Flipkart execs’ Roadrunnr bags $11M to provide on-demand delivery for retailers

India’s Roadrunnr, a logistics service for businesses, has received US$11 million in series A funding from Sequoia Capital and existing investors Nexus Venture Partners and Blume Ventures.

Roadrunnr provides delivery capability to offline retailers, restaurants, and ecommerce companies. It has an app which works like Uber and allows these businesses to book the nearest delivery boy who are mostly on motorcycles. The app shows the approximate time of arrival and allows the merchant to track the order.

The Bangalore-based startup claims to process 1,500 orders a day. It has recently started operations in Delhi and is piloting the service in Mumbai. With fresh funding, it plans to take the model across India and develop the largest fleet of on-demand hyperlocal delivery carriers. This investment will help Roadrunnr to enhance its technology platform.

The startup was launched seven months ago by Flipkart executives Mohit Kumar and Arpit Dave. Kumar had also built the driver app of Ola. “On-demand delivery in India is driven by the consumer’s desire for convenience and quality. Our services are asset light, involving no hubs or warehouses,” says Kumar.

Roadrunnr competes with Mumbai-based Grab which raised US$1 million led by Oliphans Capital earlier this year. It is also up against heavily funded Ola which launched a food delivery service called Ola Cafe.

Hyper-local logistics is a very complex math and operational problem to solve at scale. Startups are resorting to technology to optmize delivery routes and ensure fast delivery times.