Moving house can be a big headache – especially handling the logistics of it; which vehicle to get, the manpower to load and unload your stuff, making sure everything gets delivered in one piece, and most importantly, avoiding getting ripped off. An Indian startup called Shippr claims to be working toward ending your logistics woes, and it just raised seed funding.
Shippr, which is an Uber for commercial vehicles, has raised US$500,000 funding from i2india Venture Factory. It operates in Bangalore and Chennai at present. This money will be used, among other things, for expansion to cover more cities.
Shippr was founded last September by Rohit Fernandes and Phaneendra Hegde. Equipped with an engineering degree and a masters in supply chain management and logistics, Fernandes is the CEO of the company. Hegde, the computer science graduate, is the CTO.
Keep on truckin’
“We are excited about Shippr and the impact it is has made on a segment that is highly unorganized. The market is ripe for disruption, and Shippr is well positioned to be a market leader. The vision of the team fits into the intersection of three trends that are of interest to us – mobility, urbanization, and consumption inversion,” Anup Viswanathan, principal investee at i2india, tells Tech in Asia.
i2India Venture Factory was founded six years ago as an incubator and venture capital center, with an initial funding of US$10 million from Imperial Innovations (technology transfer office for Imperial College, London), CMG Partners of UK, and Tata Sons.
“Shippr has grown from a two-member team operating in Bangalore, at its inception, to full-fledged operations in two cities – Bangalore and Chennai. We have also sent teams to launch operations in two more cities by the end of this month. Our aim is to expand to at least 15 locations by the end of this financial year,” Fernandes tells Tech in Asia.
The company is in discussions with multiple investors to raise series A funding in a few months.
Shippr considers UberCARGO to be one of its key competitors abroad, though it’s not yet available in India. UberCARGO is Uber’s rent-a-van service in Hong Kong. There are other players such as Gogovan and Lalamove operating in this space in Hong Kong and they’re already expanding to other locations across Asia.
Shippr’s closest rival in India is TheKarrier. It raised US$230,000 from Sol Primero and Outbox Ventures.
There are other companies taking logistics online in India, but they’re much more focused on businesses and complex supply-chain management, like Delhivery and LogiNext.
Editing by Steven Millward, image by Sunset Removals
Stay updated on the go with our mobile app.
Get latest insights with smoother, more personalized experience through TIA mobile app.
