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Kul Bhushan · · 4 min readIndia halts Lalamove, but ex-staff launch similar app
Some of Lalamove’s former employees in India have launched Uncle Delivery, a new platform that is identical to the one run by the Hong Kong-headquartered firm.
The directors of Uncle Delivery, Sourabh Chatterjee and Pallav Vijay Kumar Patel, have both previously worked at Lalamove, filings with India’s Ministry of Corporate Affairs reveal.
Photo credit: Uncle Delivery
Chatterjee worked with Lalamove between September 2019 and January 2021 as director of government affairs and expansion, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Patel’s LinkedIn profile – which appears not to have been recently updated – says he’s still employed at Lalamove. According to information available on Zaubacorp, however, he has been a director at Uncle Delivery Express since its inception.
Besides the two directors, at least three former Lalamove executives are associated with the Bengaluru-based firm, Tech in Asia has found. One of them is Renu Sharma, who currently serves as its recruitment lead. She held the same position at Lalamove.
Uncle Delivery was registered on June 7 this year, six months after Lalamove was banned in India and has a paid-up capital of about US$2.4 million.
Lalamove was one of 45 apps that India banned in November 2020 amid rising border tensions with China.
Photo credit: Lalamove
Besides its founders and employees, Uncle Delivery shares many other similarities with the Hong Kong-based firm.
Just like Lalamove, the Indian logistics firm allows users to connect with drivers for shipping services. The platform supports the delivery of small items such as documents, letters, and lunch, as well as larger items like appliances and parcels. Besides an app for users, it also has a dedicated app for drivers.
The user-facing app and driver app have each been downloaded over 10,000 times from Google’s Play Store.
The platform currently has operations in three Indian cities: Bangalore, Delhi, and Mumbai. It offers a range of vehicles for logistics purposes. The firm charges 40 rupees (US$0.54) as a base price for shipping via two-wheelers, while it charges a base price of 625 rupees (US$8.36) for a top-end four-wheeler vehicle.
Lalamove is not quitting India just yet
Lalamove exits the US market
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The directors of Uncle Delivery are ex-Lalamove India employees, as are many other workers who have joined the new Indian logistics platform.
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