics company said it plans to further expand to the Middle East this year, as its international business becomes a major growth driver

By Doug Young

Logistics giant Lalatech Holdings Ltd. is planning to further expand its global footprint this year, including a new entry to the Middle East, as it broadens beyond its original base in Asia and Latin America, the company disclosed on in an updated application last Thursday for a Hong Kong IPO.

Lalatech, which operates under the Lalamove name internationally, disclosed its latest expansion plans in its renewed IPO application as the company continued to post strong double-digit growth in 2024, with its rapidly expanding international operation leading that charge.

The company currently operates in a number of overseas markets globally and announced plans to expand to other regions this year, including the Middle East.

Founded in 2013 in Hong Kong, Lalatech started out offering intra-city delivery services, and later expanded into inter-city services. It entered Mainland China a year after its founding, and expanded into Southeast Asia before traveling even further abroad with its entry into other markets like Latin America starting in 2019.

The company distinguishes itself from rivals with its “closed-loop” system that offers end-to-end services in the delivery process, from order placement, to pricing determination, prepayment, freight matching, order tracking, payment settlement and confirmation. It was the world’s largest logistics transaction platform by closed-loop freight GTV last year, with a market share of 53.4%, according to its latest listing application.

In that application, Lalatech pointed out that China’s intra-city freight delivery market was worth $258 billion in gross transaction value (GTV) in 2024, citing data from Frost & Sullivan. The international market for such services was worth about three times that amount, including $124 billion from Southeast Asia and Latin America.

The company reported its revenue rose 19% last year to $1.59 billion from $1.33 billion in 2023, as its GTV rose by a similar 18% to $11.1 billion over that time. Its overseas revenue grew at a faster clip, rising 28% last year to $149 million from $117 million in 2023, growing to 9.3% of total revenue from 8.8% over that period.

The company had about 16.7 million merchant average monthly active users (MAU) and 1.7 million average carrier MAUs in over 400 cities globally last year.

As its scale and efficiency have improved, Lalatech’s gross margin rose from 53.7% in 2022 to 57.8% last year. That helped to lift it to profitability on an adjusted non-IFRS basis in 2023 with a profit of $391 million that year. Its profit on that basis grew another 28% last year to $501 million.

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