Germany’s last-mile shipping platform Liefergrün bags €3M to roll out zero-emission delivery service across Europe

Munster, Germany-based Liefergrün, a sustainable last-mile shipping platform, announced that it has raised €3M in its Seed round of funding. The round was led by Austrian venture capital firm Speedinvest, with participation from Stockholm’s Norrsken VC.

Fabian Erici, Investment Manager at Norrsken VC, says, “Inner-city congestion is a serious problem. It creates even more pollution, which in turn creates health issues, and increases the burden on already stretched healthcare systems. The booming e-commerce market is further escalating the problem of congestion, as last-mile delivery is still mainly completed by fossil-fuel powered trucks. Both consumers and businesses are realising how inefficient this is, and are demanding alternatives. We are happy to join Liefergrün’s mission to decarbonise our cities through green last-mile delivery.”

Funds to expand across Europe

Liefergrün claims that the raised capital will be used to grow its team, expand its platform, and roll out its service across major European cities, including London, Paris and Madrid.

Niklas Tauch, CEO and co-founder of Liefergrün, says, “Ecommerce has exploded over the past two years. More than 75 per cet of Germans regularly buy products online. However, this convenience comes at a price – it’s creating a huge amount of emissions that people are rightly getting very concerned about. Simply telling people to buy less isn’t going to solve the problem. What we need to do is make ecommerce sustainable. A major part of that is tackling the last mile of delivery.”

“Liefergrün is about creating a global green solution to delivery which doesn’t compromise on the quality of service to customers. This funding is an important step in our journey. It will enable us to consolidate our position in Germany and expand to other major European cities,” adds Tauch.

Sustainable delivery experience

Founded in 2020 by Niklas Tauch, Max Schleper and Robin Wingenbach, Liefergrün is a delivery service provider for sustainable delivery. Its aim is to enable ‘guilt-free’ online shopping by reducing the environmental impact of deliveries. With this in mind, the company is committed to creating a fair, social, and emissions-free delivery experience with the mantra “we respect your shopping”.

The platform provides a range of services, including two hour and next day delivery, which customers can track in real-time using an app. Return deliveries can also be scheduled and are fully sustainable. Some of its major clients include Adidas, Dyson and Every.

Liefergrün, which is currently operational in 30 cities across Germany, uses a fleet of cargo bikes and electric vehicles based on scores of micro-distribution hubs to enable emission-free delivery of goods bought online to consumers.

By tackling the emission-heavy last mile of delivery, the company estimates that it prevents the release of 420 grams of CO2 per delivery. For instance, there were 4.05 billion online deliveries in Germany alone in 2021, producing 2.43 million tonnes of CO2 or 600 grams per delivery. If Liefergrün’s sustainable approach was applied across Germany it would more than halve package delivery emissions by 1.7 million tonnes of CO2  – the equivalent of taking nearly 370,000 cars off the road each year. 

With online deliveries in Germany set to hit 5.7 billion by 2025, the company believes action needs to be taken now to reduce the environmental impact and enable guilt-free online shopping to continue.