Urban logistics is critical for the smooth functioning of any city, irrespective of the country. However, most of the time, city administrations miss out on factoring in its significance. The European Commission has set a rather ambitious goal of achieving essentially CO2-free city logistics in major urban centres by 2030. In order to achieve this goal, making urban logistics more sustainable in imperative.
This is exactly what Amsterdam-based Bringly is trying to do, and it has just raised funding.
Receives investment from Ponooc
Bringly is a logtech platform that develops a sustainable shipping platform with smart logistics software for retailers and carriers. This makes it possible to deliver parcels in inner-cities quickly, efficiently and completely CO2-neutral via bicycle couriers and electric vehicles, claims the company.
It has completed a new investment round that was led by Ponooc, completed by Shamrock Ventures and experienced market experts. Ponooc is an Amsterdam-based venture capital fund with a focus on sustainable energy or mobility-related enterprises. It is the independent investment arm of Pon Holdings. It has invested in European startups focused on sustainable energy and mobility since 2014 and is renowned for investments in companies such as Swapfiets (the world’s first bicycle subscription service), Tranzer, Yego and Check.
Shamrock Ventures, on the other hand, is an impact investment fund focused on seed investments in innovative start-ups with a social and/or sustainable focus. Its portfolio includes Crisp and Peerby.
The capital will be used to or further (inter)national growth and development of the platform.
Ship-from-Store
Due to the growing parcel market, the number of polluting delivery flows in inner-cities is increasing, claims Bringly. The company uses its smart shipping network to make local, sustainable same-day parcel delivery accessible in inner-cities. “Customers can automate their local shipping process via Bringly and combine sustainable delivery flows. Packages are standard delivered to the recipient within 1 hour, the same afternoon or evening,” claims the company.
“We support more and more companies with local delivery services – such as ‘Ship-from-Store’ – to improve the customer experience on the one hand, and to reduce CO2 emissions on the other,” says Rajiv Laigsingh, CEO and co-founder of Bringly.
“With a success rate of 99.8 per cent and high customer satisfaction, we show that one does not come at the expense of the other,” he adds.
How Bringly was brought up
Being born and raised in an entrepreneurial family, Laigsingh’s first experience with entrepreneurship was when his father founded his company Faja Lobi Food after coming to the Netherlands from Surinam. “When I was really young, before I got any of the internships, I got an opportunity to work with him and build an online fanbase of more than 600.000 fans. I really got to learn the tricks of the trade from my father,” says Laigsingh in an interview with Asif Ventures.
In an exclusive conversation with Silicon Canals, Laigsingh talks about how he got the idea to start Bringly, initial challenges, business model, and future plans. “A few years ago, I worked at Suitsupply and set up ‘ship-from-store’ in New York, San Fransico and Chicago in collaboration with UberRUSH (part of Uber). Here I saw the improvement in the customer experience with quicker deliveries. However, I had the feeling that this could be done way more efficient and sustainable (instead of scooter couriers picking up and delivering one package),” says Laigsingh.
“Back in the Netherlands, I decided to research the possibilities, and Bringly was born. Pretty soon I found out that I needed to have an experienced technical co-founder to build a decent platform and technical infrastructure. Anton and I met, and from the first day, we had the same drive and mission of creating innovative software to make city logistics more efficient, quick and sustainable,” he adds. Anton Liulichev is the co-founder and CTO of Bringly.
Business model & expansion
Bringly is currently active in more than 40 cities in the Netherlands and Belgium. The sustainable shipping network currently consists of more than 1,200 bicycle couriers and electric carriers.
It earns a commission for each package it successfully delivers. “Next to that we try to customise the first-to-last-mile from retailers by looking at their needs. It’s possible to customise, for example, parts like custom pick-ups, branded track & trace and monthly reporting. We call this ‘Sustainable-Logistics-As-a-Service’, explains Laigsingh.
Currently, the company has a team strength of 7 and is hiring at the moment. It just hired a new fullstack developer and is looking for a business developer and marketing manager.
Talking about Bringly’s expansion plans, Laigsingh says, “We want to make sustainable city logistics available to each retailer, company and carrier. Therefore we will keep developing our smart logistics engine. We’ll onboard new retailers and intensify partnerships with sustainable carriers. Next to that, we’ll extend our delivery network to multiple cities.”