Germany-based Liefergrün secures €12M to expand its zero-carbon shipping and logistic solutions

Germany-based Liefergrün, a sustainable last mile shipping platform, announced on Friday that it has raised €12M in a Series A round of funding. The investment comes just six months after the company’s €3M Seed round.

The round was led by eCAPITAL. Existing investors Speedinvest and Norrsken VC also participated in this round.

Ann-Christin Kortenbrede, Investment Manager at eCAPITAL, says, “Bringing together quick, consumer-friendly and ecological last mile logistics is a hard nut to crack. Yet, Liefergrün has proven that it is possible. Leveraging their tech solutions, they have shown substantial growth with interesting e-commerce players offering the green and fast deliveries that no other player is able to offer and therefore starting a transformation of the market.”

eCAPITAL is an entrepreneur-led venture capital investor that focuses on early and growth-stage deep-tech companies with a positive impact on society. The firm invests in the areas of sustainability, enterprise software, cybersecurity, IoT and new materials, with its own funds totalling over €280M.

Capital utilisation

Liefergrün says it will use the proceeds to expand its platform and presence in Europe. The funds will also be invested in enhancing the company’s technical product and growing its team.

In the last six months, Liefergrün has increased its team to over 50 and strengthened its management with hires, including ex-Hermes manager Stephan Böhm as VP of Sales. Additionally, the company also entered into a new partnership with Mercedes Van Rental to expand its emission-free delivery fleet in Berlin and landed major clients, including Adidas, Dyson and ShopApotheke. 

Niklas Tauch, co-founder and CEO of Liefergrün, says, “It’s no secret that the tech industry – particularly the ecommerce and grocery delivery sectors – are facing challenging economic conditions. This is why it is such a testament to the strength of Liefergrün’s green logistic offering that we have continued to grow rapidly and secured substantial funding from a number of top investors.”

“In the past few months, we have been able to win new well-known major customers and seen our sales expand more than tenfold in 2022. There is a huge demand for sustainable delivery solutions and our investors share our vision of making this a reality. With this funding, we will be able to take the next step in our journey to expand Liefergrün into new markets,” adds Tauch.

Sustainable last-mile delivery for e-commerce

Founded in 2020 by Niklas Tauch (CEO), Max Schleper (CPO), and Robin Wingenbach (COO), Liefergrün is a delivery service provider for sustainable delivery. It aims to make internet shopping guilt-free by minimising the environmental effect of delivery.

With 24/7 real-time tracking, Liefergrün provides deliveries in windows of time that are freely chosen. The company operates across Germany and uses a fleet of cargo bikes and electric vehicles, which means return deliveries are also able to be scheduled as they are fully sustainable.

Liefergrün claims that it saves 420 grams of CO2 every delivery by attacking the final mile of shipment, which is the most polluting part of the delivery process. To put things in perspective, there were 4.05 billion e-commerce deliveries worldwide in 2021 , resulting in 2.43 million tonnes of CO2 or 600 grams every delivery. 

Applying Liefergrün’s environmentally friendly strategy throughout Germany would lower delivery emissions by more than 1.7 million tonnes of CO2 annually, which is the same as removing approximately 370,000 automobiles off the road.

Additionally, in order to make the entire post-purchase experience more convenient and sustainable, the company is concentrating on new digital features and services like carbon offsetting and refund options. The trend toward more value-added services has started with this.