<article>Indonesian last-mile logistics firm J&amp;T Express has launched its network in Mexico on Thursday, marking its foray into the Latin American market as part of its global expansion plans.</article>

Indonesian last-mile logistics firm J&amp;T Express has launched its network in Mexico on Thursday, marking its foray into the Latin American market as part of its global expansion plans.
With this, J&amp;T Express is now present in 11 countries across the globe. These include the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia where the company recently forayed into.
J&amp;T has launched 12 sorting and 26 distribution centres in Mexico, covering all 32 states in the country. The company said in a statement, a Mexican version of the J&amp;T Express mobile application will soon be launched.
&#8220;The launch in Mexico is an integral step in the expansion of our global network, which further demonstrates the benefits of the regional sponsorship model in our global expansion,&#8221; Charles Hou, J&amp;T Express group vice president said in a statement.
Mexico serves as an important strategic channel for J&amp;T Express in the Latin American market, Ryan Zhang, J&amp;T Express Mexico head said, adding that Mexico is a logistics hub in the region and home to many Latin American companies&#8217; headquarters.
Tech venture consultancy Momentum Works said in its 2021 report, there is a spillover of talent, capital, and business ideas from more competitive countries such as China and India in the last two years. Take Sea Group (including Garena and Shopee) and J&amp;T in Southeast Asia, for instance. Both the companies started in Southeast Asia but with Chinese business models, are now expanding aggressively into Latin America.
Even as logistics players in Southeast Asia have been witnessing traction for a while, venture capital investments in logistics in Latin America only took off in the past two years. Still, a recent surge of demand for rapid delivery is changing the landscape, Momentum Works noted.
There are gaps and opportunities in the Central and Latin American logistics industry with plenty of knowledge to gain from the market due to its differences from the Asian market, BRI Danareksa Sekuritas Research Analyst Niko Margaronis told DealStreetAsia.
&#8220;Startups are still on a learning curve learning from their markets,&#8221; Margaronis said, noting that J&amp;T can go to new verticals as Latin American countries are known for their meat products. &#8220;There could be economies of scale to exploit by connecting continents. They can help big partners like Shopee to support intercontinental freights, shipping of goods. Currently, there are goods flowing from mainland China Shopee to SE Asia. Perhaps there is room to support e-commerce players in such a way.&#8221;
<h3>Carving out growth plans</h3>
In February, J&amp;T Express established its MENA regional headquarters in Riyadh and built the largest smart logistics industrial park in the region with venture capital firm eWTP Arabia Capital, among others.
J&amp;T Express has reportedly raised $2.5 billion in a funding round at a valuation of $20 billion, ahead of its planned initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong this year.
The company&#8217;s main backers—Boyu Capital, Hillhouse Capital Group, and Sequoia Capital China—and Chinese gaming and internet giant Tencent Holdings were among investors in the latest fundraising, Reuters firstly reported citing multiple sources. In the latest development, Bloomberg News added that Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings joined the round.
Founded in August 2015, J&amp;T Express quickly expanded internationally. Starting with Malaysia and Vietnam in 2017, the Philippines and Thailand in 2018, Singapore and Cambodia in 2019, and the company entered China&#8217;s trillion-dollar logistics industry in 2020.

Indonesian last-mile logistics firm J&T Express has launched its network in Mexico, marking its foray into the Latin American market.

Indonesia's J&T Express launches ops in Mexico, bets big on overseas expansion

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